Carolyn W. Stewart is a veteran constructor that for some reason or another, hasn't published here in the LAT before - probably because she has trouble spelling
"GEARS." But she's turned that into an asset in today's Los Angeles puzzle. I'm glad she finally found us!
Here's the revealer:
59. Shift, or what the ends of 17-, 23-, 38-, and 48-Across do: CHANGE GEARS. In each of the themers, the order of the five letters that spell GEARS are CHANGED (scrambled).
Since the themers don't relate to each other (except for sharing the last 5 letters) I'm going GEAR up by inventing new definitions for each of them:
17. Some fines: LATE CHARGES. A fine imposed when returning GEAR late.
23. Group leaders: TEAM MANAGERS. People who may select GEAR for a team to use.
38. Old name for neon or argon: RARE GAS. GEAR to contain gases include tanks and cylinders.
48. Prom purchase: WRIST CORSAGE. Floral GEAR worn on a wrist.
Now you're all in GEAR. This theme was one that needed the reveler to decode. Circles would have clued us in earlier that something was happening at the end of each answer, but then it wouldn't be Thursday.
Let's CHANGE GEARS and shift into Drive!
Across:
1. Headcheese ingredient: ASPIC. Headcheese is not actually cheese. It is a spicy appetizer mold made of pork roast. For me, the gelatin is the worst ASPIC of this dish.
6. Nave-y bases?: PEWS. Ha ha! "Nave" as in the central area of a church.
10. Ad __: HOC.
13. Like bagpipes and wetlands: REEDY.
14. Overly familiar: TRITE.
16. Forest hooter: OWL.
17. [theme]
19. Messenger __: RNA. RiboNucleic Acid is essential for life (as we know it).
20. Marked down: ON SALE.
21. One with snappy comebacks: WIT. If you can't come up with a clever retort, you are WITout.
22. Attach a patch, say: SEW. A mini poem!
23. [theme]
27. Broccoli __: RABE. Broccoli RABE (pronounced ROB) isn't broccoli at all. AKA rapini, it's a leafy, bitter relative of the turnip. Mine is missing - I've been RABED!
30. Go without a destination: ROAM. Or ROVE.
31. Carol contraction: TIS. 'TIS not the season yet, but it starts earlier every year, so who knows? And remember folks, there's only 252 shopping days until Christmas, so you'd better get going! To save time, you may contact me here for my list. Just sayin'...
32. Didn't waste: USED.
33. Landscaping supply: SOD. In South Florida, it's very difficult to grow grass from seed in our sandy soil, so I recently added some SOD to my lawn. Per instructions, I laid it green-side up.
34. Take exception to: RESENT.
37. None at all: NIL.
 |
| NIL (not pictured) |
38. [theme]
40. San Francisco's __ Hill: NOB. NOB Hill is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the US. You can hobnob with snobs there.
41. Long rowboat, or a long kitchen: GALLEY.
43. Square on a waffle: PAT. A PAT of butter.
44. Best guesses: Abbr.: ESTS. Abbreviations is abbreviated, so we must double abbreviate ESTimateS?
45. In medias __: RES. Latin for "in the midst of things," it is a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of crucial action rather than with a traditional preamble. You see it at the beginning of every action movie, as director's try to stay fresh by emulating Homer's Odyssey from the 8th century BC.
46. The Smiths guitarist Johnny: MARR. Johnny MARR is an English-born Irish musician, singer and songwriter. Fender now offers a signature model Jaguar built to his specs.
 |
| Johnny and his Jaguar |
47. Political satire that won 17 Emmys in seven seasons: VEEP. It's on HBO, so many of us haven't seen it.
48. [theme]
52. Many, many years: EON. Many, many years: EVEN. The rest are odd years.
53. "Color me intrigued!": OOH. Tell me more!
54. Drive-in server: CARHOP. Before the drive-thru, meals came to you! You were still eating in your car, but at least you were parked. So civilized.
58. Shakshuka ingredient: EGG. Shakshuka is a popular North African and Middle Eastern dish of EGGs poached in a flavorful sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, seasoned with spices like cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. I'm glad this clue wasn't the other way around - Egg dish: SHAKSHUKA. That would've been ridiculous.
