Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malordorous Manatee here hoping that everyone shared a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday with family and friends. Now, however, it is time to shake off those trytophan-induced food comas and take a look at a Friday puzzles by Wendy Brandes. The theme of the puzzle seems appropriate both because yours truly has recently taken several days (weeks) off and because many people have today off from work/school. Let's start with the unifier:
62 Across. "You need some time away from work," and how to make the starred clues match their answers: TAKE A FEW DAYS OFF.
At three places in the grid (with their clues bearing stars) we need to drop an abbreviation for a day of the week from the clue in order to make the answers fit those clues. The days of the the are consecuitve and we can only specultate as to whether or not that elegant twist was intended.
17 Across. *Bucket list entries?: LIFE LONG FRIENDS. Drop the FRI(day) and the result is a group of life long ambitions.
27 Across. *Result of being left off a guest list?: SOCIAL SATIRE. Drop the SAT(urday) and the result is SOCIAL IRE. One might be angry for missing out on a social activity.
48 Across. *Big victory for the Mets or the Yankees, e.g.?: SUNNY DELIGHT. Drop the SUN(day) and many folks in the Big Apple will be delighted with the win. Without the "drop" it's a drink.
The completed grid looks like this:
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Across:
7. Happy dances: JIGS.
14. Water heater: BOILER.
15. Again: ANEW.
16. Actress de Armas: ANA.
20. East, in Spanish: ESTE.
21. Had on: WORE.
22. Oft-turned things in a spy thriller: PAGES.
23. Implored: PLED.
25. Witty: CLEVER.
31. Show appreciation: THANK.
32. Jewel: GEM.
33. City choker: SMOG.
37. Broadcast: AIR. Used as a verb.
38. Made secret, in a way: ENCODED.
42. Had oatmeal, say: ATE. Clued this way there are countless substitutes for oatmeal.
43. Used cars?: RODE. Used was used as a verb in the clue (and not used as an adjective).
45. B+, e.g.: ION. B being the symbol for the element boron and the plus sign indicating an ION.
46. "High School Musical" actor Zac: EFRON.
52. Not commissioned: ON SPEC. As in to speculate.
54. Environmentalist Brockovich: ERIN. Made famous by the Jula Roberts film.
55. "To repeat ... ": I SAID. Don't you make Al repeat it . . .
70. Indignant retort: DOES SO.
Down:
1. Qualified: ABLE.
2. "Number the Stars" novelist Lowry: LOIS.
3. Big moment in a pairs figure skating routine: LIFT.
12. Below: UNDER.
13. Low voice: BASS.
18. Go-aheads: NODS. Approvals.
19. Rainwater diverters: EAVES. True but a bit of a stretch.
24. Winnebago, e.g.: LAKE. RV was too short.
26. Flavor of green Skittles: LIME.
27. Lead: STAR. Hmm. The clue/answer could be either a pair of nouns or verbs.
28. Home of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center: OHIO.
29. Part of a hand: CARD. Palm would have fit.
30. Ecstasy's opposite: AGONY.
34. Actress Helgenberger: MARG.
35. Texter's "Let's look at this a different way": OTOH. On The Other Hand
36. Fellow: GENT.
39. First number in Hawaiian ZIP codes: NINE.
40. Grounded in reality: CONCRETE.
41. Grocery section: DELI.
44. Always Morphing nail polish brand: ESSIE. Some of us know ESSIE, Opi and Ulta well . . .but only from our puzzles.
47. Delicacy: FINESSE. Not something to eat. Tact. Looks sorta like ESSIE.
49. App release: UPDATE.
50. Out of power: DEAD. Could have been clued Grateful ______ .
51. Entry on a to-do list: ERRAND. Chore and task were both too short.
52. Honshu port city: OSAKA.
53. Bare: NAKED.
55. Tabloid pair: ITEM.
57. Needs to pay back: OWES.
59. Comfy shoes, for short: MOCS. Moccasins
60. Some design degs.: MFAS. Master of Fine ArtS
61. Natural hairstyle: AFRO. The hairstyle is not really "natural" despite often being clued this way.
63. "The Crown" actress Claire: FOY.
64. NBA legend Ming: YAO. A basketball reference.
I had thought there
ReplyDeletewas something “funny” about the theme clues and, sure enough, I was right.
In spite of that, and also a number of obscure names, I managed to persevere and get the win.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteNever figured out the theme. It figures. Looked sideways at that G in JAGR, but couldn't figure out what else it could be. It got to stand. Yay. Wendy was too clever for me. Mal-Man, congrats on sussing the theme and enlightening us all.
