GET THE "LED"OUT
Tough call, depends on my mood, but I think this 🠉
is my favorite Zeppelin song
There's also a tribute band of the same name
Our constructor David has been a regular for the LA Times since 2021, and mostly Saturday themeless puzzles at that. Today he turns lead into "crossword gold", as he has a change-in-the-clues theme, rather than the fill - and as suggested at 34A., we are looking to take the "l, e, a & d" out from the four starred themer clues ( not the Periodic Table symbol for lead, Pb, Latin 'plumbum', which showed up nowhere, as I first thought ). Quite deceptive if you don't know to look "outside the 15x15 grid", so to speak. I like it when I finish a puzzle and go "Hmm, what am I missing~?" Just a handful of names, none too obscure ( OK, one was pretty vague - I'm lookin' at you, 14A.~! ), a balance of 17 3LWs to 20 four-letter ones, a few abbrs, no Twurds, but a couple of "fishy" entries . . . The reveal, and the "*" theme clues;
34. "Move it!," or how to make this puzzle's starred clues match their answers:
GET THE LEAD OUT
Every classic rock station I grew up with usually did a 3 to 5-song run, typically Friday at Rush Hour, of Led Zeppelin's music in a segment that they all affectionately titled "Get the LED out"
18. *Mis[lead]s in an alley: GUTTER BALL - Miss in an alley, a bowling reference; our dear-departed Boomer preferred calling the venue the "lanes", not the alley . . . "misleads in an alley" conjures up some questionable ethics . . .
23. *Word[le ad] collection: DICTIONARY - Word collection = dictionary; I got done in by the Wordle with a "_vowel _ E R" solution the first week of May - too many choices 😡 By my count, there are 150 ways to fill this in, plus two "Y" versions as well
50. *Storied Gi[lead] locale: OMAHA BEACH - Storied G.I. locale - Normandy on D-Day
I want to go see "Pressure" at the end of the month
57. *P[lea d]eal venues: BELL TOWERS - "Peal" venues - now that's funny
I came into contact with this insturment through the pipe organ company -
a carillon playing the "Theme from Harry Potter" at the end
Wait, There's Morel Bud, Eat~!
🙄ACROSS:
1. Give and take: SWAP - Made my EDMONTON @ 2D. Bzzzzt~!
5. Blister: SCATHE - think reviews, as in " _ _ ing . . ."
11. Tango number: TWO - it does take Five . . . Two, Sir~!
14. Mother of Beyoncé and Solange: TINA - no clue, filled via perps, name #1
15. William Sydney Porter's pen name: O. HENRY - name #2
16. Fresh: RAW - Dah~! Not NEW
17. Pop artist Warhol: ANDY - Knew him, but it filled via perps anyway, name #3
20. Hospital figs.: RNs - Registered Nurses
21. Of two minds: TORN - Left-handed people ( like me ) are in their "right" minds . . . 😁
22. Sub-par performance?: EAGLE - Golf scoring terminology, Eagle is 2 under par
27. Fog: MIST
28. Kicked off: OPENED
29. Has a strong influence on: IMPACTS - I was close - I had impaRts, just 14% wrong
31. Posting on the side of a food truck: MENU
32. Summer music?: DISCO - Donna Summer, that is - clever. Name(ish)
"On The Radio" - in keeping with the theme
The week this song was released, Nov 1979, Led Zeppelin
set a new record . . .
40. Walking aids: CANES - I have one, but walking my neighborhood is too dangerous - no sidewalks, narrow streets, angry dogs . . . I have started going in to the gym to climb the Stairmaster for 30mins on my off-days from training classes
41. Icy response?: Brrr~!
43. Reaction creators: STIMULI
47. The __ Brothers: blue-eyed soul band: DOOBIE - "red -eyed", maybe, I don't know if I'd call them 'blue-eyed', but they come up on the classic rock stations as well - name(ish), and their best song, IMHO
49. Tsukiji market buy, perhaps: TUNA - Good WAG on my part; fishy #1Also released in 1979, it hit #1 in April, and they won the "Song of the Year" Grammy
53. __-Latin: medieval language: ANGLO
55. Only: LONE
56. Night of revelry, initially: NYE - New Year's Eve
60. Sashimi's lack: RICE - half perps, but a learning moment for me - and I like rice, plus I'll stick to cooked food, thank you - fishy #2
More about sashimi - or just see Rusty Brain's post yesterday
62. Carry too far: OVERDO
63. "__ come to me ... ": "IT'LL" - unlike raw fish, it's on the 'tip of my tongue' 🙄
64. Northern limits?: ENs the limits of the word, NortherN
65. Speed up: HASTEN
66. Some drones: BEES - the animal kingdom ones, not the package delivery ones . . . then I wondered if they are in the "animal" kingdom - so I looked
Yup~!
