BRING 'B' RING
We have seen Brian's name on crosswords before, but I do believe this is the first for Alex Rossell Hayes, so congrats on your debut~! I loved this puzzle - solid fill, brilliant cluing, it made me smile, and not only is it clever, but in alphabetical order, too - paired A, E, I, O, & U five-letter words 'broken up" to provide some humorous results. Friday level difficulty, but I was on the constructors' wavelength and breezed through, despite the chunky triple-7-letter plus corners. An over-sized 15x16 grid, two handfuls of names, no circles, and an even spread of 3-, 4-, 5-, 6- AND 7-letter words. The themers, no reveal;
18. Vague advice for space travelers worried about black holes?: "AVOID A VOID."
26. Air travel that's the fifth-best option?: "PLAN E" PLANE
36. "My job is ranking people on a scale of 'miffed' to 'downright furious'"?: "I RATE 'IRATE'."
😑😕😖😠😡
"The in-flight meal was unacceptable~! 😡"
51. Juliet's response when her love asks what city is as eternal as their bond?: "ROME, O ROMEO." - "Wherefore art thou~? Not in Rome, and frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
60. Helpful draw when trying to play a Q word in Scrabble?: UTILE "U" TILE
ACROSS:
7. Unleash (on): SIC - I had SET to start
10. Chemically quiet: INERT - like the rightmost column in last week's periodic chart
15. Rocker Dee: SNIDER - Name #1, but I knew him because his band, Twisted Sister, were from my home area of Long Island
16. "Industry" network: HBO - had the "H", WAGed the rest
17. Levi's Stadium player: NINER - What if they actually played IN Levi's~?
20. Prickly plants: CACTI
DOWN:
1. Org. with a "Get Ready for Baby" page: SSA - Great new clue for this tired fill, but it took waaay to long for me to find that page on the Social Security Administration website
2. Multiplication, to division: INVERSE - You'd have to "subtract" a letter to fit 'opposite' . . . 🙄
3. Bishop's domain: DIOCESE - nailed it, spelling and all
4. Hard to translate, in a way: IDIOMATIC - "the whole nine ( letters ) yards"
5. Nancy Drew's boyfriend: NED - name #4, and I thought it was NED, but hesitated
7. Slip-ons lack: SHOELACES - nine-letters #2
8. Third-largest of the Balearic Islands: IBIZA - geo name #5
9. Fish oil source: COD
10. Like LOL, but not haha: IN CAPS - slighly Twurdish, but Friday clever - LIKE WHEN PEOPLE TEXT IN CAPS TO INDICATE THEY ARE SHOUTY~!!!!
11. Horan of One Direction: NIALL - no clue, filled via perps, name #6
12. Lesotho, for one: ENCLAVE - learning moment for me; the Wiki
13. Organ parts with rods and cones: RETINAS - I knew we needed an EYEpart, tried CORNEAS - Bzzzzt~!
14. Aquaman's staff: TRIDENT - seemed the logical answer for a "sea-based" superhero
19. __ pen: VAPE - ooof. Friday vague - this thing
23. Honey or sugar: PET NAME - I figured we were looking for something like this
24. Feline: CAT - "Fe" line is sooo last week . . .
25. Pt. of USA: AMERica
27. Far from far: NEAR - har-har
29. Goods people: TRADERS
34. Scope rival: LISTERINE - Solid fill, simple cluing, nine-letters #3
35. Wedding attire, for some: RENTAL TUX - nine-letters #4; I rented my tux for the premiere of "The Golem", the movie I worked on back in 1997-8 - available on YouTube July 20th
37. "Mambo Birdland" Grammy winner Puente: TITO - two weeks in a row; name #7
38. Low digits?: TOES
39. Milky Way kin: MARS BAR
40. Silo: ISOLATE - Phew~! Friday vague - verb def. #2
41. Indonesian island crossed by the equator: SUMATRA - geo name #8
44. Bring up again: RERAISE - e.g. an issue, not the poker version of re-raise
45. Colorful songbirds: ORIOLES - nailed it
46. Sourdough starter?: ESS - Sourdough, meta-clue; my trainer put me on to sourdough bread
48. Charges: GOES AT
50. Product removed by shear force?: WOOL - sheAr, not sheEr
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52. Value system: ETHIC
53. Heavy __: METAL - so, so last week . . .
57. Shut tight: SEAL
61. Thurman of "Gattaca": UMA - crossword staple, name #9
62. Philly summer hrs.: EDT - Philadelphia, PA is currently observing Eastern Daylight Time
Splynter
Grid Flow 59.8 - high
Notes from C.C.:
Happy 71st birthday to dear
Naomi, our brilliant Monday Sherpa! Her Monday write-ups are always
thoughtful, informative, and beautifully crafted. Thanks for all you do
for our blog, Naomi, and have a fantastic birthday!
 |
| NaomiZ |
2) Happy 73rd birthday to YooperPhil, another longtime member of our Crossword Corner family. Wishing you a wonderful birthday and many happy returns!
Once I figured out
ReplyDeletethe theme, it was pretty easy to fill out the “double words” that fit the puzzle. So I have no complaints about it.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThings looked bleak in the snow-covered NW, but warmed up as I headed south. That photo of the airplane reminded me of the aircraft graveyard in Tucson, just off I-10. Couldn't remember DIOCESE -- Bishopric wouldn't fit, and I've learned it's not a descriptive term. It was near SUMATRA where our ship crossed the equator, kicking off a shellback ceremony. Folks who'd never crossed aboard a ship were "pollywogs" and needed to be beaten and shamed by the experienced shellbacks. I taped my shellback certificate to the underside of our toilet lid. Thanx for the amusement, Alex, Brian, and Splynter. (Do you suppose I could register myself as a "classic" and stop paying income taxes?)
