D'Art BOARD
Girls Eye~!
I had a run of Jay Silveman puzzles on Wednesdays back in '24-'25, and his last LA Times post was in March of this year. Today we have four 'pun-ishing' clues that "repronounce" an English word as a its foreign counterpart, with some humorous results - if that's your thing. I liked the theme, just got stuck trying to find the one wrong square when I did not get my "ta-DA~!", and it was a name crossing one of those foreign words, compounded by a low Grid Flow. Standard grid, a mere eight 3LWs, twice as many four- as five-letter words, no circles, two handfuls of names, three "others", and nary a Twurd to be found~! The themers;
17. Comfort that can only come from French bread?: PAIN RELIEF - It was the last themer that sent the V-8 can flying, and thus today I learned that the Frawnche word for "bread" is "pain" - pronounced all in the nose, sorta "puuhh(n)"
26. Creating perfect sunbathing conditions on an Italian beach?: SOLE PURPOSE - I was stumped at this themer, and the low grid flow meant only one crossing for help; don't know why I struggled to think of the Italian word for "sun", = "sole", with a 'flair' on the e, "sol-uh"
43. Positive review in a German newspaper?: GUT REACTION - pronounced "goot", this one made sense on my second pass . . .
58. Home for the king of Spain?: REAL ESTATE - and again with a differing pronunciation, "ree-ahl", which means royal, as opposed to "not fake" - learned from Spanish football / soccer teams
If you're American when entering a bathroom, and American when exiting, what are you inside~?
European . . .
Mais Aspettare Es Gibt Más~!
ACROSS:
1. Path behind a mower: SWATH - There's a guy who lives near me on rte 32 who takes the most meticulous care of his grass . . . and last weekend, I saw this thing cruising his lawn
It's
this $5349 mower AND
snowblower 😮
6. Cheese in a Greek omelet: FETA - semi-Easter egg of old language, new crossword
10. Whack with snowballs, say: PELT
14. Goosebump-causing: EERIE
15. Person with a fan club: IDOL - person with a fan club; Billy Idol
Yeah, I've used this image before . . .
16. Cooking spread: OLEO - learned by doing crosswords
19. Gradually introduce to solid foods: WEAN
20. Isfahan's country: IRAN - geo name #1
21. Claims that won't pass fact checks: LIES
22. Posh and __: nickname of a British celebrity couple:
BECKS - name (ish) - the
duo of 'Posh Spice' Victoria and David Beckham, he of European football ( soccer ) fame . . .
Married 27 years tomorrow~!
23. Mesopotamian empire that included parts of 20-Across: ASSYRIA - geo name #2, but the circumreferential clue made it easier this time
25. Likely to be mouthy:
PERT - I'll wash that mouth
out with Pert shampoo . . .
Plus~!
31. Software demos: BETAS
35. Capital of British Columbia: VICTORIA - geo name #3, and the #1 "other" Victoria . . . 🙄
36. Employs: USES
37. Spot: SPECK - Spot was sooo last week . . .
39. Staple that's often helpful in a pinch?: SALT
40. Chased: RAN AFTER - I had WAS AFTER to start
42. Bench press muscles: DELToidS - AND - 38D. Bench press muscle: PECtoral - this one-arm out, one-arm curl & press is brutal - as you can tell from my grimace . . . down to 203lbs~!
46. Clairvoyant: SEER
47. Lost one's cool: SNAPPED
52. Word with act or action: CLASS - class act, class action
54. Political alliance: BLOC
56. Conditional programming word: ELSE
57. "Only Murders in the Building" home:
HULU - Ah. Where
this show is to be streamed
60. Salchow kin:
AXEL - Friday cluing for this crossword
Olympics staple
There, that oughta clear things up . . .
61. Zealous: AVID
62. Asked too many questions, say: PRIED
63. Unwelcome visitor: PEST - there has been a preponderance of big black ants cruising my home this spring, even with a dozen traps in the usual corners . . .
Look closer . . .
