Rebecca Goldstein has been creating square grids for a very long time, but today she has us going around in circles.
63A. Waste time and effort, in a way, or progress as this puzzle's circled letters do?: REINVENT THE WHEEL. Looks like we are going to build a WHEEL, one letter at a time.
:3D. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" novelist: L. FRANK BAUM. This gives us one letter of the word WHEEL.
6D. Smallest Central American country: EL SALVADOR. Now we have two letters, building a WHEEL from the bottom up.
9D. Durable material made from hagfish skin: EEL LEATHER. Three letters - we're halfway there!
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| Pacific hagfish are not eels, but they produce fine leather. |
12D. Sideways jump flourishes: HEEL CLICKS. With the four letters, we've almost come full circle.
I thought this worked out
Black hole department: I tried to discern some sort of image in all the black squares and large crosses, but they are simply part of the grid.
Mirror image department: Kudos to Rebecca for using the reflective symmetry to place INCAS opposite MAYAN, and the video game answers LUIGI and ATARI next to those.
All set? Let's roll!
Across:
1. Designation for some food carts: HALAL. HALAL is an Arabic term meaning "permissible" or "lawful" under Islamic law, governing all aspects of life including food.
6. Outer space?: EDGE.
10. Portal name with an exclamation point: YAHOO. YAHOO! was one of the Internet pioneers 32 years ago, but has lost relevance since. However, it's still worth $7.4 billion, so there's that.
15. Actress Woodard: ALFRE. I didn't know ALFRE, but she is very worthy. She has graced the stage and screen, winning four Emmy's, a Golden Globe, and three Screen Actors Guild awards. She's even been nominated for two Grammy's and and Oscar!
16. Tales as old as time: LORE.
17. Justice Kagan: ELENA. ELENA was appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and is the fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
18. Needing a nap: TIRED.
19. Pot filler: SOIL. Pot filler: ANTE.
20. Put in a seat, say: ELECT.
21. Travel approx.: ETA. Your Estimated Time of Arrival is an estimation and subject to change. I often drive to Miami, and the ETA is an hour. A half-hour later, I'm still an hour away as traffic builds up like I'm in a backwards time machine!
22. Crushes underfoot: TRAMPLES.
25. "__ Misérables": LES. "The Miserables" describes Russell Crowe's singing in the movie.
26. Orange variety: NAVEL.
28. Work __: ETHIC.
30. Kinds: ILKS.
32. Online image: AVATAR. Mine is a sunburst Fender Stratocaster. I have two from the 60s.
35. Poetry event: SLAM. A poetry SLAM is a competitive event in which poets perform original spoken-word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges.
38. Much-used pencils: NUBS. My dad always said, "Beware of people with long pencils and short erasers."
39. One with good taste?: PALATE.
40. Falafel bread: PITA. But it doesn't taste falafel.
41. Langley org.: CIA. I grew up in the Tidewater area of Virginia and my dad worked at Langley AFB, so when I hear Langley, the Central Intelligence Agency is not the first thing that comes to mind.
42. "The lady __ protest too much, methinks": DOTH. One of hundreds of quotes attributed to Shakespeare. "Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
43. Small island: CAY. CAY is pronounced "key" as in Key West.
44. Orinoco flow: AGUA. The Orinoco River flows through Columbia and Venezuela, hence the Spanish word for water. The phrase "Orinoco Flow" was made popular by a song from new-age artist Enya.
46. Having more wiggle room, say: LOOSER.
48. Gumbo vegetable: OKRA.
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| Oops! Wrong picture! This is an orca. |
49. A lot alike: SIMILAR. I liked this a lot!
51. Arrives casually: ROLLS IN.
53. Free (of): RID.
54. Small tweak?: MOD. Just a little MODification.
55. Spots to let sleeping dogs lie: PET BEDS. This bed seemed so big when Buster was a pup. We adopted him during COVID, and he turns 6 today!
59. Small spot: SPECKLE. Small spot filler: SPACKLE
63. [theme]
66. Part of UAE: ARAB. United ARAB Emirates. The UAE has ARABs in it.
67. Not as grim: ROSIER. As in the Grim Reaper's kid sister, ROSIER Reaper.
68. Large vases: URNS.
69. Green carpet: MOSS.
70. Boggy places: SWAMPS. This one mired me down.
71. Teeny bit: MITE.
Down:
1. Abhor: HATE. This clue is detestable.
2. Settled: ALIT.
3. [theme]
4. "All bets __ off": ARE.
5. Streaming device, maybe: LED TV. This one seemed off, so I turned it on.
6. [theme]
7. Tragic fate: DOOM.
8. Strong hold: GRIP.
9. [theme]
10. "Oof": YEESH.
11. Every last one: ALL. ALL at ONCE.
12. [theme]
13. A single time: ONCE. ONCE and for ALL.
14. Quaker grains: OATS.
23. Sow's counterpart: REAP. Ah, the verb, not the noun. I wanted "boar."
24. To be, in Paris: ETRE.
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Vous êtes ici. |
29. Co. for surfers: ISP. An Internet Service Provider is a company that connects individuals and businesses to the internet.
