Across:
1. Will beneficiary: HEIR. Nice, easy start to the solve
5. Thick-furred dog whose tail curls over its back: SPITZ. For some unknown reason, I chose AKITA before changing to SPITZ
10. "hahahahahaha": ROFL. Texting shortcut = Roll On Floor Laughing
14. Gillette razor: ATRA. Rumor has it that Gillette named the razor ATRA because their CEO was big into crossword puzzles ...
15. "Yellow Odalisque" painter Matisse: HENRI. This:
[entry word]
22. Foal's father: SIRE. Here is a video that was made before the last Triple Crown champion. Of these horses Seattle Slew topped all Triple Crown winners as a sire; producing 8 champions, including Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, Swale (Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner), and Slew o’ Gold.
25. "Rules __ rules": ARE.
[entry word]
32. Love, in Verona: AMORE.
33. Cabbage side: SLAW. One of my favorite slaw mixes is called "Tri-Color" and contains both green and red (purple) cabbage as well as chopped carrots
43. Gymnast Korbut: OLGA. Fun fact: Olga Korbut never scored a perfect "10" in any of her Olympic events
45. TV executive Arledge: ROONE. The man who brought ABC's "Wide World of Sports" and "Monday Night Football" to the TV Sports lineup
[entry word]
50. Smug cry: OHO.
51. Blood bank fluids: SERA.
52. Kylo Ren's father in "Star Wars": HAN SOLO. For those who
are unfamiliar with some of the genealogy in "Star Wars": Kylo Ren
(born Ben Solo) is the biological child of Han Solo and Leia
Organa. Because Leia is the daughter of Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker),
Darth Vader is Kylo Ren's grandfather
56. Jewel box: CD CASE. Clever clue. Fun Fact: [according to
AI] CD case inventor, Peter Doodson christened the name "jewel case" in
1982 when he was working for Philips. He named the case "jewel" because
he considered its structure "virtually perfect" and specifically
designed its polished ribs to catch the light, giving it a shining,
gem-like appearance
[reveal]
64. Paddington, but not Waterloo: BEAR. This clue refers also to
a pair of stations in the London Underground (Tube). According to AI:
the fastest way to travel between them is by taking the direct Bakerloo
line on the London Underground, which takes around 10–15 minutes.
Alternatively, a taxi ride takes 15–20 minutes
65. Grey Goose rival: STOLI. Vodka rivals. As an imbiber of
various adult beverages, vodka is my least favorite. I keep a bottle
strictly for any guest who requests. My "go-to's" include (in no
particular favorite order): Single Malt Scotch (Highland and Islay),
Bourbon and Rye whiskey, Gin, and Tequila/Mezcal
66. History book sections: ERAS. Moe-ku #2:
68. Schlepped: TOTED. I have received many tote bags at various trade shows I've attended, but never one called a "schlepp bag"
69. Starchy root in poi: TARO. I am trying to cut back on starches ...
Down:
1. Strongbox fastener: HASP. Another word for "lock"
2. Words said to Marcus Junius Brutus: ET TU. Does the "Marcus Junius" preface to Brutus make this a harder clue? Any time I see the name "Brutus" I think of "et tu?"
3. Modern Persia: IRAN. Modern Mesopotamia: IRAQ
4. Pretoria currency: RAND. As of the day I wrote this blog, the value of a ZAR (also known as the South African Rand) is R1.00 = $0.06 USD
6. Cheer team feeling: PEP.
7. Company abbr.: INC. LLC also fits
8. Jumbo suffix: TRON. Fun Fact: Jumbotron, although
originally a registered trademark by Sony in 1985, has become a generic
term for any oversized stadium screen [Wikipedia]
9. Country between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers: ZIMBABWE. Zimbabwe info And, we have as a supporting clue/answer: 30 down. Capital of 9-Down: HARARE.
10. "It's Always Something" memoirist Gilda: RADNER.
