"What's The Matter"
Welcome to another C.C. Sunday puzzle.Hi All! It's Anonymous -T sitting in for C.C. 'cuz it'd be silly for her to review her own puzzle.
Anyway, today we are given an in-the-language "<word> matter" clue and we need to ink a thing that fits. You'll see:
22. Weighty matter?: HEAVY CREAM. Heavy is a synonym for weighty and Heavy Cream is a thing.
24. Pressing matter?: FRUIT JUICE. In 2008, DW & I were leaf peeping in VT at a 27a -- they served us fresh pressed apple cider at breakfast.
47. Dark matter?: BLACK LICORICE. One of my favorite candies.
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| I get a dozen at a time |
67. Small matter?: FINE PRINT. Fine is a synonym for small. But, in contracts, it's no small matter. Youngest will tell you all about it in few more semesters :-)
87. Private matter?: BASIC TRAINING. Ha! A military Private.
111. Sensitive matter?: TOUCH PANEL. Some Touch Panels are sensitive while others, like the printer at my office, havta be whacked with a knuckle to get it's attention.
115. Grave matter?: BURIAL SITE. Yep.
35. Gray matter?: HUMAN ANATOMY. This was my favorite of the themers. I kept thinking of Poirot's "little gray cells" but "brain" didn't fit. Gray's Anatomy is the reference book of human anatomy. Oh, it's also a TV show with Dr.s hooking up -- I've never seen an episode but it was in the zeitgeist.
40. Laughing matter?: NITROUS OXIDE. N₂O -- aka "laughing gas."
I'm not sure why the title doesn't have a question mark but otherwise, it's a matter of fun. Onward [Apologies to Splynter] to the fill's review!
Across:
1. Caravan's refueling spot: OASIS.
6. Inner ears?: COBS. That's corny :-)
10. Coil in a garden: HOSE.
14. Hinge and Her: APPS. Both are dating apps.
18. Cackling carnivore: HYENA.
19. Reebok rival: AVIA. Sneakers, tennies, running shoes.
20. Peak performances: BESTS. SpeedySolver can tell us his bests.
21. Heartfelt sign-off: LOVE. Love, <your name here> - AI generated love note, maybe :-)
22. [See: Theme]
24. [See: Theme]
26. Capri, for one: ISLE.
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| West of Naples. |
27. Cozy Vermont stopovers: INNS.
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| Here is where DW & I stayed during leaf peeping. |
28. "Well, lah-di-__!": DAH.
Chris Farley's Motivational Speaker
29. Space to maneuver: ROOM.
30. Part of a flight: STAIR.
32. Author with morals: AESOP.
Aesop & Son
34. Beach protection: SUN HAT.
38. Big name in orange soda: FANTA. Not Crush?
R.E.M. - Orange Crush live
41. Coin toss choice: TAILS.
43. Letters before xis: NUS.
45. Encourage a comedian: LAUGH. This fill is why HYENA wasn't clued as a laughing carnivore @18a. When setting a grid, it's easy to miss a dupe like this - that's how you know C.C.'s a pro.
46. "Is that true about me?": AM I.
47. [See: Theme]
51. Nintendo Switch avatar: MII. I guess a MII for your WII :-)
52. Dull learning method: ROTE.
54. Popped the question: ASKED. But the answer is always 42*
55. Dry run: DRILL. Think fire DRILL.
56. Autograph hounds: FANS.
57. Wall paintings: MURALS.
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| Click here for more Houston murals |
59. Dances to an upbeat song: BOPS.
61. Playful mockery: TEASING.
63. Saws logs: SNORES.
64. Copenhagen native: DANE.
65. First woman, in Greek myth: PANDORA. She had a box with all the evils, but, when she opened it, all save hope escaped. Just like Eve, she's blamed for all the evils in the world.