30. Natives of pre-Columbian Peru: INCAS.
31. Super Mario brother: LUIGI.
33. Potatoes, in Urdu: ALOO.
34. Body art: TATS. People get TATS (tattoos) of the weirdest things...
36. Arcade pioneer: ATARI.
37. Like the ruins in Tulum: MAYAN.
45. Some short-term rentals: AIRBNBS. A very good friend lives just blocks from the Atlantic. Three houses surrounding him have become AIRBNBS, turning his quiet neighborhood into a party zone. Residential zoning laws need to be updated to prevent this.
46. Corporate structures: LADDERS.
47. Tots' playwear: ROMPERS. Tots' quandary - where should we wear our ROMPERS?
48. Buddy from way back when: OLD CHUM. OLD CHUM is also useful for luring orcas.
50. Actor Schreiber: LIEV. LIEV Schreiber is an acclaimed American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He's known for his roles as "Wolverine" in the X-Men series and the titular Ray Donovan in the TV series.
52. Theater eponym: LOEW.
55. Brit's stroller: PRAM.
56. Wireless router brand named for a Finnish architect: EERO. EERO Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer, famous for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the TWA Terminal at JFK in NYC. He also designed iconic furniture. I guess if he were around today, he'd have come up with a router casing?
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| 1956 Tulip Chairs and Pedestal Table |
57. Spanish aunts: TIAS.
58. Winter coat?: SNOW.
59. Herding dog name: SHEP. Here's the most faithful border collie, SHEP. After watching his master's coffin leave on a train in Montana in 1936, he waited in vain for years at the station.
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| Now Buster wants a bronze statue! |
60. Russell of "The Diplomat": KERI.
61. Mardi Gras follower: LENT. LENT follower: EASTERTIDE, the 50 days following Easter, culminating in Pentecost.
62. "How __ can I say it ... ": ELSE.
64. Org. that operates AIT scanners: TSA. The Transportation Security Administration primarily monitors aviation, but also does rail and mass transit. And until recently, the organization worked without pay as they were used as pawns by Congress.
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| Advanced Imaging Technology |
65. Actor/comedian Meadows: TIM. Another SNL alum.
Rebecca spoke and now I'm tired. Wheel see you 'round!
Be good. RB
Not too easy, as befits a
ReplyDeleteThursday, but I thought it was fair on the whole, and the reveal seemed unexpected and fresh. One thing: “mote” or “mite”? The lady was unlikely to be named “Kero” so I put in “Keri” and got it right,
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis one had some crunch to it. Saw the circles, and promptly forgot to look at them again. I have never seen "HALAL" on a grocery cart. What would make a grocery cart un-HALAL? CAY and quay are pronounced the same. Home port for our ancient aircraft carrier was the North Island Quay Wall in San Diego. Thanx, Rebecca and Rusty.
Food cart as like a food truck, not referencing a grocery cart.
DeleteMaybe grocers can steam-clean the carts after every shopper uses them to make them HALAL and Kosher.
DeleteI pronounce quay as qway and cay as k
ReplyDeleteAnd I pronounce quay as key
DeleteFIR. I saw the circles and groaned. And then I saw this was a vertical puzzle and groaned some more. And it was full of proper names! I almost didn't want to do it, but a challenge is a challenge, and I was determined to succeed.
ReplyDeleteThe theme in my opinion was lame and somewhat contrived. But it's done and what's done is done, thank goodness.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
I am unable to bridge the gap between HEEL and WHEEL. The theme clues only got me as far as HEEL. I invented a HEEL. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteTook 6:26 to take this one for a spin.
ReplyDeleteI knew the Actress of the Day (Alfre), but not the French clue (etre), and had to guess at the Urdu clue (aloo). Have never, ever heard of "eel leather."
I agree with the prior criticisms of today's gimmick.
Oh joy, circles!
I was expecting to struggle with this puzzle, but, except for the NE which took a while, it filled very quickly. YEESH needed perps, so did TIM and KERI.
ReplyDeleteThe theme however left me puzzled. I’m still puzzled. I have no clue.
Thank you RB for your review. Baby Buster also looks puzzled at that big bed.
I meant the NW.
DeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI was a few minutes into the solve before I noticed the author and my first reaction was that explains some of the cluing and fill. I’m still searching for the W to complete the Wheel but, honestly, the theme itself is confusing to me. The solve itself wasn’t all that difficult and my only w/os were Freckle to Speckle and Old Chap to .old Chum. For some reason, the circles were annoying to me, probably because they didn’t make sense.
Thanks, Rebecca, and thanks, RB, for the humor and enlightenment. Love the picture of Buster-keep ‘em comin’, please. Liev Schreiber was outstanding in Ray Donovan, only surpassed by Jon Voigt’s performance, IMO.
Have a great day.
For Rebecca to have included the "W" in completing the spelling out of WHEEL, would have constituted a no-no. The word WHEEL is already in the Reveal, and it is a recognized crossword puzzle convention that a word can appear only once in the grid.
DeleteTK, I accept your explanation but I still don’t understand the theme fitting the reveal without visually completing the word Wheel. Does Heel indicate the reinvention? Sorry if I’m being dense but I just don’t get it.
