Lessee, Theme,, hmm,,,
I like AURORA, as in Sleeping Beauty... (As in, Her Prince has come...)
Or how bout: Favorite Pet Name.
Not sure if above is "Mia,"
Prince is also famously known for gifting a dog named God to Nicole Richie.
Or how about, Your Photos Are Ready, (As in, Your Prints Have Come...) ?
No, it seems to be three things that can all be an explanation of the clue "Prince."
17 Across. Prince: TENNIS BALL BRAND.
36 Across. Prince: HIS ROYAL BADNESS. Complete Splaining can be found here...
This Guy...
54 Across. Prince: HEIR TO THE THRONE. This simple answer is not as simple as you might think...
But which one is the true Heir?
You will have to watch the whole move to find out...
(Or, just read the book...)
I believe this is Kathy's 6th contribution to The L.A.Times, and is becoming quite the prolific Constructor. I look forward to seeing many more puzzles from her here in future... (if we can steal her away from The New York Times... : )
Across:
1. Island ring: ATOLL.6. Skating venue: RINK.
10. "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" essayist Didion: JOAN. Considered a landmark in new journalism
14. Hogwash: TRIPE.
15. Job inspection org.: OSHA. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
16. "Uh, I doubt that": UM, NO...
17. [ Theme }
20. Makes a request: ASKS.
21. "Yo!": HEY.
22. Warm welcomes?: ALOHAS. (I like this clue/answer...)
23. Part of UCLA: LOS.
24. Lacking scruples: AMORAL.
25. Many a social media pic: SELFIE.
A famous example.
29. Action in Uno: DRAW. Not Go Fish?
30. Egg-shaped: OVOID.
31. Tortellini filling option: MEAT. First choice, followed by Cheese, followed by anything you can imagine... A piece of curious trivia: In Italian regional slang, particularly in Bologna, "tortellino" (singular) or "tortellone" (large tortellini) is used to describe a person who is naive, not very bright, or slightly chubby. So if planning to visit Italy, please be very careful in your pronunciation at a restaurant. You don't want to accidentally insult your waiter...
32. Graph paper pattern: GRID.
36. [ Theme ]
39. Flamenco cheers: OLES.
40. Redding of R&B: OTIS. Best known for [sitting on] The Dock of the Bay. But has had so many more hits if you delve deeper.
41. Painter's prop: EASEL.
42. Long, long time: AGES. (I wanted Eons...)
43. Alloy in some decorative plates: PEWTER. Mostly Tin (92%) hardened with Antimony and Copper.
44. __ Sapphire gin: BOMBAY. I always thought Gin was just flavored Vodka, But it is much, much more...
47. Letters at the end of a proof: QED. AI Overview
Q.E.D. stands for the Latin phrase
quod erat demonstrandum, meaning "which was to be demonstrated" or "thus it is proven". It is used at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument to indicate that the theorem or proposition has been fully proven.
Doesn't work at Starbucks...
"Tune-up" is typically written as two words connected by a hyphen (
tune-up) when used as a noun or adjective, or as two separate words (tune up) when used as a verb. 49. First word of the Lord's Prayer: OUR.
50. DIY tutorial site: EHOW.
54. [ Theme ]
57. "Are you __ out?": IN OR.
58. Liu of "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings": SIMU. His full Wiki, he has a long list of appearances.
59. Broadcaster: AIRER.
60. PlayStation maker: SONY.
61. Word in a vague ultimatum: ELSE.
62. Tied up in knots: TENSE. Guy goes to a shrink, says, "Doc' I can't tell if I am a Teepee, or a Wigwam." Doctor says, " Your two tents... "
Down:
1. Chapati flour: ATTA. Chapati is a simple, unleavened flatbread from the Indian subcontinent, made from whole wheat flour (atta) and water, cooked on a griddle (tawa).
2. Very, in Versailles: TRES. (French)
3. Sty sound: OINK.
4. ICU employees: LPNS. Licensed Practical Nurse.
5. Island ring: LEI. I didn't know there were so many types of Leis.
How to make a Haku Lei.