11. Theater honor: OBIE. The "O" in EGOT
12. Fault: FLAW. If grammar and spelling errors in my blog are considered flaws, well, there could be a few
13. Camera part: LENS. Also a part of the eye. I now have two artificial lenses as a result of cataract surgery last year. Never have I ever seen better
18. Sink accumulation: DISHES. Guilty as charged! When I was a
single man I always left the dirty dishes in the sink until enough were
ready for transfer to the dishwasher. Same now; however, Miss Margaret
transfers to the dishwasher immediately OR washes them by hand
19. Sandy shade: ECRU.
23. Do a bit of grapplin': RASSLE. Grapplin' (missing the last letter "G") indicated to me that this was going to be an abbreviated form of the word WRESTLE
24. Night school subj.: ESL. English as Second Language
26. Like some cider: HARD. Not one of Moe's preferred "adult" beverages
27. Blessing response: AMEN.
28. Bitty bits: IOTAS.
29. Pre-MBA hurdle: GRE. Graduate Record Examination
[re-pasted with 9 down]
31. "Hot diggity dog!": YAHOO. Another clue could have been: "alternate to Hotmail"
35. Miss. neighbor: TENN. Considering that Mississippi has four
neighbors, the only one of those that I think can be expressed in a
four-letter abbr. is TENNessee - Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas are its other neighboring states
36. Cypress or cedar: TREE.
38. Task manager?: TO DO LIST. I use one; on a piece of paper, as opposed to having something entered on my cellphone, e.g.
40. Ocean fleet: ARMADA. For a "fleeting" moment, the Chairman and Miss M owned an Armada, which we "lovingly" called "The Beast". This:
41. Corn core: COB.
44. Some classic muscle cars: GTS. This GT was hardly a muscle car but it did have bucket seats and only two doors - more like a "mush muscle" car ...
47. Total failures: LOSERS.
48. Waffle House rival: IHOP. I would hardly compare iHOP to Waffle House. IYKYK
49. Dragon's mouth, e.g.: ORCHID. Learning "moe-ment". I never heard of this example until today
52. U.K.-based bank: HSBC. HBSC (Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation) is one of the world's largest banking and financial
services organizations, serving approximately 41 million customers
across 56 countries and territories. Founded in Hong Kong in 1865, the
institution is headquartered in London and acts as a major global bridge
for trade corridors between Asia, Europe, and the Americas [from their
website]
53. Wowed: AWED.
54. Close by: NEAR.
55. "I think you're __ something": ON TO.
57. Tech trends site: CNET. I've used this site occasionally to read reviews about cellphones, computers, and even headphones
58. Indian tourist city with a mausoleum: AGRA. Home to the Taj Mahal
59. Step in a scallops recipe: SEAR. Here is a random recipe I found for seared scallops
60. Petro-Canada rival: ESSO. Standard Oil
62. Realized: GOT.
63. Guardians, on a scoreboard: CLE. Fun Fact: I have been a CLEveland
baseball fan since the late 1950's. And while I "GOT" (see 62 down
clue) that their team's mascot (Chief Wahoo) was a bad choice, the
elimination of the name Indians was not one I supported. The Cleveland
Baseball Franchise was the first to have a native American player (Louis Sockalexis), as well as the first black player (in the American League) Larry Doby. At the time Sockalexis played for them (late 1890's) the team was known as the Spiders; Sockalexis was
the inspiration to rename the team the Indians in 1915 after he was
through playing, and many a Cleveland fan called the team the Indians
while he was playing
The "Guardians" reference is to a pair of "Guardians of Traffic" statues located on the Hope Memorial Bridge, which stands near the team's ballpark (see image below). The interesting thing is that until this "logo/image/name" was chosen, most Clevelanders were unfamiliar with the statues or never paid much attention to them as they drove across the bridge
Summary:
Great puzzle; I give this ⭐⭐⭐⭐'s (one of my highest rankings, IIRC). As a side note, the Chairman's alter ego (Chris Gross) will have a puzzle published @ Newsday tomorrow, June 4. If you would like to solve it, please save this link - I think it will refresh to the correct date so you can fill it in on-line. You can also change it from the drop down icon on its task bar. Or, perhaps this link will provide you a copy to print and solve This is my first published puzzle in quite a while. Hope you enjoy!
41 comments:
Classic method:
Circles and anagrams.
Not my favorite, but definitely doable.
FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but struggled mightily with __ACHER x ZIMBABW_ and HA_ARE. Glad I was solving on line; had it been in my usual Pentel and paper I would still be racking my so-called brain.
But since I'm solving online, I don't have notes on my corrections. But my biggest had to be hip generation->HAIGHT ASHBURY.
Some friends introduced me to a Russian vodka when I lived in Dallas. Made strictly from potatoes, it was quite tasty when served at freezer temperatures. My friends had drinking glasses that were like test tubes - round on the bottom so you couldn't set them down until you had finished your drink.