59. [theme]
62. Low grade: DEE.
63. "Home Alone" boy: KEVIN. KEVIN! Played by Macaulay Culkin.
64. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES. Will ESTES is an actor, apparently, who stars in something.
65. Orchestra sect.: STR. The STRING section.
66. Tide type: NEAP.
67. Surgical tube: STENT.
Down:
1. "Collapsed in Sunbeams" singer-songwriter Parks: ARLO. ARLO Parks is a performer perhaps better known by her English countrymen, although now living in the States. Since the only ARLO I know is Guthrie, I assumed she was a he. And you know what happens when you assume...
2. Astin of "The Goonies": SEAN. SEAN Astin is an accomplished American actor who started as a child in Goonies. I liked him as the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's best friend in Lord of the Rings.
3. Dependents that can't be claimed as tax deductions: PETS. Actually, they can be deducted if they are also service animals. Here's Buster patrolling the beach as a tax-deductible life guard.
4. Contributed to a brainstorming session: IDEATED.
5. Repetitive sequence: CYCLE. Ever felt like you're getting nowhere?
6. Org. that may take summers off: PTA. Like many school-related organizations, the Parent Teacher Association follows the academic calendar and has summer vacation.
7. Miss a cue, say: ERR.
8. Native American hut: WIGWAM. A WIGWAM differs from a teepee in that there are less ways to misspell it.
9. Hofbrau vessel: STEIN. Hofbräu is a Bavarian beer from Munich traditionally served in a German beer STEIN.
10. Good judgment: HORSE SENSE. You can trust a horse's advice if he's wearing glasses.
 |
| Mr. Ed talking sense into Wilbur |
11. One with a title: OWNER.
12. Scratches (at): CLAWS.
15. Lots of rich folks?: ESTATES. See sNOB HILL.
18. Word of mouth: HEARSAY.
24. "Wuthering Heights" setting: MOOR. The MOOR in this story is in northern England, thus no bagpipes. It lies between Liverpool and Leeds, near Haworth where the Brontë sisters wrote most of their novels.
25. Met expectations, in a way: MADE PAR. This clue was average.
26. PX patrons: G.I.S. G.I. is a nickname for an US soldier, thought to be mass-produced "Government Issue." Originally stamped on trash cans and equipment made of "Galvanized Iron" in WWI, it's adoption is an even more cynical take. In any case, soldiers shop at Post EXchanges, retail stores on an Army base.
27. Stepladder step: RUNG.
28. Land east of the Urals: ASIA.
29. Quasimodo, for one: BELL RINGER. Yeah, I know. His face doesn't ring a bell.
34. Daily grind: RAT RACE.
35. Pay attention to: NOTE. Because if you miss a NOTE, the melody sounds wrong.
36. Cookbook meas.: TBSP. A TaBleSPoon measure.
38. Update, as inventory: RESTOCK.
39. Needle-nosed swimmers: GARS.
42. French article: LES.
44. Highest point: EVEREST. While Mount EVEREST is the highest point above sea level, it's interesting that there are taller mountains on Earth, but they start on the sea floor.
46. Natives of the Colorado river valley: MOHAVE.
48. Works the garden: WEEDS. The difference between WEEDS and flowers is whether you want them there or not. We're trying to grow more wildflowers around our South Florida home that add color and thrive naturally in the sub-tropics with low water requirements.
 |
| Not our yard, but it's certainly colorful! |
49. Thesaurus creator: ROGET. In junior high, I thought it was Roger's Thesaurus, but that's a different word.
50. Financier Steve who owns the New York Mets: COHEN. He seems very popular.
51. Green plums: GAGES. Greengages (or Green GAGE) are a cultivar group of the European plum recognized for its small, round shape and intense sweetness. That's plum crazy! The things you learn from xwords.
55. Can't stand: HATE. Can't stand: SITS.
56. __ Ishii: Lucy Liu's "Kill Bill" role: O-REN. I stumbled upon Kill Bill: Volume 1 while flipping channels years ago, and was immediately riveted. Watched it from the middle, then again from the beginning. I like Tarantino's incongruent music choices.
 |
| Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii |
57. "Over here!": PSST.
60. Actress Vardalos: NIA. It all started at her wedding...
61. Economic fig.: GNP. This nomenclature for a country's wealth figure, the Gross National Product, is outdated though still in common use. In 1993, the United Nations renamed it GNI, the Gross National Income, to better reflect their intent to measure residents' income vs. product manufacturing.