69. Single a donkey: SEE ABOVE
1. Fame: STARDOM - shoulda known this
2. Manitoba's capital: WINNIPEG - I tried the city in Alberta; both are hockey towns, so that's how I knew them at all - Montreal moves on, wins game one in the conference round~!
Buffalo lost, at home, in OT, to end game 7. Sigh.
3. Director's cut?: "AND . . . SCENE~!" - OK, maybe a twurd, but I worked on two movie sets, and this is a "phrase" used tongue-in-cheek to direct your attention to the fact that the performance is over
4. Cough up: PAY
Can you name these two characters~?
6. Old-fashioned farm apparatus: CHURN - "I can't believe it's not butter . . . yet"
7. CVS Health subsidiary: AETNA - half perps
8. Big bang letters: TNT - dynamite big bang
9. Charlemagne's domain, briefly: HRE - [the] Holy Roman Empire
10. Governess who breaks the fourth wall: EYRE - I started filling in this name, #4, but waited; "breaking the fourth wall" is when a character "speaks" to the reader/watcher - e.g., "Deadpool" et al.
Top 10 Fourth Wall breakers; YMMV
11. Star-crossed: TRAGIC
12. Financial nabe in NYC: WALL ST. - 'nabe' being an abbr for neighborhood
13. Little hooters: OWLETS
19. Auburn rival, to fans: 'BAMA - Hah~! I threw in [ Crimson ] "TIDE"; two Alabama (ooops) universities in a sports feud that turned into a deplorable act of pure malevolence against trees . . . over football. Sheesh.
The Iron Bowl and the poisoned oaks
24. Hardware with flanges: T-NUT - we've seen these before
Exactly
26. Community pool org.: YMCA - ah - we have a YMCA in my neighborhood, and it does feature a pool; apparently, there used to be a pool in my gym back when it opened
30. Entertainment medium, for short: POD - Cast. Meh.
32. Fabric named for a Frawnche city: DENIM - sergé de Nîmes; I tried TULLE; it's Frawnche as well
33. Tahiti, par exemple: ILE - plus Frawnche, for island
35. Ft. Worth school: TCU - I had the "U" part correct 😜 - Texas Christian; speaking of Jesus . . .
36. Heavenly sign: HALO
Om, I'm tellin'~!
37. Wind instrument featured in R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming": OBOE - I know of R.E.M., but not this song - the oboe comes in at 3:0038. City slicker: URBANITE
39. Early wheels: TRICYCLE - nailed it
42. Does a cobbler's job: REHEELS - I went with RESOLES
Another person doing a cobbler job
43. Bridle suite?: STABLE - Didn't fool me here, either
44. Listen: TUNE IN - perhaps you'll "tune in" to the various music genres posted today
45. Spanish English: INGLES - Español - oooh, symmetry . . .
46. Chambers of commerce?: MALL - Har-har.
47. "A Man on the Inside" actor Ted: DANSON - name #5, but a good WAG again
48. Honor bestowed by HM King Charles III: OBE - the Order of the British Empire - and a list of who has declined . . .
51. With it: ALERT
52. Teeming crowd: HORDE
54. Brief "Then again ... ": OTOH - "on the other hand . . . "
58. Reproductive cells: OVA
59. Montgomery of jazz: WES - I knew of him through Eric Johnson, who emulated his style in this song. Name #6
"East Wes", from Ah Via Musicom, 1990
60. Umbrella spoke: RIB
Splynter
Grid Flow 24.1
29 comments:
Once I got the
reveal, and understood it, the rest of the puzzle fell into place.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Weird. The reveal actually made sense to me. Had my Wite-Out moments with REsoleS/REHEELS (Hi, Splynter.) and SaddLE/STABLE. Also wanted REGINA as that Canadian capital -- wrong prairie province. Cute one, David. Enjoyed your expo, Splynter.
FIR, but new->RAW, courtrooms->BELL TOWERS, and take in->TUNE IN.
Four-letter "wind instrument blah, blah, blah" is gonna be OBOE.
