Gift ideas
Here is a thoughtful gift from the Dream Team of Tom Pepper, and Zhouqin Burnikel. (Dynamic Duo was already taken.) For any newbies here, Zhouqin Burnikel is "CC," our "BFL" (Beloved Fearless Leader...) Of course, the dream team is incomplete without an Editor, but I am leaving her name out of this, because I am mad that she didn't publish this before Christmas, when I could have really used the Gift ideas...
22A. Shower gift?: RAIN JACKET.
24A. Money gift?: BREAD DOUGH. Why do Bakers work so hard? Because the need the dough...
30A. Housewarming gift?: SPACE HEATER.
54A. Seasonal gift?: SPICE GRINDER. (Love this wordplay!)
68A. Thank-you gift?: GRATITUDE JOURNALS.
I really need one of these...
85A. Cheap gift?: PENNY LOAFERS. Sorry, the cheapest you can get these days are Nickel Loafers...
105A. Parting gift?: RAT-TAIL COMB.
Just one of many uses...
116A. Wedding gift?: RING BINDER. Yes, it's a thing! A.I. Overview119A. Group gift?: BAND T SHIRT. 
Let's see how they fit "all' these theme answers into this grid!
I just listen to the music in my head...
1. Flyer with a stinger: WASP.
5. Punch sound: KAPOW.
It's louder in color...
10. Gather over time: AMASS.
15. __-mo: SLO.
18. Diez menos dos: OCHO. Spanish: ten minus two = eight
19. Red Velvet leader: IRENE. This was a tough one for anyone over 21.
Irene Bae Joon-Hyun
Leader of the South Korean Girl Group
Red Velvet
(extra points if you can tell which one is Irene....)
20. Book with Judges: BIBLE. The Bible lists several leaders as judges of Israel, primarily the twelve mentioned in the Book of Judges... hmm, no politics, no religion, trying to keep it lite here. For further information, consult your local Rabbi, (or spiritual leader of choice) for a pamphlet, on the Book of Judges, found within The Bible.
21. Shoe designer Jimmy: CHOO. (I wonder if his middle initial is "A.")
22. [Theme]
24. [Theme]
26. "Maybe a bit": KINDA. (Not sorta...)
27. Bone head?: OSTEO. Prefix from the Greek Osteon, meaning Bone. Follow link for examples...
29. Enjoys a trampoline: BOUNCES.
30. [Theme]
35. Head turners?: NECKS. This could have been clued differently, but still would have been a head turner...
36. ID sought by some hackers: SSN. Social Security Number.
39. "Origin" director DuVernay: AVA.
40. Bruins legend Bobby: ORR.
41. Commercial offer: REBATE.
43. Tailless primate: APE.
44. Trio of trios: NONET. A group of nine, like how many lives a cat has, or a musical group of 3 trios...
46. Knee-baring skirt: MINI. (They keep getting shorter, so MIDI might fit here now...)
47. Wrath: RAGE.
51. Park expanse: LAWN.
53. "How did they do that!?": WOW.
54. [Theme]
58. Risk getting bleeped: SWEAR.
60. "Sugar Walls" singer Sheena: EASTON.
21. Shoe designer Jimmy: CHOO. (I wonder if his middle initial is "A.")
22. [Theme]
24. [Theme]
26. "Maybe a bit": KINDA. (Not sorta...)
27. Bone head?: OSTEO. Prefix from the Greek Osteon, meaning Bone. Follow link for examples...
29. Enjoys a trampoline: BOUNCES.
30. [Theme]
35. Head turners?: NECKS. This could have been clued differently, but still would have been a head turner...
36. ID sought by some hackers: SSN. Social Security Number.
39. "Origin" director DuVernay: AVA.
40. Bruins legend Bobby: ORR.
41. Commercial offer: REBATE.
43. Tailless primate: APE.
44. Trio of trios: NONET. A group of nine, like how many lives a cat has, or a musical group of 3 trios...
46. Knee-baring skirt: MINI. (They keep getting shorter, so MIDI might fit here now...)
47. Wrath: RAGE.
51. Park expanse: LAWN.
53. "How did they do that!?": WOW.
54. [Theme]
58. Risk getting bleeped: SWEAR.
60. "Sugar Walls" singer Sheena: EASTON.
Sheena Easton
62. Picking up on: SENSING.
63. Potts of "Young Sheldon": ANNIE.
The Best of MeeMaw.
64. Genre rooted in gospel: SOUL.
65. Pressurized garb: GSUIT. Yes, a G-suit is pressurized, but only when needed. It contains inflatable bladders that automatically fill with air, compressing the pilot's legs and abdomen during high-g maneuvers to prevent blood from pooling in the lower body, which keeps blood in the brain and prevents blackouts.