Be good. RB
29 comments:
A pretty challenging
puzzle, but I got through it. I have to cry foul, though, at something near the end: the crossing of “Estes” and “Oren” - a potential Natick if I ever saw one. Fortunately, the perps were kind here, as elsewhere.
FIR, so I’m happy.
From yesterday.
1. Painting tip: When the job is large and takes more than a day, wrap your brush/roller in a plastic bag and place it in the freezer. When you're ready to paint again, remove from the freezer, allow to thaw for about 30 mins, and paint away.
2. Gas tax. FYI For the most part, gas taxes are XXcts/per gallon. thus if the gas tax is $.25/gal, one pays $.25/gal whether the price of gas is $2.89/gal or $4.98/gal. Google, "How much is the gas tax".
3. "merch". It seems some here don't quite understand the meaning. Yes, "merch" IS slang for "merchandise", but, it is used in a specific context. It is products that a person, entity, or brand sells that promotes and advertises their product/brand. At a Tayler Swift concert, you will only find Tayler Swift merch, there will be no Beatles, Cher, or Adele merch in sight. At Disney World there is only Disney merch...no Coke, no Nike, no Knotts Berry Farm tees. If you're a PBS fan you can go to their website and purchase PBS promoted/branded "merch". "Merch" ranges from Tees, hoodies, baseball caps to glasses and mugs to totes and keyrings...and other items portraying their logo or slogan or portrait (brand).
4. "the woman who torpedoed The Beatles"? How sexist, chauvinistic, and/or misogynistic...AND demeaning of men. Were the 4 Beatles limp d*cks with no free will or agency? Btw, sometimes a man will select a "dragon lady/hatchet woman" to fight their battles for them and/or do their "dirty work". Just a thought.
Anonymous at 3:58am
Yes, that is true about the gas tax. It is a set amount per gallon, not a percentage. If gas prices rise, states, counties, and cities will not see a windfall, but will probably lose revenue because gallons of gas purchased will likely decrease.
Google "how much is the gas tax in (your state)" to find out.
Good morning!
Yay, d-o read the full reveal clue and found the mixed up GEARS. Yup, tried TEEPEE before WIGWAM became obvious; wickiup was too long. Don't think I'd ever run across MOJAVE spelled with an H before, but Mohave County is a huge county that comprises most of NW Arizona. I guess I must visited, because I've crossed the London Bridge at Lake Havasu City. It's a nice bridge, but I was expecting towers. Thanx for the amusement, Carolyn and R.B.
Had fun thinking there was a name for the square indentations on a waffle till anticlimactically "pat" became put. Agree about Oren and Estes.
FIR, but erased stien for STEIN. Bad Spelars of the world, UNTIE! I really resisted MOHAVE, but finally concluded that it was more likely than "OOj."
A week or two ago I linked to our local drive-in Doumar's. They still have CAR HOPS, but in modern times the roller skates have given way to walking. Your order is still taken and delivered in person - no tinny speakers there. The restaurant was opened by the guy who invented the machine that makes waffle ice cream cones.
Around here we have mostly NEX (Navy EXchange) and MCX (Marine Corps Exchange) stores, although we also have Air Force, Army and Coast Guard installations here. I've presented project management classes to the folks who provide operational support the NEX stores. Smart people who take their work seriously.
I was less than gruntled with this one. Too much A&E again, and hand up for giving a big, wet raspberry to ESTES x OREN and GAGES. Thanks to Rusty Brain for another fun review. I really liked your picture of NIL.
My point exactly, it IS a picture of NIL. O-Ren was tough but the rest was fillable. I would have said WIT-LESS. The NYT pays more for puzzles perhaps explaining why we are only now meeting Carolyn. Thank you and Brian
Best puzzle of the week. Clever cluing, fresh fill, and helpful perps in just the right spots. I worked top to bottom and didn't take notice of the theme, as it was not essential to the solve.
The reveal filled in mostly with perps, so there was no need to go back and look at the themers.
FIR in 9:37.
FIR. This was a major struggle for me, and required several WAG's. And the plethora of proper names certainly didn't help. I tried to keep track of all of them and lost count. There were even some crossing which to me is a giant no-no.