Before the creation of Amazon, I read that the giant enclosed MALLs would soon fall on hard times because government-provided financial incentives were nearing the end of their terms. The growth of Amazon just hastened the process.
Norfolk has a LEAD street. I can never remember whether it is LEAD as in that heavy stuff they make fishing sinkers out of, or LEAD as in "LEAD, follow or get out of the way."
Thanks to David for the Friday challenge that was at the edge of my solving ability. And thanks to Splynter for another fun review. This one's got legs!
Nice review. Those two hands belong to George and Jane Jetson
BAMA is in AlaBAMA-- not Georgia!
Finished the puzzle without getting the gimmick, thanks to the perps.
Malls dying? I would say their demise was hastened by the big box stores. Walmart, Toys R Us, Home Depot, Target, Costco. Amazon and e-commerce sealed their coffins.
FIR. I had a couple of missteps along the way. "End scene" before "and scene", and "resoles" before "reheels". Fortunately the perps steered me true.
Once the reveal appeared the theme became obvious. That helped a lot with thr lower half.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Yes, Jane and George!
Question, what is 69. See donkey above?
Another question, is it lead (like led) or lead, (like leed...)
I had no trouble with this puzzle. Quite easy, names doable, but, I didn’t get the gimmick. Never thought to look at the clues, although the LEAD in them is so obvious now that Splynter has pointed them out. Oh, well.
We had INGLES crossing ANGLO. CSO to CanadianEh! for WINNIPEG. We had three universities, though one not clued as, TCU, BAMA, and RICE.
Thank you Splynter for the review, I certainly needed it for the gimmick.
That's how you Friday
Greetings from my Colorado vacation. I’ve had to do the puzzles online, and I barely beat the 30-minute mark because I find them cumbersome, and I don’t care much about racing through the puzzles.
I enjoyed a lot of the fill today, but the theme didn’t impress me. My favorite clue was the one for OWLETS. Still laughing.
The DOOBIE Brothers clue was partially misleading. They shifted dramatically from rockers with a country flavor to something else when (admittedly talented) vocalist Michael McDonald joined the group, which I suppose turned their work into blue-eyed soul. I liked them better prior to 1976.
It was tough to FIR and even tougher (for me) to see the missing element LEAD; I didn't. Thanks Splynter for pointing out the obvious.
The theme answers were filled by guesses and perps.
TINA as the mother of two singers; no idea.
O'HENRY and DANSON- only after a few perps for those unknowns as clued.
DOOBIE - because the clue was "_________ Brothers...". RIGHTEOUS Brothers was one letter too long. The A blue-eyed soul band named after a marijuana smoke.
ANGLO-Latin is a language I'd never heard of until today. Spanglish or Splynter's "Frawnch" might be 'Angle-Latin' variations.
AND SCENE- another new one for me. When scenes for "Midnight Special" were filmed at my house and driveway, the producers gave DW and I headphones to listen to all the dialogue and I don't remember hearing that.
TUNA, DENIM, and RICE were just guesses.
NYE was just perps.
Enjoyed this one---difficult but doable. Some fun misdirection without the "see how smart I am" clues.
I live in Auburn, ALABAMA, not Georgia
Took 11:51 to pump the unleaded.
I didn't know Beyonce's mom's name (Tina), nor do I think I should have known that. That seems like such a weird clue. Not far behind was "blue-eyed soul band", though I like the Doobie Brothers music. Still, the bottom-left took the longest, as "Stimuli" took a long time to see, as did "stable", "tunein", and the English in Spanish.
I definitely needed the theme today to finish solving.
Musings
-A delightful struggle where getting the congratulations message was a pleasant shock.
-AND…SCENE was frustrating and crossing TINA? was frustrating but see the previous comment
-Moviedom’s most famous TANGO scene (4:29)
-Summer music/DISCO and Bridle suite took a few seconds and then, bam, oh so clever.
-OVERDO: For me this week it was playing 18 in chilly weather and then mowing.
-My hometown of Fremont, NE has the America’s largest YMCA (4:05 tour)
-I enjoyed learning about DENIM (sergé de Nîmes).
-Omaha’s once popular giant MALLS are now all being “repurposed”.
And again in keeping with the week’s relative reversal in difficulty a fairly easy FIR Friday. But the opposite for the theme, harder each day. I bowled a GUTTERBALL on this one today.