66. Skipjack, for one: TUNA.
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| Click for a Sportsman's Guide to Tuna |
67. [See: Theme]
69. Lens care brand: RENU.
71. Chain known for its Beauty Insider perks: SEPHORA. A makeup store I got dragged to once.
73. Sits in the sun: TANS.
74. Ones who never butter up?: VEGANS.
76. Craft few people practice now: LOST ART.
77. Wave radio maker: BOSE. I kept thinking CC Wave Radio but that's the Skywave.
78. Thrillingly hot: EROTIC.
79. Call alternative: TEXT.
80. Only country with a nonrectangular flag: NEPAL.
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| Click for the Mathematical Properties of the Flag |
82. Control jointly: CO-OWN.
85. Crepe served with sambar: DOSA. Wanna hear a funny? I didn't know this fill but, after completing the puzzle, we went to an Indian restaurant and Eldest ordered it w/o hesitation. DOSAs are delicious.
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| Dosa |
86. "Vive le __!": ROI. Long live the [French] King!
87. [See: Theme]
90. Utility closet tool: MOP.
91. Not on a major label: INDIE. Think music.
93. Vietnamese New Year: TET.
94. "Interstellar" actress Burstyn: ELLEN. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Her Wikipedia page.
95. Liam of One Direction: PAYNE. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ibid.
97. __ together: PIECED.
99. Symptoms: SIGNS. Is my failing eyesight a sign of aging? That's what I'm chalking it up to.
101. Moth-repellent wood: CEDAR. I put cedar chips in my sweater storage bags. Living in Houston, I need sweaters about 3 weeks a year so,... [I have sweaters from brick-n-mortars that closed in the '90's].
103. Recycle bin, e.g.: ICON. Cute. An ICON on your "desktop."
106. Result of a good pitch: SALE. Nice clue. I was thinking C.C. would go with baseball's strike or foul and only perps saved me from filling foul.
107. Stack-selling chain: IHOP. International House of Pancakes.
111. [See: Theme]
115. [See: Theme]
117. Lift with a bent elbow: CURL.
118. Unholy things: EVILS. The crossing of apse @104d stalled this fill far too long.
119. Word said with a sigh: ALAS. I could have prefaced above's response w/ this fill :-)
120. Karate rank indicators: BELTS.
121. Distance between markers: MILE. Highways. In some states, especially on long bridges [looking at you I-10 over LA swamps], I've seen 1/10 mile markers.
122. Refuse to admit: DENY.
123. Mixed-breed dog: MUTT.
124. Spot to boop a doggo: SNOOT.
Down:
1. "Well, hello there": OH, HI.2. House calls?: AYES. Think Congress.
3. Mammal that barks and claps: SEAL.
4. Play the market: INVEST.
5. Blurt out: SAY.
6. Pork in a burrito: CARNITAS.
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| Yummers! |
7. Roasting pan holder: OVEN RACK. Not an insulated pot holder.
8. Partiality: BIAS.
9. "Unholy" singer Smith: SAM.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's ok to dupe a clue [see: 118a]
10. Respectful reference in court: HER HONOR. It's remarkable that, coming from a language w/o (I think) gendered pronouns, C.C. "gets it." In college, I worked at a wastewater testing lab w/ a guy from China (a PhD candidate in ChemE) who kept using "its" for him/her. I was befuddled until he explained Chinese doesn't use gendered pronouns (and it's silly that English does, he said).
11. Sch. whose mascot is a buckeye nut: OSU.
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| Brutus Buckeye |
12. Cake mix instruction: STIR. Youngest has been building from scratch since she was 9 yrs old. And her cakes get quite elaborate.
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| Youngest's Mardi Gras Cupcakes |
13. These, in Tijuana: ESTOS. English to Spanish.
14. Smith College graduate: ALUMNA. Smith is an all girls college; ALUMNA is gendered alumni.
15. Introductory food for keiki: POI. Keiki is Hawaiian for offspring. Poi is a taro dish. You do the math :-)
16. Pipe plastic, for short: PVC. Polyvinyl chloride - hard plastic.
17. "What did I say!?": SEE. Oh, I usually ask that question not 'cuz I was right but when someone gets peeved at me :-)
20. Degs. for graphic designers: BFAS. We got a Fine Arts major that didn't go to grad school :-)
23. Org. in many spy thrillers: CIA. Central Intelligence Agency.
25. Unit of energy: JOULE. I know the EEs got this. To everyone else, it's 0.0009478 BTUs.
28. "Being the Ricardos" role: DESI. I 🩷 Lucy.
31. Key above Caps Lock: TAB.
32. "Chores finished!": ALL DONE.