The reveal made the theme obvious, but it was of no help to the solve.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
This proper name fest slayed me today. A DNF result, The Rio Grande region and Colorado Valley couldn't be completed. I spelled COHAN for COHEN, never heard of either The Smiths or MARR, didn't know the MOHAVE Desert was named after an unknown (to me) TRIBE, and KEVIN didn't make it. At least I got NIA.
I also made lucky guesses to correctly fill the unknowns GAGES, OREN, and ESTES. ARLO, EGG for the unknown food,
ESTS, ESTES, ESTATES for 44A, 64A, 44D- an 'est' CYCLE today.
CHANGing GEARS, "50d. Financier Steve who owns the New York Mets: COHEN. He seems very popular." He's lucky he's not in prison for insider trading like others who worked for him in his hedge fund. But his firm, SAC Capital Partners plead guilty, and the company 100% owned by Steve A. Cohen, paid a $1,800,000,000 fine to the federal government. Amazing. HE is the company; it's guilty, not me. Chump change.
There's no need to put it in the freezer. I put a brush or roller in a plastic storage bag and put a rubber band around the handle part to keep air out and it will last at least a week.
Good Morning:
This certainly had some bite but it is Thursday and should be expected. All unknowns were salvaged by perps or WAGS, so no trouble FIR. Shakshuka Ingredient = Egg was a gimme because I’ve never forgotten the Shakshuka entry in Stella’s Saturday puzzle years ago. The theme was simple enough but not visible, for me, until the reveal, the sign of a well-executed puzzle, IMO.
Thanks, Carolyn and congrats on the debut and thanks, RB, for the chuckle-laden review and several learning moments. Buster looks in need of a cream rinse and styling blow-dry!
Have a great day.
Musings
-I stumbled into three good guesses at GAGES, OREN and ESTES for a hard-earned “got ‘er done”
-I had CHANGE _ E A _ S and the reveal showed that I needed to CHANGE GEARS and not SEATS
-With some prom dresses today, a boy would have to opt for a WRIST CORSAGE if he wanted to put it on his date
-How many of us learned to drive where we had to manually SHIFT GEARS?
-The name and appearance alone is enough to put me off headcheese.
-RABE and GAGES are not in my culinary vocabulary
-DOH, I struggled to come up with a word for a square in the waffle and not on the waffle. :-)
-They still use CAR HOPS in our town
-Yes, Irish, I still remember seeing SHAKSHUKA as the fill not the clue in my first Stella Zawistowski puzzle years ago
-This ESTES would much more familiar to me than an osbscure TV actor
-Lily is worth every non-deductible dollar we spend on her
-The USSR used to be east of the Urals but…
-WEEDS: Playing with someone who uses yellow golf balls when dandelions are in full bloom can me difficult
DNF. __ARR crossing ____O___A___E, crossing KE__Id, crossing GdP. I was tripping all over myself in that area.
The theme was no problem. But so many proper names of people I don’t know. Thank goodness WAGS and perps took care of them, but not my favorite type of solve.
I watched VEEP, and indeed it was a great political satire, but the last two seasons were a turn off. They had become raunchy instead of satirical.
Thank you RB for a fine, informative review.
Re: Yoko Ono, factually inaccurate does not equate to misogynistic, etc. The “Yoko broke up the Beatles” myth has been accepted as truth for decades by millions of people who failed to do their own research.
But believing a widespread story about a famous woman does not make one sexist any more than believing a lie about a famous man makes one a man-hater.
Nice try, though.
ESTES crossing OREN. KEVIN crossing COHEN and NIA. What a dumb puzzle. I can’t understand why the editor at the LAT doesn’t insist that the constructors come up with decent clues instead of just adding proper names if they want to toughen up the puzzles.
Gary, A couple things: 1) I'm not sure what you meant with your USSR comment, but it's not true. Half of the Soviet republics and all the biggest cities were-and still are--WEST of the Urals; 2) Yes, I learned to drive with a stick shift. In fact, the vehicle was so old, it required you to DOUBLE clutch.
Testing Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Carolyn (congrats on your LAT debut) and RustyBrain.
I WAGged and perped my way to a FIR today. The CHANGEd GEARS were easy to find after the reveal.