67. Maker of POP kitchen storage containers: OXO. A brand name since 1990.
68. [Theme]
73. Focus of a skier's MRI, perhaps: ACL. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Anterior Cruciate Ligament connects the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia).
And, the reason an MRI might focus on one...
75. Solitary person: LONER.
76. Slugger Ty who holds the record for most career steals of home plate: COBB.
77. Critter in a eucalyptus forest: KOALA.
80. Paper alternative: PLASTIC.
82. Old __ die hard: HABITS.
84. Fudd who bugs Bugs: ELMER.
Can you tell which one is Bugs?
85. [Theme]
88. Soft toss: LOB.
90. Diet-friendly, in ads: LITE.
91. Pop in a glass: SODA.
92. Degs. for some composers: MFAS. Master of Fine Arts.
93. Italian city known for salami: GENOA.
95. Supermodel Carangi: GIA.
96. Cover image on an Amer. passport: U.S. SEAL.
99. __ Dhabi: ABU. Capital City of The United Arab Emirates.
101. Business letters: INC. (meaning Incorporated...)
102. Slip-__: comfy shoes: ONS.
103. Bamboozled: AT SEA.
105. [Theme]
109. Mrs. __ cow: O'LEARYS. Stop blaming the poor cow for the Chicago Fire. A.I. Overview
111. Egg-shaped: OVATE.
112. Adds slack, perhaps: EASES.
116. [Theme]
119.[Theme]
122. Oscar winner Blanchett: CATE. Incredibly prolific actress, you may know her as "Galadriel" from The Lord of the Rings. But she could be almost anyone... Her IMDB
In the Movie Hannah, she uses a body double to escape a teenaged assassin.
124. Beauty mogul Elizabeth: ARDEN.
125. Solo with orchestral backing: ARIA.
126. Residue in an incense burner: ASH.
127. Columns with angles: OP EDS. 😀 An essay in a newspaper or magazine that gives the opinion of the writer and that is written by someone who is not employed by the newspaper or magazine.
128. Intel source: ASSET.
129. "That __ fair!": ISN'T.
Down:
1. Function: WORK. You have to scroll way down the list of definitions under the word "function" to find "work." Perhaps it would be easier to look at it backwards, (or CrossEyed) and think of this as the definition for work. (=function)
2. Superfruit in a yogurt bowl: ACAI.
3. Leg part: SHIN. A favorite skier MRI focus as the ACL connects it to the thigh bone...
4. Lily pads' places: PONDS.
5. Carnival creator: KIA. Ever play the car name game on a long trip? Try to make it through the alphabet. See an Audi or an Accura, and claim an A! A Honda for H, a Ford for F. If you can't find a Buick for B, a Bronco will suffice! A javelin may be hard to find, but I have been saved by a Jetta... (you may have to cheat if you make it to U, U-haul etc...)
6. Parenthesis shape: ARC.
7. Tea grade: PEKOE.
8. Happening a single time: ONE SHOT. (Never happens in bars...)
9. Holding more water: WETTER.
See 8 down above
10. Big brother?: ABBOT.😀
11. Orbiter until 2001: MIR.
12. Honest pres.: ABE.
13. Concrete section: SLAB.
14. Arizona city known for sandstone formations: SEDONA.
15. Prepare, as oysters: SHUCK.
16. Pricey theater boxes: LOGES.
17. Sounds of wonder: OOHS.
21. Worries: CONCERNS.
23. Only Asian member of the G7: JAPAN.
25. Piece for two: DUET.
28. Sweet corn serving: EAR.
31. Profess: AVOW.
32. Tippy transport: CANOE.🙃
33. NFL Hall of Famer Dickerson: ERIC.
34. Philosopher Descartes: RENE "I think, therefore I am." (Cogito, ergo sum)
36. Taco topping: SALSA.
37. Produce young: SPAWN.
38. Clam chowder style: NEW ENGLAND. (Manhattan wouldn't fit.)
42. Scenic region between Carmel and San Simeon: BIG SUR.
45. Discarded PCs, printers, etc.: E WASTE.
46. Hour pt.: MIN. (Or sec, or...)
s).
s).
s).
s): One-millionth of a second (
s).
s).
s).
s).
s).
s).
s).
seconds.
48. "Later, gator!": ADIOS AMIGO. Could also be clued: Hasta LaVista! Or, Vaya Con Dios...
49. Group before millennials: GEN X.
50. "By that logic ... ": ERGO.
52. Depilatory brand: NAIR.
54. __ muffin: STUD.
Now Ladies, remember your diet...