Our Thanksgiving travels involved a 2-mile morning march through the 'hood. No traffic jams, no TSA delays. I'm thankful for that.
FIR, but sniper->SWIPER, and stove->RANGE. Favorite was B+ for ION.
ReplyDeleteNo time for cracking wise this morning (and the crowd roars its approval) because I have to get this motorhome winterized, packed up, and on the road home. Supposedly by the 11:00 checkout time, but I think I'll be a little tardy.
Thanks to Wendy for another fun challenge, and to MalMan for another fine review. Welcome back.
FIR, despite not knowing some of the proper names like Jagr and Swiper. But beside that for a Friday this was fairly easy.
ReplyDeleteI never fully understood the theme until I got here. I only saw the abbreviations for the weekend days. This left me somewhat baffled.
But overall this was an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 8:25 toDAY.
ReplyDeleteI knew Swiper from when my kids were little, and Jagr from back when I followed NHL. I even knew the Actress of the Day (Foy), but I really wanted "Cincy" to fit where "Ohio" belonged. My only real difficulties were the starred clues - go figure. And, the nail polish (Essie).
Happy Black Friday, to all those who celebrate.
A breezy start to a long weekend (although missing a few days) from Wendy. Favorite clue was "Part of a hand."
ReplyDeleteThanks, MM, for the Tom Lehrer memories. In honor of college football rivalry week, "Hurl that spheroid down the field, and fight fiercely, Harvard!"
And thanks for all the well-wishes for my 45th anniversary yesterday. Love you all.
impress them with our prowess, do
DeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-There was a definite need for the reveal but LIFELONG ENDS was not great
-Delicacy/FINESSE: I once had to arrange a funeral for a relative who was dearly loved by our family and despised by his wife’s.
-Obscure names with unique spelling are unavoidable. Obscure cluing for common names, not so much.
It took a while, but FIR with the aid of perps for the likes of EMMA as clued, JAGR, SWIPE
ReplyDeleteEMMA won when stupid COVID rules in NYC were prevalent and many of the better players weren't allowed to play. That is the ONLY professional tournament Emma has ever won. I remember a women's doubles team being disqualified because they had been in the same room as somebody who tested positive. Even Djokovic wasn't allowed to play in either the US or Australian Opens because he hadn't been vaccinated .
DeleteAnd who won the previous year? A lady born in the 'Honshu port city" of OSAKA, who has the name- Naomi OSAKA.
DeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteThe fill was pretty straightforward with only a few unknowns, i.e., Lois, Jagr, Swiper, and Emma, but the perps were kind, so no complaints. The theme escaped me until the reveal and while this isn’t a favorite type of theme, it was fresh and well-executed, IMO.
Thanks, Wendy, and thanks, MalMan, for the expo and the humorous musical choices. Welcome back!
As customary, I spent Thanksgiving at my sister Peggy’s and, as usual, everything was delicious and plentiful. Also, as usual, there was a crowd (24, to be exact) so there was a certain amount of controlled chaos and a not-so controlled noise level! Lots of fun and camaraderie, though!
Have a great day.
and ESSIE. We had SMOG followed by AIR.
ReplyDeleteNow the theme however went right over my tête.
Thank you MM. Welcome back.
It looks like something weird happened to my comment flow.
The start of my comment disappeared. I simply said that I finished it right with the aid of perps and WAGS for EMMA as clued, JAGR, SWIPE
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNot bad for a Friday. Hadda work out a few snags and do some alphabet runs.
Theme: thought it was SUNDAYDELIGHTS? LIFELONGFRIDAYS? SOCIALSATIRDAY?
But don’t get the connection with the starred clue answers.
Oops now I see I kinda went off the track
Inkovers: wins/JIGS,
Just cuz I’m ABLE doesn’t mean I’m “qualified” (we’ve had this combo and discussion before)
Raducanu? Helgenberger? Jaromir?
Lowery? But I knew YAO, ERIN, and FOY
Collection of leather hole punchers …. ALLSET
Where to find a tea kettle, home on the ____ … RANGE.