33. Early Boston settlers: PURITANS.
35. [See: Theme]
36. Gerontologist's focus: AGING.
37. "Totally agree!," on social media: THIS. In the Discord channels I frequent, it's an pointy-up finger emoji [☝].
38. Rural businesses: FARMS.
39. Word on receipts: AMOUNT.
40. [See: Theme]
42. Practice depicted in the Japanese film "Flower and Sword": IKEBANA. It's the art of arranging flowers.
44. Mum: SILENT.
48. Young lady: LASS.
49. DJ's stack in the 1990s: CDS. 90's Disk Jockeys with Compact Disks instead of vinyl -- unless they were a Rap DJ that needed to scratch a sample :-)
50. Decked out: CLAD.
53. Sincere: EARNEST.
56. Hot-headed deity?: FIRE GOD.
58. Jumped: LEAPT.
60. __-Bismol: PEPTO. Susan Stamberg's Mother-in-law's cranberry relish recipe results in the hue of Pepto.
62. More tender: SORER. Not a fillet but your own muscles after exercise.
64. Desserts with crushed Oreos: DIRT PIES.
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| Recipe |
65. Natural disinfectant: PINE OIL.
67. __ green: FOREST.
68. Troublemakers: RASCALS.
70. People might sing in it: UNISON. All together now.
72. Flower, in Japanese: HANA. HANAs in 42d Ikebana :-)
74. Kind of circle diagram: VENN.
Don McMillan
75. Garlic __: pungent stalk: SCAPE.
76. "Madam Secretary" star: LEONI.
77. Diner fave: BLT.
79. Voyage: TRIP.
81. With true effort: ACTIVELY.
83. Diamond size: ONE CARAT.
84. Menu with reds and whites: WINE LIST. I'll let Chairman Moe bring one out.
87. Tree with a "copper" variety: BEECH.
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| Everything you want to know |
88. Payment for a flat: RENT.
89. Stat on a transcript: GPA. Grade Point Average.
92. Frozen spike: ICICLE.
96. Up and about: ARISEN.
98. Sussed (out): DOPED.
100. Some toothpastes: GELS.
102. "Narcos" org.: DEA. Drug Enforcement Administration.
104. Cathedral part: NAVE. Apse was right out.
106. Enterprise navigator: SULU. Star Trek.
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| Sulu |
108. County seat of Hawaii County: HILO.
109. "Beetle Bailey" dog: OTTO.
110. Irksome insect: PEST.
111. Old film channel: TCM. Turner Classic Movies.
112. "Okay by moi": OUI.
113. Address with slashes: URL. An internet address.
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| Composition of a URL as per RFC 1738 |
114. "Delta of Venus" author: NIN. NIN means metal's Nine Inch Nails to Splynter & me :-)
115. "Pow!": BAM.
116. Abbr. on barbells: LBS.
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| You can get fake barbells on Amazon :-) |
The Grid:
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| The Grid |
WOs: Pilgrims was started but too many boxes @33d; LPs -> CDs; APSE -> NAVE; BurCH->BEECH; Trek->TRIP.
ESPs: DOSA, SAM as clued, LEONI, ELLEN, DOPED, IKEBANA, NIN and probably others.
Fav: I'm going w/ FANTA 'cuz of this Gabriel Iglesias bit. //Don't watch too long unless you start from the beginning.
Cheers, -T
*HHGTTG [Scientific American]
31 comments:
One bad cell.
SepPora instead of SepHora. Who knew any Japanese (for the perp)?
Oh well. It was fun trying.
I’m sure I’ll do better tomorrow.
Good morning!
D-o suffered severe brain erosion on the Atlantic seaboard. Didn't know DOSA, garlic SCAPE, nor Liam PAYNE. That entire area was an inkblot. MII crossing THIS was another mystery. The TOUCH PANEL on our front door lock has become increasingly insensitive. You've really gotta want to get in. Dw always enters via the garage to avoid it. Ya got me, C.C. Thanx for pinch-hitting, Dash-T. (Was 42 a reference to your 42nd blog post? I would guess you've done many more than that.)
At the very bottom of the blog there is a * which has a link attached to it, explained there.
D'oh. I missed the initial asterisk at 54A.