55. Racer with an edge: POLE CAR.
Normally the car in 1st starting position,
but there have been accidents...
56. Bridle strap: REIN.
57. Output opposite: INTAKE.
59. Business with lots to offer: REALTY.😆
61. Like kimchi and umeboshi: SOUR.
65. Silk Road desert: GOBI.
66. Nuanced: SUBTLE.
69. "Double, double __ and trouble": TOIL.
70. Revenue: INCOME.
71. Positions: JOBS.
72. Emulate a couch potato: LOLL.
73. Snapchat and ChatGPT: APPS.
74. Egyptian queen, familiarly: CLEO.
What the real Cleopatra is believed to look like.
78. Grant admission to: LET IN.
79. Some geometry calculations: AREAS.
81. Dog treat portmanteau: SNAUSAGE. Supposedly Snack and Sausage...
82. Cock and bull: HE'S. (A likely story...)
83. __ boom: SONIC.
86. "... we traverse __": AFAR.
87. FDR pet honored with a statue in D.C.: FALA.
FDR and Fala remembered.
89. Pro __: gratis: BONO.
(from
pro bono publico, "for the public good") refers to free, voluntary legal services, whereas gratis means without charge;free.93. Rock instruments: GUITARS.
97. Belgrade native: SERB.
98. Get hitched: SAY I DO. Before adding the spaces, Sayido sounded like a thing. So I tried to look it up
99. Off-rd. rig: ATV. All Terrain Vehicle
100. [We're sheep!]: BAA BAA.
What they're really saying...
103. Misleading handle: ALIAS.😗
104. Final bowling frame: TENTH.
106. Legal wrongs: TORTS.
107. Gives temporarily: LENDS.
108. Faith founded in Persia: BAHA'I.
109. Black-and-white predator: ORCA.
110. Rice Krispies mascot in a chef's hat: SNAP. Pop quiz! What kind of hat did Pop wear? (Or Crackle for that matter...)
113. Gentlemen: SIRS.
114. "__ Brockovich": ERIN. A famous environmental activist.
115. "On the double!": STAT.
117. __ date: DUE.
118. Baseball : inning :: curling : __: END. Yes End,,, Here's the A.I. Overview
120. Barely passing grade: DEE.
121. Big bang abbr.: TNT. Also, Raj was short for Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali.
Here's the grid:
CE:D out.
16 comments:
A fun puzzle, that C.C.
and her friend Tom gave us. Lengthy, like all Sunday puzzles, but fair and not too tough .
(And I will take a CSO at “koala”.)
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
The blog was misbehaving on my browser today...images not appearing, Firefox locking up, etc. I thought we'd gotten past that. After rebooting my PC three times, I finally made it here.
Recognized all the themers as in-the-language phrases except for GRATITUDE JOURNALS. We've got one of those SPACE HEATERS that C-E-D illustrated. Finished up in under 20 minutes, even with the computer problems. Thanx, Tom, C.C., and C-E-D.
FIW, missing with RING fINgER x SERf and gUE. Just sloppy with SERf, and an alphabet run would have given me DUE. Never heard of a RING BINDER, so there ya go. Waited for (c/k)ATE and ERI(c/k).
I only know ANNIE Potts as the hottie on Designing Women.
CED left out one part of overcoming G forces. Pilots also strain as if they are trying to go potty as well, to keep from blacking out.
Never heard of GIA, but I like that cami that she's almost wearing.
They say that a man is incomplete until he gets hitched. Then he's finished.
A long time ago we referred to the BAA BAA types as "sheeple."
I only watch curling every four years. Until today I thought their turns with the rock were called "innings." TV audio isn't the best.
Thanks to Tom and CC for the really fun Sunday challenge, even though I crashed and burned. And thanks to CED for putting some meat on those bones.
Women's biathlon starts right now on NBC.
Good Morning:
What a lovely Sunday ”gift” from Tom and CC. The theme was fresh and unusual and executed beautifully. I always appreciate the rare Sunday solve that is both satisfying and enjoyable and this one was both.
Thanks, Tom and CC, and thanks, CED, for the facts and fun. Your review and commentary was spot on and showcased your natural blogging talents. Congrats on a job well done!
Have a great day.
Congrats Tom & C.C. I caught the theme early (unusual for me) early and FIR. I don't understand the fill GRATITUDE JOURNALS or how PENNY LOAFERS agrees with the clue.
GIA and IRENE and Red Velvet- I'm over 21 and have never heard of either. And I doubt Tom hadn't; maybe C.C.
ERIC- one of my best friends was his RB coach at SMU.
I've never heard the term "Double, double, TOIL and trouble"-perps
SNAUSAGE- new to me
END- no idea of that fill for 'shuffleboard on ice' contest.