6. Spa attire: ROBES.
7. "By Jove!": I SAY. Or, "they are real, and they are spectacular!"
8. Org. whose members play at a 6-Across: NHL. National Hockey League.
9. Greek city with a namesake olive: KALAMATA. Cured in Brine, "and Red Wine Vinegar."
Explore the best places in 3 minutes? 4K
10. One of 12 in "12 Angry Men": JUROR.
Why I never get selected for Jury Duty...
11. Nebraska city that's home to the Great Plains Black History Museum: OMAHA. More Here...
12. Yearly record: ANNAL. A.I. Overview...
13. Signs of recognition: NODS. What happens when I read the A.I. Overview above...
18. Manolo Blahnik creation: SHOE.
This Guy.
19. "Let's __ this popsicle stand": BLOW. ("But not without new shoes above.")
23. __ deck: pool's spot on a cruise ship: LIDO.
But Wait! Where's the Poop Deck? (I have to go!)
24. Many Mecca residents: ARABS.
25. NYC nabe: SOHO. (South Of Houston Street.)
26. Like one twin in a soapy drama, typically: EVIL.
How and Why The Evil Twin was invented...
(Bring a towel...)
27. Shake: LOSE.
28. Trees at a Christmas tree farm: FIRS. As a whole, yes. But there is Douglas, Fraser, Noble, Scotch Pine, and many many more...
Douglas Fir is known to give heartburn...
29. Sub contractors?: DELI'S. (Very cute...)
31. Swabbie pal: MATEY. This is cute too...
Swabbie at 1st made me think of this guy,
Which had me imagining cotton ear swab imaginary friends,
But it was all just Sailors Jargon...
33. Musical pause: REST.
34. Words of comprehension: I SEE.
35. High-end camera, for short: DSLR. Digital Single Lens Reflex.
37. Element of a Sun Salutation: YOGA POSE.
38. Property transfer need: DEED.
42. Border on: ABUT.
43. Cheeky: PERT.
44. Good, in Spanish: BUENO.
45. Pico de gallo ingredient: ONION. Turns out, onion is the only 5 letter ingredient. Unless you count "spice" as an optional ingredient, (Cumin, Black Pepper.) but of course, you would never use just one spice (singular). However, you could go all out, and add fruit! Fruit has 5 letters, (but which fruit...?)
46. In high spirits: MERRY. Hmm, could you add Gin to Pico de gallo?
47. Waiting line: QUEUE. Hmm, if you tried the above at your next party, would your guest wait in line?
48. Not that: THIS. (Or the other thing...)
49. Units of electrical resistance: OHMS.
50. Ohio border lake: ERIE.
I always think Ohio is where Illinois is...
51. Noisy car part: HORN. Unless your driving a piece of junk...
52. Column to the left of the decimal point: ONES.
53. "And __ off!": WERE. (This clue/answer is in the wrong place...)
55. Ending at, briefly: TIL. (Til we meet again...)
56. Cap: HAT. Yes, as a Noun, but if used as a verb...
And here's the Grid:
See you in the comments, I'm sure I must have left "something" out.
CE:D
(•˕ •マ.ᐟ
27 comments:
I got it, but it wasn’t
easy. And what the heck did “his royal badness” mean? And isn’t that rather insipid duplication - to have “royal” in one clue and “throne” in the other?
I’m not very happy with this particular puzzle. I found it disappointing in a number of ways, even though I was able to solve it.
That’s all I have to say about it.
Good morning!
The theme fell flat with me, since I didn't know the TENNIS BALL BRAND nor the musical Prince's appellation. The "has had" in CE:D's expo made me think OTIS could still be alive. TENSE reminded me of an experience at a seafood restaurant as a pre-teen. I stood before the restroom doors and couldn't suss if I was a bobber or a bird. I went to the lady at the greeter station who informed me, "You're a buoy, not a gull." D'oh. Thanx, Kathy and CE:D.