I wasn't a fan of this puzzle. Besides two African geography lessons crossing the fictional character, I don't enjoy anagrams. But thanks to our Chairman for the interesting review. 'Cept I think that the "O" in EGOT is for Oscar, not OBIE.
FLN - CED, I hope that yesterday was your nadir and that things start getting better today.
Good morning!
This one went faster than yesterday's. Hand up for AKITA. Is there any TROMBONE that doesn't have a SLIDE? JzB? Tried SHUT UP before IT. PUNDIT reminded me CBS cut Scott Pelley loose yesterday -- apparently the new head of 60 Minutes didn't like being accused of killing 60 Minutes. Thanx, Shmuel and C-Moe. (Wouldn't you divide completions by total attempts when calculating the completion percentage?)
Took 5:27 today to clean up.
I didn't know: spitz, Harare, Pretoria, who Lee Child is, or HSBC. So, I needed a lucky guess at the intersection of "HSBC" and "cdrs."
I recommend a fun little game you can play on your phone called "MapTap". Someone smarter than me can hopefully link it (maptap.gg). Each day, you're given (one at a time) 5 locations in the world. You tap on the globe (with no lines dividing countries or states) where you think they are. Then, we're you're done, it gives a short blurb about a newsworthy event or person from there. I've found it to be nice way to enhance my poor geography skills in about 1-2 minutes per day.
I appreciate the shout-out, Honorable Chairman. I share your fondness for the Tribe. And, congratulations to you on your puzzle publication eve.
Oh joy, circles!
Me, too, AKITA
FIR. It seems that we have circles now at least once a week. Why? They don't belong in crosswords. They're just a gimmicky add-on to make a puzzle within a puzzle. I ignored them as usual and they really didn't matter or help.
There were a few testy clues, but the perps were there to help.
Overall a so-so puzzle.
I too started with Akita, but then foolishly changed to ShITZ. So can’t claim a FIR. Bummer.
The rest was quite smooth. My first solved anagram was BRUSH then BROOM, so the reveal was easy to detect.
My only unknowns were ATT and ORCHID as clued. I knew REACHER because DH has read the whole series. I love seared scallops.
Thank you C-Moe for the nice review and assessment of the CW.
I hope CED is doing better today.
Thought I finished the puzzle right for the 3rd day in a row, but had one slight error. I also grew up with the Indians in Cleveland, and they also had the first black pitcher in the American League. Satchel Paige made his debut in July 1948.
Good Morning:
I don’t care for anagrams either, but these were relatively easy to unravel and the reveal was helpful, as well. I’m ambivalent about the circles as the only time I criticize their use is in a late week offering that suffers a decrease in difficulty because they’re used. Zimbabwe was easy because of that Z, but I needed perps for the capital. Overall, a typical Thursday solve which I enjoyed.
Thanks, Shmuel, and congrats if a debut and thanks, Moe, for the detailed and fact-filled review. Enjoyed the Moe-just, as always. Congrats on your latest publication.
FLN
CED, best wishes for a speedy return to normal health.
Have a great day.
Wednesday not Thursday. Sorry.
Moe-kus, not autocorrect’s silly Moe-just. Sorry, again.
Spell-check reminds me of a puppy too eager to please.
What a great puzzle! Not just because it was a WITP (FIR in 6:44), but due to clever and fresh cluing and fill.
I solved, as usual, as a themeless, and caught a break when the long themers filled quickly with just a few seeded letters from perps.
I give this puzzle a solid 10/10.
Musings
-Anagramming a perfectly good word to start and then rearranging the other obvious gimmicks was interesting
-Rules ARE rules. Not necessarily in our golf league. Kick the ball out from behind the tree, fluff it up on the grass, you don’t have to putt that 3-footer, etc. It’s a recreational game!
-I make no paper LISTS anymore. They are all on my iPhone.
Finishing the puzzle was easy; trying and not succeeding to understand the SWEEPING CHANGES connection was my problem. Anagrams exist only to mess with your mind. No other function.
NBC NEWS- The "Today Show" may be produced by the news division but I wouldn't call it or GMA 'news'. Personalities clowning around. i never watched them, had to go to work.
CDRS- wait for the perps.
ZIMBABWE & HARARE- knew them but not the correct spelling. Rhodesia & Salisbury are spellings I know.
GTS- my 1964 Dodge Dart GT with that 225 slant-six was definitely NOT a muscle car. More like a POS car that had a busted piston after about 5 years.