“Bare ___ Ladies” … NAKED
“sang the big bang theory theme song”
It’s a blizzard out there. 🌨️
Looking over this CW before beginning, I counted 14 names, and DNK 11, so knew I was gonna need to do the CW online with red letter help. Still took 20 minutes to FIR. A very clever CW though, except for all the names. No surprise that after struggling through the CW I forgot to look for the theme, and it was MalMan that finally enlightened me. Thanx WLB for the fun, and thanx MalMan for the terrific write-up. Loved the Lehrer song! I took my house guests to Slacker's Packer bar yesterday for TG dinner and the Packer/Lions game. Lots of fun! It's always more fun, of course, when your team wins! AND with only the three of us, none of us wanted to cook a TG dinner, so that worked out, too. We had apple pie and coffee when we got home. Perfect! I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did yesterday.
ReplyDeleteProbably not the Lions fans, but it made my day!
DeleteSmooth sailing in spite of having no idea what to make of the themed answers. I found this to be one of the easiest Friday puzzles ever, thanks to (as Irish Miss mentioned) the straightforward cluing.
ReplyDeleteA solid 9/10.
FIR in 14:08 despite needing perps for all the themers, the clues made no sense to me and even after the reveal the gimmick went over my head, circles around the day abbreviations would have made it easy to suss, but usually taboo on a FRI puzzle. As a hockey fan I knew Jaromar JAGR, the J’s being pronounced like Y’s. CLEVER doesn’t necessarily mean witty to me. Thanks to Wendy for the puzzle and MalMan for the expo, especially pointing out what I didn’t see.
ReplyDeleteNope. This one flew way over my head. Rated way too high on my personal Obsure-o-Meter, resulting in a Black FRIday DNF, and a trip to the blog for enlightenment by MM.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I had filled TAKE A FEW DAYS OFF, mostly through perps, because the theme answers made no sense after they were filled, especially SATIRE and SUNNY. Visiting LIFELONG FRIENDS is something I've done over the years. N. Dak. was a challenging fill with unknowns JAGR and SWIPER coming from 'friends'.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I know my chemistry because I've never mailed anything to Hawaii (NINE), and know boron (B+) place in the elements between beryllium and carbon. I don't polish my fingernails but have seen ESSIE on previous puzzles.
LOIS and FOY- no prior knowledge on those two women. OTOH, MARG shows up in puzzles occasionally.
The only Mustang on a NASCAR car is the nameplate. Those cars don't have Ford frames, engines, transmissions, or any Ford parts. They might have an engine block that came from Ford.
Girlfriend got MAD because you wouldn't quit singing I'm a Believer. Try singing the original by the songwriter, Neil Diamond, who let the Monkees use if after he had recorded it. Their version sold a "little" better than his. But in the US, the composer and lyricist get nearly ALL the money, not the band. The band gets a little from each physical record sold but the writers get ALL the money every time it is played except on broadcast radio. Nobody gets any residuals from those plays.
B-E, radio stations are required to pay licensing fees to BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. I'm not certain if the performers share in the royalties but the composers/songwriters certainly do. In the pre-computer days, BMI Logging was a real pain -- every piece of music played on the air had to be logged, including the name of the songwriter and the licensing organization.
DeleteHola! Though I finished this it doesn't mean I understand it. THANK you, MalMan, for explaining and welcome back. I have had some LIFELONG FRIENDS though some are no longer here. R.I.P. I'll visit one who is still alive and well, in January.
ReplyDeleteI remember MARG Helgenberger from CSI, Las Vegas.
JAGR looked so wrong, but I left it, fortunately.
I hope everyone is recovering from yesterday's festivities.
I knew LOIS Lowry, ERIN, YAO, JAGR, MARG, ANA, OSAKA, and EFRON, and saw SWIPER in a recent puzzle, so familiar names gave me lots of toeholds, and I filled in everything fairly quickly. Then it came time to address the theme.
ReplyDeleteTruly dreadful, assuming the only trick was to remove FRI, SAT, or SUN from the theme answers to get: NY DELIGHT (the best of the three, even for those of us who are not familiar with the drink, but . . .), SOCIAL IRE, and LIFE-LONG ENDS. Talk about the ends not justifying the means. . .
It didn’t seem like a FRI puzzle in any way.
The highlight were MalMan’s return and the page-turning cat.
Yeah, I got totally lost on this theme. Had the parsing backwards, I was trying to add a day... (Sunday NY Delight?.?)
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed posting a cake RustyBrain, I was knee deep in desserts at my neighbor's thanksgiving celebration. Just as well, I took a look this morning,
and the search was kinda gruesome...
I was thankful I didn't get this puzzle to write up a review, thanks MalMan! I would've been stuck for words. I took the day(s) off...
No problems with the solve, but no clue on the theme. Thanks MM for figuring that.
ReplyDelete