FIR, but sega->SONY. DNK JOAN, any TENNIS BALL BRAND, Sub Salutation, and Manolo Blahnik. I thought I was right up to date fashion-wise by knowing Jimmy Choo, Louboutin, and Louis Vuitton, but I guess not.
But I do know that a TUNE UP doesn't make a car less noisy. It's so cute when chicks pretend to know about cars (a sexist would say.) TUNEUPs used to consist of replacing the points, plugs and condenser (and setting ignition timing if necessary;) today it's plugs and coils. Today's cars don't have points and condensers, and a computer takes care of the ignition timing.
Boz Scaggs had a big hit with his LIDO Shuffle. from the terrific album Silk Degrees.
Thanks to Kathy for the humpday fun, and to CED for the fine review.
Good Morning:
I like definition puzzles, usually, but other than Heir to the Throne, these themers were unknown to me. I always enjoy a little more word play or more colorful definitions, so this was more bland than I expected. Overall, though, the cluing and fill were fine, with DSLR being an unknown, as was the never heard of “Let’s blow this popsicle stand.” Sounds rather silly to me.
Thanks, Kathy, and thanks, CED, for the detailed and informative review. I didn’t recognize your “voice” until your sign-off, as you were pretty low-key this morning.
Have a great day.
Good morning all. An easy Wed. fill with three PRINCES.
Starting in the NW with TENNIS filled by perps, I was trying to guess the clue for 17A to see if it would be racquet, clothes, ball machine, or shoes. Wrong. It was TENNIS BALLS. I've used Wilson, Penn, Dunlop, Spaulding, and Tretorn tennis balls but have never seen a Prince tennis ball. And I know the man who was the president of the company for about 10 years. DW took tennis lessons from him for a few years.
The only small hiccup was the correct guess of the cross of KALAMATA and BADNESS. I didn't know Prince's nickname and BIDNESS is how business is sometimes mockingly pronounced.
SHOE- was that Al Bundy in the picture?
SIMU was the only other unknown filled with perps.
A four-letter fill for a 'Didion' clue=JOAN.
FIR, but I had to take a WAG at the crossing of kalamata and "his royal badness" (????).
The theme was totally wasted on me, except for heir to the throne which made sense. Never heard of the tennis ball brand, and was never a fan of Prince.
So overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
Kathy's three grid-spanners were the first items that caught my attention. She must have been excited when she first discovered that she had come up with three 15's--all of which answered to the call of "Prince."
Nice to see UCLA in the puzzle, just a few days after the UCLA women's basketball team decisively won the NCAA March Madness national championship.
Note the CSO to Husker Gary at 11-Down.
Thanks, Kathy, for an enjoyable and satisfying Wednesday solve. And thanks, CeD, for your fun and helpful recap.
This CW didn’t work for me. Of the 3 spanners, I knew only one and some errors and misunderstandings kept me from good guesses for the unknowns. For 1 down I entered ATrA and for 14 across it had TRItE, so TENNIS was far from my mind.
For the second spanner, not having a clue what HIS ROYAL BADNESS could be, perps led me astray there also. I couldn’t come up with LOSE for shake(?) and didn’t know DSLR.
Thank goodness I knew HEIR TO THE THRONE. So, this puzzle was disappointing.
I forgot to thank CED for his very useful review.
Took 4:56 today to become a prince of a man.
I had a lucky guess at the intersection of "hisroaylbadness" and "kalamata."
I knew the Actor of the Day (Simu), but not the writer/essayist (Joan).
Puzzle seemed "meh."
I had 5 errors and can't say I enjoyed the puzzle as i had to make quite a few guesses.
Was able to FIR, but the theme didn’t really do it for me. Fwiw, I knew all 3 references to PRINCE but just a didn’t feel the magic of figuring out the theme. Fun tidbit from this younger one: When I saw TENNIS, my first thought was the popular Japanese anime called THE PRINCE OF TENNIS. But given my experience with CW-ing, I knew it couldn’t be. CAP also had me thinking it meant LIE (Gen Z slang) but again, couldn’t be. New word of the day for me was LIDO.