Happy B-day Naomi~!
ReplyDeleteSplynter
ooops - and YooperPhil, too~!
DeleteOops, I completely forgot to wish a "happy birthday" to our Monday sherpa, NaomiZ and YooperPhil, our upper peninsula denizen. Hope you do something to make it special.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the puzzle and the review-thanks to all 3. Reverse seemed to be right but I couldn't get the rest of the clues to agree. And like serener (my spell check doesn't even like the word), laxest, though correct, grates to my reading ears. It fits the rule, but it should be an exception imho (I don't feel all that strongly about it) and most lax used (I guess I'm in favor of ex-laxest).. Happy birthday wishes to NaomiZ and YooperPhil!
ReplyDeleteFIW, refusing to believe that the SSA would have a "get ready for baby" page. Scope creep much? I also missed with Dee SNyDER. Knew him, just not how to spel his name. Finally, I had ASrAM TEA. So It's WHAT KIND of AM TEA? (I've never been a TEA guy. I'll drink unsweetened if I'm at a banquet.)
ReplyDeleteApropos to the above ASS-something TEA, last night's news featured a 77-year-old Florida woman who was upset at being ASSigned license plate "SQZ A55."
In spite of getting some stuff wrong, I really liked this puzzle. One glaring error though - a black hole is the opposite of a void. A black hole is so massive that its gravitational force collapses atoms and doesn't even allow light to escape. Once radiation or matter crosses a black hole's event horizon there is no escape. But that's just an unfortunate clue to clever fill. Thanks to Alex and Brian for the fun workout, and to Splynter for another fine review. Happy birthday to NaomiZ and Phil.
Thank you, Alan, Brian, and Splynter.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Brian, and congrats on your LAT debut, Alex.
That was a fun Friday, albeit a bit predictable after the first theme answer filled. Not complaining though, because it was still clever. I had a hard time deciding which theme answer is my favorite because each has its merits, but I guess I'll go with UTILE U TILE.
The only real mistake I had was entering Surinam where SUMATRA belonged. Two main issues with that. It is spelled Suriname and Suriname is not an island. Plus, the perps weren't making sense. A delay in my solving time, but mox nix.
Like Splynter, I immediately knew SNIDER, but initially spelled it with a Y. I remember when he testified before Congress.
"The whole nine yards" Clever comment for the answer, Splynter!
Unfortunately, your Tux link didn't link.
Happy Birthday, NaomiZ! You look so happy!
Happy Birthday, YooperPhil! Time to start taking those RMDs!
Splynter, speaking of Heavy METAL, Riot Fest is an annual multi-day concert in the city here. This Sun Times article posted by the local NPR caught my attention.:
ReplyDelete"Move over, Kirk Hammett. Captain Kirk wants to be the next heavy metal star — and he’s kicking things off at Riot Fest, Selena Fragassi reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Festival organizers have announced that 95-year-old entertainment icon and apparent metalhead William Shatner will debut his newly assembled band The *uckers on Sept. 20 at Douglass Park on the final day of the fest, joining a lineup that includes Twenty One Pilots, Tool, Alanis Morissette, Patti Smith and Morrissey.
The appearance coincides with Shatner’s forthcoming album on Cleopatra Records, reported to include covers of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, in addition to several original tunes.
Backing him up will be an assembly of metal musicians, including guitarists Marcus Nand (Mike Tramp, Candice Night) and Britt Lightning (Vixen, Cactus), bassist Phil Soussan (Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol) and drummer Fred Aching (Kings of Thrash, Dead Groove, Fraxures). [Chicago Sun-Times]"
FIR. For a Friday this wasn't as difficult as some. What snags there were, there were perps in place to help.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme early on and that helped a lot. They were cleverly put together.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 6:58 today to finish finish.
ReplyDeleteI knew Dee Snider, but also originally misspelled it with a "y". Speaking of singers, I don't think I knew that Monroe was a singer, other than "Happy Birthday," and I finally spelled "Baez" correctly and remembered "Tito."
The "cremea" on "assamtea" area was the last to fall for me.
And Happy Birthday to
ReplyDeleteNaomi Z (thanks for all your hard work)
and Yooper Phil!
In spite of not finishing, I really liked this puzzle. I just missed the NW. I DNK SNIDER and SSA was not on my mind, and I entered reVERSE.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme at ROME O ROMEO, so the rest was fun to fill. In the SE I first entered tAmEST, but the TUX changed my mind.
Lots of clever clues or misdirections like TRIDENT, IN CAPS, or SLATES. Now, ISOLATE is interesting since it includes the word silo.
Thank you Splynter for an interesting review. Great looking VAN.
Happy birthday to NaomiZ, nice pic, and Yooperphil. 🎉🎊
Whoever wins the World Cup Sunday, OLÉ will be the cheer.
Nice to see Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" make an appearance, aptly clued as one of the theme answers. "R &J" brings to light a tragic side of Italian vendettas. Instead of Hatfield-McCoy, the feuding families of Verona are Capulet and Montague. When Juliet Capulet comments "Wherefore art thou Romeo," she's reflecting on the absurdity that his being a Montague keeps them apart. "Wherefore" means "why": "Why does the fact that you are Romeo Montague have to make a difference in our love?"
ReplyDelete