64. Funeral rite pile: PYRE
65. Senators' staffers: AIDES - the #2 "other" Senators . . . 🙄 - see below
DOWN:
1. Instagram filter shade: SEPIA - good WAG to start my Downs
2. Models: WEARS - I went with the noun, tried TYPES
3. Met highlights:
ARIAS - "Met" = Metropolitan
Opera
4. Lacking resonance: TINNY
5. Gender-specific pronoun: HER - HIS, HIM, or SHE, take your pick
6. Relating to offspring: FILIAL - how kids behave in respect to parents
7. Actress Falco: EDIE - name #4, crossword staple
8. Wiggled body parts: TOES - I can spread my toes like a hand - I'll refrain from posting an image
9. ET from Melmac: ALF - from the 80's TV sitcom
10. Confidence-enabling stance: POWER POSE - Had me thinking "Captain Morgan"
11. __ college: ELECTORAL - nailed it
12. Security breach: LEAK - Dah~! I tried HACK, 50% correct
13. Jillions: TONS - oh no~! is it a Twurd~? ALOT, ATON~?
18. 2025 Pixar title character: ELIO - name #5 that caused me grief on my last themer fill
22. Muppet who lives in the basement of 123 Sesame Street: BERT - name #6; I tried ELMO
24. Blog feed letters:
RSS -
Really
Simple
Syndication - yes, really; more
here
25. Senators target: PUCK - Got me. Dammit. I was thinking baseball - but they're the Nationals these days - this is the Ottawa NHL team, and I am ashamed I missed it on the first pass . . . 😒😞
27. Navratilova rival: EVERT - Tennis greats, but SELES was the wrong decade and name, #7
28. Camera shot: PIC
29. Sandy sediment: SILT
30. Noshes: EATS
31. Nondescript town: BURG
32. Biblical twin: ESAU - the birthright brother
33. Events in retail parking lots: TENT SALES - huh - a unique crossword fill . . .
34. Thus: AS A RESULT - three-word fill for a Friday four-letter clue
37. Elite athlete: STAR
41. Extra charges: FEES
42. Cold case sample: DNA
44. Tristan's beloved: ISOLDE - crossword couple, name #8
45. Fairy tale start: ONCE - upon a time . . .
48. __ dish: PETRI
49. Flannel pattern: PLAID
50. Name in the makeup aisle: ESTÉE - Lauder, name #9
51. Monopoly stack: DEEDS - not MONEY
52. Bloke: CHAP - I tried GENT, 100% wrong
53. Quite posh: LUXE - the #3 "other" Posh
54. Quail group: BEVY - Right. That's the word I could not recall
55. Bear necessity?: LAIR - a 'barely' bearable punny clue . . .
58. Ice Spice genre: RAP - three-letter music genre~? Ektorp EMO or RAP
59. Ballston __, New York: SPA - geo name #10, but I had help - I lived in upstate NY for years, in Colonie, which is outside of Albany, not far from this place - and where Rusty Brain hails from
Click to see larger
Splynter
Grid Flow a LOW 16.1
Apparently, these are
ReplyDeleteall words in the various languages implied. I just “plugged in” the common two word phrase in each case and it worked.
However, I would be no means call this an “easy” puzzle.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteStruggled with this one...and ultimately failed with ELIa/SaLE PURPOSE. Bzzzzt. No fireworks for me. Took me a moment to suss the GUT REACTION. Was trying to figure out how GUT could be a newspaper. Thanx Jay and Splynter. (I'd heard that European story. The guy started out as Russian, and afterward he was Finnish. Oh, and Houdini could untie knots with his toes. You could'a been an escape artist.)
We're off to H-town today for an annual celebration. Not sure it's a good idea to go there on a holiday weekend when the World Cup is in town. We'll see.
I heard that story too, but a little more bawdy version about a house of ill repute. In that version, in addition to the Russian and Finish, we have Himalayan.
DeleteFIR, but space->SPECK, lush->LUXE, and covy->BEVY.
ReplyDeleteI thought the theme answers were clever, but was a bit put off by the need to have at least a smattering of French, German and Spanish to understand how the fills fit the clues. I only have a smattering of English, and not the kind of English that includes "Posh and BECKS."
Thanks to Jay for the mostly-fun Friday challenge, and to Splynter for 'splainin' it all.
I enjoyed this Friday very much, both the puzzle from Jay and the exposition by Splynter. As sub-g said you really did need the linguistic smorgasbord but it was fun. My grandfather spoke 9 languages so I have always liked all kinds of words. The unknowns weren’t bad for a Friday so I too am happy. Have a safe and joyous 4th and let the pros do the fireworks 💥
ReplyDelete