This Canadian is not familiar with the MOHAVE but M seemed a better guess than P (pARR or MARR perp).
Perps decided Ad HOC or lib.
An alphabet run to R gave me REEDY. We had WEEDS later. (And SOD for our spring garden chores.)
GDP changed to the wider calculation of GNP with KEVIN. Who could forget Catherine O’Hara’s KEVIN screams (RIP).
Hand up for remembering SHAKSHUKA as the fill not the clue in that Stella Zawistowski puzzle years ago. Some things stay engrained in your brain!
Wishing you all a great day.
Great catch on ESTS, ESTES, ESTATES CYCLE.
Hand up for laughing at my misdirection when PAT appeared.
14 names, DNK 9, which included KEVIN only because I couldn't remember it. Switched from paper to online to use red-letter help, then still had to do a couple alpha runs, so give myself a DNF, even though I eventually (18 minutes) did fill all the cells correctly.
PEWS had me totally baffled. So did PATS. Both took RB to 'splain 'em. AND in spite of looking never did figure out the theme.
Thanx CWS, it was fun even though I got beaten.
Thanx too to RB for the enlightenment.
Delightful Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Carolyn. And your comments and especially your pictures were a pleasant treat, Rusty, thanks for those too.
Well, for some reason this puzzle kept making me want to use it to write a poem, and I came up with a pretty silly one. Here it is:
It was an ad HOC experience to sit in the PEWS.
waiting to hear the recent OWNER's news.
The information may seem TRITE,
but the TEAM MANAGERS made it a delight.
The readers did not have to pay a cent,
and so did the process not at all RESENT.
They did make an effort to CHANGE the GEARS
and rewarded themselves by drinking some beers.
They then hired a BELL RINGER,
and wrote songs for his favorite singer.
In the end they were glad they did IDEATE,
and turned this event into a delightful date.
I hope this verse won't just turn into a blob of words that don't rhyme, but let's see what happens when I click on PUBLISH:
Thank you RustyBrain, absolutely loved what you did explaining the theme!
Hard start, easy going harder ending... what a puzzle!
Headcheese from the get go, was completely unknown. Not because I didn't know it, but because I chose to forget it,, forever!!!
This is the first puzzle, where a clue/answer shouted out in my head!
The themers all filled out, but I had trouble with the reveal. I wanted changed teams, due to the blanks forced by Gage and O-ren. Of course "Gears" made much more sense for the theme and perps...
Green Gages, never heard of them. I wonder what they taste like...
(And, do they turn into green prunes?)
O-ren, Kill Bill was such a long movie, that I completely forgot her. I was thinking of rewatching both parts, but remembered the buried alive scene and climbing out so horrified me, that I don't think I want to watch it again...
Here is a clip of O-ren, WARNING! Do not watch if you are squeamish!
Hmm, silly theme link... reminds me of the story of the PRNDL...
I love Arlo Parks and was so excited to see her in this puzzle! I’m currently so obsessed with her music.
Oh, Sorry. The above PRNDL link shows the aftermath, here is how the gears got changed...
Took 5:43 to grind my way through it.
I knew the Actress of the Day (Nia), but not the Actor (Estes). The guitarist (Marr) was unknown too. Patty loves her obscure food (shakshuka).
Interesting that the clue for the obscure "Oren" is "Kill Bill." I believe the two movies are officially known as "Kill Bill: Volume 1" and "Kill Bill: Volume 2."
I "hate" that "French article" counts as a clue. Can we please be done with the "foreign language plus part of speech" so-called clues?
Seemed themeless to me, which is fine. But, after reading RB's highly amusing review, I am surprised those pesky circles weren't used.
FIR but didn't much enjoy all the WAGs: MARR, KEVIN, ESTES, ARLO, COHEN, GAGES, OREN, NIA ... c'mon! Let's use real words or famous names. Most of these were tangled up in the bottom of the grid, making the last bit of the solve unpleasant. Try again, CWS! At least I had RustyBrain's blog post to anticipate, and so I finished the crossword part of my day laughing.
Excellent Thursday puzzle. Very enjoyable and challenging. My favorite was the waffle squares until i realized it was the square on the waffle not in the waffle. Thanks RB for the info and pronunciation of Rabe. I had never heard of Gages.
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