12:24 for me. The theme was totally blah. "Matter" is SO open-ended that you could literally put that word together with any other noun and come up with an entry. It was also way too easy. Not really fun.
The theme didn’t have to be DOPED out, the reveal was sort of in the puzzle title ‘WHAT’S THE MATTER’, which I failed to look at till I had the puzzle completed. FIR w/out help in 23:24, benevolent perps saving the day. Unknowns included IKEBANA, HANA, SCAPE and DOPED (modern slang?). We had DOSA recently and I remembered it. I like how PANDORA mirrored SEPHORA in the grid, Sephora being a Greek/French combination name of Moses’ biblical wife, I LIU. Nice to see Oreo in the clue rather than the fill. I thought this was a nice challenging Sunday puzzle, thank you Zhouqin, your prolificacy as a constructor is impressive! Thanks to AnonT for subbing today, and for the enlightenment.
FIW, missing my WAG @ DOSy x SCyPE. But I got my WAGs @ MII x THIS and NEPAL x HANA, so I got that goin for me. Which is nice. (BTW - Did you know that all of Carl Spackler's (Bill Murray's) lines in Caddyshack were ad libbed?)
I only knew skipjack as a type of sailboat used for harvesting oysters. Here's a picture of a beautiful example.
I knew JOULE, and also how to pronounce it (like "jewel.")
What in the SAM hell does "boop a doggo" mean? I know "boop" in the sense of a light tap, as in a lover's nose. Maybe "doggo" is a foreign language term (like British) for dog. SNOOT? Do you mean "snout?" If I were stuck with using fill SNOOT, I would clue "stuffed suit."
To be honest, I don't think this one was among CC's best puzzles. Too much foreign language entries for my taste. But I did think that "Gray matter" for HUMAN ANATOMY was very clever. And thanks to Bayou Tony for the fine fill-in fare.
I had the same initial reaction to "boop a doggo", Jinx. But the perps helped a lot.
I FIR but it took perps and guessing to get IKEBANA, DOSA, SCAPE,HANA, DOPED, PAYNE and THIS to get those unknowns. The unknown garlic SCAPE crossing two other unknowns-DOSA & PAYNE- all guesses.
AYES- until our state legislature went electronic, it was YEAS and NAYS for their votes. How about just 'yes and no'.
ISLE, ISLET, ISLA, CAY, KEY, ATOLL - sticking out of the water.
My 30 year old BOSE Wave radio started hissing earlier this year. I dropped it off at Best Buy's recycle place.
"boop a doggo"- never heard of that but SNOOP was a guess.
Ditto for Keiki and I'm glad POI was perped before I saw the clue.
Tony, your mixing metric and English systems with your BTUs comparison. JOULE- if you remember your physics terms, it's an easy fill. You hear the term BTU a lot but very few people actually know what it really is. The HVAC guys were arguing over what I needed; I settled it and said ' get the five TON'.
SEPHORA- I get DW's credit card receipts but I have not set foot in one of the stores. I once accompanied her to an ULTA store where I was the only male among at least 50 women and girls. It won't happen again. No place to sit down.
Nifty theme, CC. And the cartoon at 18 across had me giggling, Patti.
My first thoughts for the skipjack clue were 'boat & ship' but the perps in place wouldn't allow either. Ditto for the 'boop a doggo'.
FIR, but not without more than one WAG in several places, for example, dosa, ikebana, and carnitas.
I got the theme idea early on, but I still struggled with a few of them.
This was a major workout for me that I'm not accustomed to seeing on a Sunday.
Overall this was not an enjoyable puzzle.
Good Morning:
I found the theme fun and refreshing. There were only a few hiccups along the way, namely: Carnitas, Ikebana, This, Hana, etc. Alumna was slow in coming due to the more obvious Female, then Sister, and haste overrode the obvious clue for IHOP with the silly answer, IKEA. The fill was mostly straightforward and the themers were all apropos to the clue, IMO.
Thanks, CC, you never disappoint, and thanks, Anon T, neither do you! The Hyena comic was hilarious, but I’m easily amused! Thanks for being such a reliable and successful pinch-hitter.
Have a great day.
Musings
-MI_/TH_S cost me a 100% but I’m getting over my cold so I’m fine.
-I correctly guessed at DOS_/SC_PE
-Nice job C.C. and Tony!