CLE Indians became Guardians. Stanford Indians became Cardinals. The Redskins became the Commies.
The most used club by some golfers is the 'toe wedge'. My groups always played it where it stopped except for tree roots, rocks, casual water, or mud with no gimmes. We didn't hit out of divots either. If the ball landed in a sand trap that hadn't been raked, the ball could be moved. That's why our scores were so high.
Happy June the threeth!
Nice CW, even though I didn't take the time to figure out the theme. I looked at it, but saw STANDUP and then saw SHBUR and figured out it was an anagram and came up with SHRUB not BRUSH, and thought, "I've solved the CW (FIR in 12) and I don't wanna take the time to figure out the theme. Not important."
"Lee Child" protagonist was one of the 4 of 20 names I DNK, and needed perps. Also needed perps for CDRS.
I surprised myself by knowing both ZIMBABWE and (somehow) HARARE. Also somehow knew that DRAGON'S MOUTH is an orchid.
LSOS, AKITA/SPITZ. Also SHUTUP/SHUTIT.
Thanx SS, fun CW and at a proper Wednesday level.
Thanx too to CMOE for the great write-up. No MoeKu's today?
IM@9:06 I call "autocorrect" "autof...up", since it turns more correct words into incorrect words than the other way around.
BE@9:20 I agree about the morning talk shows are not "news" shows. They are, instead, overpaid celebrities hyping each other's egos. After watching a few, no more.
A well hidden theme in Shmuel’s offering today.
An interesting juxtaposition of place names.
Haight Ashbury had a thriving gay community in the early 70’s.
A walking tour of queer neighborhood history is still available.
Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 makes things difficult for the LGBTQ community.
Some gay relationships will land you in jail.
Thanks for the detailed recap Moe.
unclefred: there are two Moe-kus today
Jinx, O does = Oscar. OOPS! Hey, I admitted that there might be a few mistakes as my blogs are not proof-read
Anonymous with the Tribe fondness ... I've followed the Indians since the late 1950's when I was a big Rocky Colavito fan. Unlike most other kids at the time who were Mickey Mantle worshipers, I liked "The Rock". An interesting fact: for the "decade" period from 1957 - 1966, Colavito had the most HR's, RBI's, and extra base hits compared to all other major leaguers. His stats for that 10-year period are more than HOF-worthy as all of the other players who were below him in those statistics are currently in the Hall of Fame. And while I do still follow the Cleveland Baseball team I do NOT call them the Guardians.
Shmuel, I was impressed! HAIGHT ASHBURY is a pretty nifty entry, and you got a scrambled word in there, too. For that matter, scrambling STANDUP was quite a feat. Perhaps you started there. Lots of fresh fill made this solving experience seem novel.
Moe, thanks for explaining it all, and for sharing Greg Warren. Dear Daughter and I were ROFL.
FIR and liked it!
Big Easy - there was a 1964 Dodge Dart GT in our driveway, too. The slant 225 six (while not powerful) was a pretty decent engine. Reliable. Not flashy. As I pointed out in my comments. Fun Fact: If you recall, the Chrysler cars of that era had a push-button transmission. When I first became a licensed driver and took the Dart out to see what she was made of, I engaged in a drag race (of sorts) with another buddy. I had the transmission in N and had the engine revved up as much as it could take. When I pushed D, the tranny dropped. Oops. Expensive lesson learned. But yeah, the Dart GT was a real POS. My current ride is a VW Golf GTI with a six-speed. Not a muscle car but pretty fun to drive
NaomiZ - there were plenty of STAND UP comics I could have chosen. I am finding that there are very few of them who can do a gig without resorting to using blue language. Now don't get me wrong, I can laugh equally at comics who are G-Rated or R-Rated. But when you have to present them in a public blog you take the high road
Hmm, Anonymous, could this be the constructor in disguise?
I became a bit entangled down in the "Dragon's mouth"/"Grey Goose"/"Jewel box" neighborhood, but Wags saved the day. But overall this was a fine puzzle, well-constructed--including a couple grid-spanners--and useful circles in the theme answers.
Have we heard from CED today? Yesterday sounded like a day from hell for him.
Thanks, Shmuel, for a lively and smooth Wednesday-appropriate challenge today. And thanks, Chris, for your usual comprehensive and amusing recap. And congratulations on tomorrow's Newsday puzzle!
