It's Taco Tuesday!
Hi All!First, the elephant in the room: circles vs. no circles. Personally, I don't care.
Or, as DW told the Girls when they were little, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."
If you've ever attempted Stella's Saturday puzzles, you know she doesn't go easy on the solver. There's one or two "This is a Tuesday?"s in today's, but overall she constructed a smooth, light on the A&E, and cruft-free grid with a bit of crunch.
So, let's grab a tortilla, toss in some carne, onion, & cilantro and take a stroll.
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| Fajita beef, onion, & cilantro breakfast taco. |
17. Toyota pickup since 1995: TACOMA TRUCK.
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| Rear view of the 2025 model |
26. Sarcastic "Great idea!": WHAT A CONCEPT. Not!
45. Requires sacrifice to achieve: COMES AT A COST.
61. Portable Tex-Mex snack, or a progression depicted in this puzzle: WALKING TACO.
Get it? The [circled] TACO "walks" from left to right in the grid. Cute.
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| Er, more like a stumbling TACO after leaving the pub :-) |
Across:
1. Treadmill settings: PACES. ??? All my treadmill says is "speed" and "incline."6. Learn to fit in: ADAPT. Adjust, ADAPT, Overcome.
11. Fuel for some stoves: GAS. I've got a glass cooktop. You?
14. Enticing scent: AROMA.
15. Brings to the ground: RAZES.
16. "How We Do (Party)" singer Rita: ORA.
Not my cuppa, but you might like it.
19. Decimal base: TEN. As a child of the '70's, I got the experimental "new math" and the metric system (this was in '77 through '80 (?)). However, both came in quite handy whilst pursing degrees in EE & CS [#6d_STEAM - I married for the Arts :-) ] .
20. "Rooster" network: HBO. Home Box Office. I'd not known of this show but, from the trailer, it looks good.
21. Coin slot directive: INSERT.
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| Donkey Kong's Directive |
22. Bullfrog relative: TOAD.
23. Ironman race, for short: TRI. TRIathlon.
24. "Well, sort of": ISH.
26. [See: Theme]
32. Pre-1917 Russian ruler: TSAR.
34. Molecule part: ATOM.
35. Land parcels: ACRES.
37. Pancake topper: SYRUP. Here's my go-to from grocer H-E-B.
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| I'm a sucker for cute packaging :-) |
39. Take legal action against: SUE.
40. Large herbivore in India's Kaziranga National Park: RHINO.
This Rhino's in Oregon's Zoo.
41. "Cowboy Bebop" genre: ANIME. With a perp & an educated guess...
42. "Logically, this means ... ": ERGO. #Latin
44. "Toy Story" boy: ANDY.
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| Fun Fact: On Buzz Lightyear's boot, Andy's N is not written backwards [cite]. |
45. [See: Theme]
48. Brian of Roxy Music: ENO.
Brian Eno was commissioned by Microsoft for Win95's 3.25 second
startup sound that he composed it on his Mac.
49. Before, in classic ballads: ERE.
50. Confident and courageous: BOLD.
53. Rum cocktail: MAI TAI. A recipe.
57. Embrace: HUG.
60. Cry of realization: AHA.
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61. [See: Theme]
63. Grab a chair: SIT.
64. Common feature of flannel shirts: PLAID.
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| For the fans like me: Python's Lumberjack Song |
65. Volunteer's offer: I WILL.
66. Earth-turning tool: HOE.
67. Actress/writer Kaling: MINDY. I would have known "Mork's friend" who, according to WikiP, Kaling was named after.
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| Mindy Kaling |
68. Vanlifer, for one: NOMAD. Not sure that Matt Foley was considered a nomad :-)
Down:
1. Hiker's trail: PATH.2. Many a Yemeni: ARAB.
3. Pixar film set in Mexico: COCO.
Coco's Trailer
4. Punk subgenre: EMO.
5. Wiley of "The Handmaid's Tale": SAMIRA. You say so...
6. The "A" of STEAM: ARTS. Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths.
7. Truth or __: DARE.
8. C te d'__, France: AZUR.
9. Substance that makes jelly gel: PECTIN.
10. "You should know better!": TSK.
11. Favorite choice: GO-TO.
12. District: AREA.
13. Temporary castle material: SAND.
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| Here's some more really cool ephemeral sculptures.. |
18. Maria's friend in "West Side Story": ANITA.
22. TV quiz show with Cash Builder rounds: THE CHASE. No clue. A few Googles later I learned that this is another US import of a UK game show. Here's the US trailer...