ARIA because concerto was too many letters.'
NAIR or NEET- one of them was discontinued. But about 45 years ago, I had a tibial plateau fracture in my right knee. I had to wear a cast from crotch to ankle that would keep my leg straight. They used one of those products to remove the leg hair, the covered my entire leg with glue to keep the cast from sliding down my leg.
FLN- I actually finished the Saturday puzzle after we got home from Mardi Gras parades.
FIR. Aside from several proper names I couldn't have known, this was a fairly easy Sunday presentation.
I understood the theme almost immediately, however I did throw down rain poncho as my only misstep, soon corrected. I guess I was feeling over confident.
Overall a very enjoyable puzzle.
FIR, perps were very helpful, and generally enjoyed the puzzle. I’m not sure I fully grasp the theme---is bread dough a gift? I get the money pun, but it seems to me the answers should literally be gifts. But then, it took me forever to get CED's toilet roll comic :). And while on that train of thought, if Jimmy Choo married Claudia Chu, would she be Claudia Chu Choo?
Growing up in Detroit, we got Canadian TV, and they carried a lot of curling. I thought it was a lot more interesting when they used the old witches brooms instead the new-fangled scrubbers. Used to always enjoy the flopping sound as they swept the ice.
Thought I had an NTP (nit to pick), as Ty Cobb didn’t strike me as being a slugger. But looked it up, and he had a .512 career slugging percentage. Not too shabby.
I'm familiar with the 3-RING BINDER.
B-E, "Double double toil and trouble" is a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Thank you, TOM, CC and CD
I solved it earlier in the morning and then went back to sleep. My clock says 22:09, but I was eating a bowl of cereal during the solve. That's pretty much all I remember. This is Tom and C.C.'s third Sunday collab at the LAT.
D-O, me too. It's Google and the YouTube videos. Load the review in a new private window and it should load fine. If it happens again (or if you decide to reproduce the symptoms), you can open task manager and end the process on the Firefox tab that shows high power usage. You don't have to reboot. That's as far as I got in PD.
Golf League meeting in a couple of hours. Back later.
Musings
-Tom and C.C. provided a lovely 20-minute exercise on this beautiful 64F day on the plains
-The SPACE HEATER in my sunroom makes this a true 4-season room. It has not had to run for quite a while these days.
-Trying to revive car sales in the 70’s used REBATES like this
-Speaking of the 70’s, one administrator in our school had the task of deciding whether MINIS conformed to finger-tip length.
-Ms. Easton’s song Sugar Walls generated a lot of talk about censorship in 1984
-It was very dangerous to be in front of Ty COBB back when stealing a base with spikes high was legal
-The OPED page in our newspaper tries to present opposing views on the same page. Today’s edition has the positive effects of immigration to Nebraska in one column and the negative impacts in an adjacent column.
-When we had the bases loaded, out coach would always yell, “We got ducks on the POND!”
-Apollo capsules returning to Earth have no engines and therefore only ONE SHOT at a successful reentry going 7 miles/second.
-Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Bosnian SERB, shot Archduke Ferdinand which touched off WWI
-You remember that 5 pin you missed in the TENTH frame a lot longer than the one in the second frame
I rarely do Sundays anymore, the juice usually isn't worth the squeeze. But when I saw Tom and CC, two gifted constructors, well, how could I resist? I'm glad I did. So much clever cluing elevated this puzzle and kept me entertained to the end. I'd list them all, but it would be about half the clues!
My only stumble was right in the center. Never heard of GRATITUDE JOURNALS, and I'm not sure why it's plural. Otherwise, smooth sailing.
I thought, "Does it function?" equates to, "Does it WORK?"
Thanks, CED, for your fine review. Liked the POLE CAR pic, I'll have to steal that one!
Both BREAD and DOUGH are slang for money, hence money gift.
14:14. Thoroughly boring puzzle. I honestly can't think of one interesting thing about it. Band tshirt? Really?
What fun. Very doable CW, yet full of clever misdirections and a neat theme. I didn’t know GRATITUDE JOURNALS, but so easy to guess.There were also a few names i didn’t know, but I’ve noticed that CC and possibly Tom are very good at seeing to it that perps will help.
Thank you CED for the nice review. I liked the cartoon with poor Jeff the sheep snagging his sweater.
With only one true unknown, GIA, and perps that were more than fair, I was able to FIR in 21:34, a very enjoyable Sunday solve! Should the clue for GRATITUDE JOURNALS also have been plural. Always nice to see a bowling reference as a nod to Boomer. Thank you C.C. And Tom for your fine DUET, and to CED for the write-up.
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