I've seen this error more than once. The clue is SYMPTOMS and the answer is SIGNS. These are opposites, not synonyms.
Ditto, MI_/TH_S cost me a FIR. It took me a while to fill the theme answers, but between perps and guesses, the MATTER got resolved.
Thank goodness just a few proper names, only two I didn’t know, PAYNE and SAM. I also didn’t know HANA and IKEBANA and I was baffled by keiki, but POI showed up anyway. I agree booping a doggo is weird.
All in all a satisfactory as usual for a CC puzzle.
Thank you A-t for the great recap. I’m taking note of the licorice candies. I love licorice.
Symptoms are subjective complaints, while signs are objective findings.
I say “boop” whenever I tap my toddler granddaughter on the nose, but if I ever did the same to my Australian Cattle Dog, he would probably give me a “what is wrong with you?” look and jump off the couch.
Same if I ever referred to him as “Doggo.” Or even worse, “Fur Baby.”
I also wrote IKEA at first because they have "stacks" of furniture kits everywhere!
DNF. Done in on the East Coast. Really wanted SOYLENT to go along with GREEN, but couldn't fit it in. Too many foreign words for my taste...I have more than enough trouble with English! Nice job on the recap, Anon-T.
A refreshingly straightforward theme made for a pleasant Sunday solve. Thanks, C.C.!
Stellar write-up there, T! Your anecdote about storing old sweaters after moving to a warm climate reminds me of RightBrain's winter coat. It's in every photo we've taken for decades when visiting family up north. Everyone get older except that coat - like Dorian Gray!
Thanks, RB, now I feel better! 😉
Always a treat to open the page and see CC's name. The theme wasn't difficult but impossible to guess until you had enough letters. The puzzle was straightforward. "Mii" and "This" got me. I didn't know either one. My favorites, "Inner ears" and "Result of a good pitch". Thanks for the excellent pinch hit -T.
Once again, a real pleasure, having us get a delightful Sunday puzzle by our long-time brilliant puzzle colleague, C.C.. Thank you so much for this wonderful treat! And your commentary is always a real help and a pleasure, thank you for that too, AnonT.
Well, having a puzzle begin with OASIS brings us to a place where we might indeed encounter a HYENA, who might be a bit hungry on this Sunday morning, and might need some good food. Not sure she would like any HEAVY CREAM or FRUIT JUICE, so maybe we should just get her some water. We could also see if she and her pals would like some BLACK LICORICE, or even some TUNA. I bet that would be a hit!
However, if we're going to do any of that, we'd better put on a SUN HAT before we end up getting sun-burn, and some cream to protect us from getting any damaging TANS. This might also be a time when we might consider becoming VEGANS, a healthy diet that might help us to get in shape for that BASIC TRAINING we probably need to do. But I don't think we're going to be up for any DIRT PIES, even if we love our oreos. So let's just head off to the FOREST, and plan on having a good time,
Enjoy your delightful weekend, everybody, and have a great week ahead.
Yeah, I was going to say "Really wanted SOYLENT to go along with GREEN" as well, but I had to eat my words.
FIW. Similar difficulties as everyone else. Some really nasty crosses, but I got them all except IKEBANA/BOPS (I too had an H instead of a B). Thought SEPPORA at first as well, but it eventually came to me with no help from the perp. SCAPE was an easy one for me. A great bonus if you grow garlic. Milder, more subtle taste. Theme wasn’t a great deal of help and I found multiple clues to be too clever by half.
hi all, always love seeing cc's puzzles, my mom and i had fun solving together this morning. wanted to ask if anyone else is having the same issue as my mom (this happened two sundays in a row). using windows laptop, and choosing the la times games widget from edge browser, it shows certain correct letters in red (often Rs), so she can't get the TADA. this behavior doesn't happen on chrome, only edge. it may be malware, just wondering if anyone else has seen this with edge.
Two screenshots showing the glitch
I loved doing this puzzle and admire the craftsmanship that went into constructing it.
I use Edge and do not have this problem. I just now tried to replicate it and couldn't make it misbehave. So, unfortunately, I can't suggest to you what the problem might be.
Lt Sulu was the helmsman on the Enterprise. The navigator was Ensign Chekov.
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