Hand up for not knowing the TENNIS BALL BRAND, but this puzzle was fast, fun, and fresh for me. ATTA girl, Kathy! Thanks to CED for his good DEED reviewing for our benefit.
Interesting Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, Kathy. And thanks, too, for your helpful commentary and pictures, Dave--also much appreciated.
Well, in this puzzle it looks as though JOAN ASKS for some ALOHAS before she posted a SELFIE on her web site. She likes to draw portraits of HIS ROYAL BADNESS on her EASEL (but I don't believe he's a BAD_ESS), and I think he deserves better than that if he's going to be HEIR TO THE THRONE. But I suspect JOAN doesn't need any of this in her life, where she's busy doing YOGA POSES and shopping at DELIS, and, frankly, getting some REST. We should maybe get some too (hey, it's only 10:53 AM).
Have a healthy and happy day, everybody.
It has often been mentioned how the same CW can bring "love it" and "hate it" comments, and that was certainly true today. Put me in the "love it" column. I managed to FIR in 9 minutes, a very good Wednesday time for me.
As a few others mentioned, the "A" where 36A and 9D meet was the last cell to fill, but I thought it MUST be an "A" where "...BADNESS" went. KALAMATA, KALAMATO, KALAMATE...couldn't remember; BADNESS settled it.
An impressive construction, with three theme clues all being grid spanners. "SHAKE" had me thinking about it, "LOSE" was far from the first thing to come to mind. Clever clue, as was 29D "Sub contractors" but I wasn't fooled by that one and immediately filled DELI. Only 12 names (thanx, KL!) and only DNK 3.
Thanx KL, I very much enjoyed your creation.
Thanx too to CED for the terrific write-up. The picture of the shoe designer, Blahnik: look what ridiculous shoes he has designed for woman, all narrow and pointy, they have got to be worse than uncomfortable, while the shoes HE is wearing are shaped more or less to actually accommodate a foot. Cruel man, he is.
What a peculiar word is "QUEUE". Could be written just "Q".
I liked this puzzle. There was some good cluing (and some not so good, too).
Hola! I thought this puzzle was Wednesday worthy, not too easy, not too hard.
Of course, I know nothing of TENNIS BALLs, but I do know that JOAN Didion is an author. I've seen her interviewed.
As for Manolo Blahnik, I've only ever heard of his SHOEs and looking at them, I'm sure I would not wear them. That pointy style looks uncomfortable as has been mentioned.
Thank you, Kathy Lowden and CED.
FIR. Was lucky with Simu. Didn’t know tennis ball brand, but was hoping it was “Prince”. Love Kalamata olives! Thanks Kathy and CED.
Re: queue, indeed. Reminds me of JAMES bond tho, why call her "Q"?
Is it because she is the leader, and we are supposed to get behind her?
Anywho, I'm sure constructors must love all those vowels...
I remember watching Errol Flynn in The Prince and the Pauper as a child, on TV in Black and White. Watching the trailer, I thought I might watch it again tonight in colour! (Not color) so I thought I would post it here for everyone to enjoy...
Imagine my disappointment at some rich persons greed, that the only way you can watch an 89 year old movie is to pay $3.99... it should be in the National Archives!
Anywho, sorry for the rant. What I really wanted to say was how difficult it was to come up with a theme for this puzzle. I should have asked for help, but got sidetracked. So as an extra puzzle for today, can anyone come up with a crossword write up theme for this triplet of princes puzzle?
As much as I tried, it seems I was always a prince short. it was agony
I've seen pico de gallo and salsa made with M-A-N-G-O.
Yes, and I am sure it is delicious!
But I prefer my salsa to be spicy!
(Mango? I dunno, it's like putting pineapple on a pizza...)
To each their own...
Oh! 5 letter fruit!
(Sorry, it's been a long day, I lost track...)
Interesting that the Library of Congress' National Film Registry doesn't contain any films made between 1926 (Ten Nights in a Barroom) and 1954 (White Christmas.)
I found a free version of The Prince and The Pauper, but I am not sure how legit it is. Anon-T, can you verify this version is bug free? some foreign country post...
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