Hey guys, im still here, if not a bit sore... the plumbings been fixed, (not mine, but improving...) beds been shipped, and is in transit. Can't wait to pull it apart and rebuild it. (It's a good thing a like puzzles..)
Thank you Chairman Moe, I am so glad I did not have to do this Anagram puzzle. I found the clueing off my wavelength, Spritz/Zimbabwe, really? And hahahahaha=ROFL? Isn't there a rule that abbreviations should be revealed in the clue, or does that stop at Wednesdays...? Learning moment=orchids, interesting!
Anonymous @ 7:16AM, here is a hot link to your "map tap" game. I found it fun and informative! Even more fun are the snarky comments it makes when you are way off base!
My parents were European born and spoke Yiddish at home. I definitely schlepped a schlep bag- not a tote bag.
Great puzzle! And THANK YOU for the Greg Warren clip. Had me ROFL!
Hola! Wow! HAIGHT-ASHBURY really digs up some memories of the 60s. When I 'm in San Francisco I often pass by that intersection and reminisce, not that I had any of those experiences, but it was frequently in the news.
BEAR was cleverly clued and I was surprised when ORCHID emerged as I had never heard it called "dragon's mouth." Also fun was having ZIMBABWE and HARARE in the puzzle. i can't imagine what machinations it took to make that happen. Well done, Shmuel!
Enjoy your day, everyone!
Nice stroll through this puzzle
A few gimmes : I just watched the new Jack REACHER movie with John Krasinski on Amazon Prime - he is my favorite Jack Reacher. This is the first movie he's been in - the others were limited season
My son's girlfriend a few years back was originally from ZIMBABWE but not from the capital Harare- thought we might have a wedding there but it was not to be. She was a wonderful woman doing her public health graduate school at Johns Hopkins- in issues related to maternal /fetal mortality
Thanks CM - I knew of Greg Warren - he is from STL and went to Mizzou in Columbia 30 minutes up the road.
And thanks to Schmuel for the puzzle
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Shmuel and CMoe.
I FIRed in good time, but had trouble playing Word Jumble to see the cleaning apparatuses.
Perps were fair for my unknowns -ROONE, CLE, SPITZ, HSBC.
I remembered HAIGHT ASHBURY, which gave a good foothold in the centre.
I am familiar with SLIDing TROMBONE. Daughter played one in the high school band.
We had CDRS and CDCASES.
I’ll take a CSO at ESSO. We have Shell, Pioneer, Husky.
Wishing you all a great day.
Interesting Wednesday puzzle--many thanks, Shmuel. And your commentary and pictures were once again helpful, Chairman Moe--thanks for those too.
Well, the HENRI in this puzzle was probably an HEIR with enough funds to work as a STAND-UP COMEDIAN and have the band support him with their SLIDE TROMBONE. He probably wouldn't produce any SWEEPING CHANGES in the evening performances, but maybe he'd earn enough to buy some new DISHES for his wife, or even take her on a trip to ZIMBABWE on an ARMADA. That would surely make her happy, especially if he also bought her an ORCHID to wear on her new dress. Well, that should take care of all the chores on his TO DO LIST, and give him a chance to wish his wife AMORE, and then take a long and peaceful nap.
Have a happy and good rest of the day, everybody.
Re: IHOP vs Waffle House: IHOP ids generally the better choice although I have occasionally experienced an IHOP that was equivalent to a Waffle House.
Anon in thuds comment is actually MagillaGo-Rilla. I used to be logged on as such but somewhere along the line I got logged off to my dismay and have not been able to log in again. Somebody please direct me to the login site.
For MagillaGo-Rilla and any Anons out there: here are TTP's instructions for going Blue.
Note that if you were already blue and suddenly went dark, Google is auto- signing off any account that looks suspicious. (Are you blueish? You don't look blueish...) sometimes it is as simple as clicking your icon on the top right hand corner of the comments to auto-sign back on. (I repeat, sometimes...)
I think they had IHOP and Waffle House as rivals because they are both known for serving breakfast foods like pancakes, waffles, and eggs and bacon
CED: Thank you for adding the link to Map Tap, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think this crowd would eat it up. It is definitely fun & informative - and yes, a little snarky sometimes.
And, Map Tap doesn't have any anagrams or circled letters!
Inanehiker, John Krasinski plays "Jack Ryan," not "Reacher."
I've seen a couple of the limited seasons - I thought the first season was excellent.
easy stroll
I love this Map Tap game. I got a score of 937 out of 1000.
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