DeleteGood morning. Well, I got 'er done this morning finishing in the NW, finally remembering the L for Wizardeer BAUM. ALFRE was unknown and I figured HALAL was correct. My original fill for the LED TV was a MODEM. EERO (and anything other than Cisco) was unknown as a router brand. That didn't work. I also had to change BOAR to REAP for my 'Sow counterpart'.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the circled letters after finishing and saw the L, EL, EEL, HEEL, and WHEEL. I don't pay attention to them when trying to complete a puzzle.
YEESH was a wag,
LIEV, TIM, KERI, -perps for those.
I thought Rebecca again gave us a well-constructed and enjoyable puzzle today, surprisingly easy for a Thursday.
ReplyDeleteHer four theme answers are all vertical 10's, and symmetrically placed. And as RB noted in his recap, in the process of spelling out the letters of "wheel" in reverse (except for the W), the start of each theme answer (circled) is a word. Lyman Frank Baum shortened his first name to "L," and there it is at 3-Down. Similarly, we have EL at 6-D, EEL at 9-D, and HEEL at 12-D. In the process, Rebecca demonstrated the usefulness of circles.
The puzzle overall didn't strike me as particularly challenging for a Thursday, but the fill was by and large fresh. And I loved seeing Hamlet's admonition to his mother in the dead center of the puzzle.
Thanks, Rebecca and RustyBrain, for together providing us with another predictably fun and satisfying Thursday pastime.
Musings
ReplyDelete-I can’t remember a puzzle where the gimmicks were all in the top four rows
-Can you name the man who “Grabbed his pants, A better stance, Whoa, he jumped so high, CLICKED his heels”? (answer below)
-Outer space/EDGE was fun
-I would have finished faster if I could RID myself of the bad habit of trying to type so fast!
-Our kitty Lily has never had anything to do with PET BEDS we get for her.
-MITE/MOTE.
-ALOO is starting to stick in my brain box. It appears ALOO is singular and plural
-Pong by ATARI amazed me when I first saw it!
-My daughter and her family always get a beautiful AIRBNB (no punctuation or space) on the ocean in Malibu when the go to the west coast. She said, “Don’t ask what it cost!”
-I had no idea that our cwd stalwart EERO had a router named for him
-How ELSE can I say it? I heard you the fourth time!
-The ESP between me and Irish was in full bloom today!
-The heel clicker was named in the haunting song Bo Jangles
We have a small teepee-shaped cat shelter in our bedroom. The cats avoid it religiously. Last week dw looked everywhere for Izzy when he didn't show up for breakfast. On her third pass through the house she found him asleep in the teepee. Last place we would ever look.
DeleteWas this puzzle tougher than EEL LEATHER? I have no idea, since I’ve never heard of eel leather and have no idea what it is.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was easy enough, but the Lame Gimmick Hall of Fame has a new inductee.
I was on RG’s wavelength today and finished with only a few white outs.
ReplyDeleteKurt Russell/Keri
Old chap/chum
Aloo is becoming as common as Oreo.
It has become a “auto fill” no matter how many different ways it is clued.
I’ve never heard of eel leather. But the perps were fair.
Outer space/edge was clever.
FIW, missing my WAG @ ALuRE x LuRANKBAUM. Erased boar for REAP.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Verizon bought YAHOO in $8 billion, then sold it 5 years later for $5 billion. The merged company (Verizon) must have kept the GTE geniuses who cornered the flash cube market just before xenon flash became standard equipment on cameras, bought Airphone for $39 million, only to abandon the product in 2006, and developed GTE Skytel just in time for texting to become widespread.
Like Rusty Brain, CIA wasn't my first thought for Langley. One of the guys who sailed with me was a scientist at NASA Langley. He had a tee shirt declaring "Actually, bow work DOES take a rocket scientist."
New models of EERO routers are banned from being sold in this country. They are built in Vietnam. You can still buy models that were already being made when the FCC ban was announced.
H.Gary - I knew Mr. Bojangles.
I must say that this wasn't a favorite puzzle, not even one of my favorites from Rebecca. I did reinvent the HEEL, just not one from Louboutin. But Rusty Brain's review was great! Favorite was the rosier reaper saying "have a nice die," which sounds like good tidings from an Aussie. Please give Buster extra birthday belly rubs from Zoё and me.
I’m the same as KS. Wanted to back out when I saw all the names in this puzzle but I chugged along and was able to FIR. It was not enjoyable however, it felt clunky and awkward but this is Thursday after all! Ironically, the theme of this puzzle is fitting criticism for it.
ReplyDeleteEDGE was clever. MOSS and SNOW went hand in hand. Thank you RB for the write up 🙏
Brilliant puzzle construction. Clue for EL SALVADOR seems to be wrong? Isn't Belize the smallest Central American country?
ReplyDeleteHola! This was a fast solve and I did not pay much attention to the theme because it did not make sense to me.
ReplyDeleteIn Spain I found many products made from EEL LEATHER and I bought a small coin purse. It's remarkably soft.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
According to Google, EL SALVADOR is the smallest country,
ReplyDelete