23. Played monotonously: THRUMMED.
25. Surgical memento: SCAR.
26. Nintendo character in purple overalls: WARIO. On autopilot, I first ink'd mARIO.
27. Completely lost: AT SEA.
28. Tennis venue: COURT.
29. Last Greek letter: OMEGA.
30. "Read the fine __": PRINT.
31. Care for: TEND.
32. Airport org. with wands: TSA.
33. Match, as a laptop and the cloud: SYNC.
36. Tofu base: SOY.
38. Part of a hammer: PEEN.
43. Bounding main: OCEAN.
46. Mogadishu native: SOMALI.
47. Starting point: ORIGIN.
50. Wild party: BASH.
51. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's state: OHIO. DJ Donna Halper introduced RUSH to the US when she played Working Man on Cleveland, OHIO's WMMS.
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| Crossword's fav architect, I.M. Pei (and Co.), designed the RRHOF. |
52. Not on time: LATE.
54. Astronaut Shepard: ALAN. Husker Gary, can you hit the ball "Miles and miles and miles"?
Alan Shepard slices it ;-)
55. "Just joking!": I KID.
56. In apple-pie order: TIDY.
57. Pop band with sisters Este, Danielle, and Alana: HAIM.
58. Home of the NCAA's Bruins: UCLA.
59. Top Olympic prize: GOLD.
61. Typist's stat: WPM. Words Per Minute. With copious use of the backspace key, I get about 42 wpm.
62. "It takes __ to tango": TWO.
The Grid:
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| The Grid |
My solve:
WO: mARIO -> WARIO
ESPs: ORA, ANIME (as clued), MINDY, SAMIRA, HAIM
Fav: SUE x-ing COURT made me chortle.
Cheers, -T
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| Most every workday am, I get breakfast tacos from Moderno's across from the office *chef's kiss*. |
It wasn’t always easy,
ReplyDeletebut I got it without resorting to any red letters or anything.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis was a tale of two Rs, as in "Rats!" Wasn't familiar with STEAM -- STEM, yes, STEAM, no. Figured bringing to the ground must be dAZES or fAZES. The R never occurred. Didn't know what to call that Ironman thingee. Figured the woman's name was either SAMInA or SAMItA. The R never occurred. Bzzzzzt. R you awake yet, d-o? Thanx, Stella and Dash-T. (I do believe we have the same glass-top down-draft cooktop as you. There aren't many to choose from.)
Never took note of the circles until I completed the grid.
ReplyDeleteFIR, but strummed->THRUMMED (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and mario->WARIO (¯\_(ツ)_/¯.)
ReplyDeleteWe've kicked this around before, but I really dislike the addition of Arts for STEM->STEAM. Yes, the kiddos need Arts, just as they need English and history. (It would be nice if they also threw in a little civics lesson now and again, but that's tilting at windmills these days.) But the USA is getting our butts kicked because the little Johnnys and Judys of the nation don't know STEM, not because they don't know creative dance. (OTOH, in Galileo's day music was an area of mathematics.)
In apple pie order? Guess I must have watched too much slapstick back in my ute. To me, someone in apple pie order has a messy face.
Thanks to Stella for another entertaining puzzle, although there was a lot more A&E than I like, and I thought the theme qualifies to park in a handicap spot. And thanks to Bayou Tony for another fun review.
Ditto re Thrummed and Wario, add in Samira which was also unknown and that was a tough spot. Enjoyed learning that rhinos are native to India and about vanlife (o, the call of the open road or perhaps I'm just yearning to be young again). Plan to try Moderno- thanks for the tip and the review.
ReplyDeleteTook 5:36 today for me here at a corner.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know one of the Actresses of the Day (Samira; I knew Mindy) or the Sisters of the Day (Haim).
I recommend "Rooster". It's entertaining, but don't expect the zany version of Steve Carell (former co-star with Mindy in "The Office").
Oh joy, circles!
FIR. Another Jumble of circles. Oh, wrong puzzle! This is supposed to be a crossword?
ReplyDeleteFor a Tuesday this had a fair amount of crunch to it. And the plethora of proper names added to the chaos. The crossing of Haim (?) and nomad (?) was basically a WAG.
And just what is a walking taco?
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.