Hafta see the reveal to understand how “plea deal” = BELLTOWER and “northern limit” = ENS? (O I C now)
Have never seen SCATHE except for the gerund scathing
OHENRY: “The Gift of the Magi” my favorite
Inkovers: new/RAW, REsoles/HEELS, end/ANDSCENE
“Sub par performance” great clue
“Tsukji” ?
Currently televising, on ___ Eyre
Reuse, reprocess, recover , again… TRICYCLE
Rascally deeds… IMPACTS
POTUS hair style ….OVERDO
Traveling cornerites. Drive carefully this weekend especially with these gas prices ⛽️. At least the EPA what’s left was able to GET THE LEAD OUT years ago 😃
Good Morning:
I loved this puzzle and caught onto the theme very early. Unlike some gimmicky themes, this one makes sense and doesn’t require any stretches of one’s imagination or gullibility. Some of the cluing was quite clever and some of the fill was quite fresh and lively, to wit, Scathe, Stimuli, Urbanite, Stardom, Ingles, etc. It wasn’t that difficult for a Friday but, theme-wise, it was A+, IMO.
Thanks, David, for a fun and enjoyable solve, and thanks, Splynter, for the fact-filled review and interesting commentary.
Tuesday and Wednesday my thermostat read 85 and today it’s a much more pleasant 72. A/C repair scheduled for next Wednesday and, luckily, cooler temps forecasted until then.
Have a great day.
Don’t know why I sometimes just guess. I pulled Winnipeg out of thin air and it was right. Tada!
I had trouble sussing out the theme but somehow I remembered that past constructers had it hidden in the clues. 🕵️
And Tada (again) the mystery was solved.
Wonderful to see the Doobie Brothers in a crossword. They were a fav of mine. I had their 8-Track and a Ford Pinto. I’d blast their tunes as I drove.
Thanks Splynter for your detailed recap. Always enjoy your thoughts and efforts.
Personally found it a bit easy for a Friday, but fun. Never did figure out the theme on my own.
Hola! I hope I can get through this post as my eyes are watering so badly I can hardly see. The puzzle was very doable for a Friday. Thank you, David P. Williams and thank you, Splynter, for the great review.
TINA? Her daughters are famous, but not the parent. Why not Ms. Turner who is much more knowable? Oh, well, Friday fun!
Thank you, also, for the information of DENIM; I don't recall ever seeing that before. I hope everyone is having a lovely day. I'm going to a graduation reception but skipping the ceremony as there's a lot of walking. This is only one of more to come next week.
FWH in 13. Red-letter help again. Clever CW, not as difficult as a typical Friday, so M-F jumbled days continues. 14 names, DNK 4: TINA, OHENRY (as clued), WINNIPEG (which I know but couldn't think of), and ANGLO, which needed most of the perps to finally fill.
First thought was "WINGNUT" but that wouldn't fir so "TNUT" fit right in. Wanted to fill: NEW/RAW, red letters didn't like it. SW was last to fill. I wasn't fooled by 43D and filled STABLE but then had to think about the rest. "Spanish English" I wanted SPANGLISH, but it didn't fit. Then the V-8 can hit.
Thanx DPW, fine Friday CW. You got me with hiding the theme in the clues. Never got it.
Thanx too to Splynter for the as always fun write-up.
Fortunately, the reveal being in the middle saved me from wondering too long how the first two themers worked. Actually, they filled in easily so I didn't think too hard about the slightly odd cluing. Pretty good puzzle by David this Friday.
I sometimes read the wrong clue instead of the one I think I'm looking at. Today I misread the 3D clue instead of 4D. Hmm, a 3LW for "director's cut"? I know PAY! Thought I was clever until I notice I was one column off. Then I read the real 4D clue, "cough up," and was surprised I had already filled in the right answer!
Then I thought that the mother of Beyonce was figurative, and meant TINA Turner, the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll." Another happy accident! I should buy a lottery ticket.
I love listening to the jazz guitar stylings of WES Montgomery, especially when he pairs up with the "King of the Hammond B3" organ, Jimmy Smith.
Splynter, you must be Bonzo on the drums!
We must enjoy the same shows! Paul Bazely is in both Miss Scarlet (he makes me laugh in this role) and All Creatures. He is in S4Ep2 “Carpe Diem”. He has a ferret. And he lapses into Tamil in the scene in the bar “Drovers” . Go back and watch it. It’s a good one!
I try, RB, I try . . .
D'oh~!
Clues felt cryptic and obtuse to me today so DNF bordering on “why even continue?”
Doobie Brothers “blue eyed soul? Pardon me while I roll my eyes.
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