When Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock were standing at the altar, the minister asked them, "What's an oath of acceptance? Three letters." She immediately said, "YES," and he said, "VOW." The minister shook his head. "Try again." They eventually came up with, "I DO," and the Crossword Couple was born.
All these answers are answers...to questions from celebrities. The resulting common phrases end with a pun using the celebs first names.
18. Reply when Mr. Nicholson asks, "How do you like your coffee?": BLACK, JACK. JACK Nicholson. Like most of today's celebs, he needs no introduction. Yay!
24. Reply when Mr. Garfunkel asks how everyone is doing?: FINE, ART. ART Garfunkel. My favorite reply of the bunch.
39. Reply when Mr. Nye asks why there are so many wind turbines?: ELECTRICITY, BILL. BILL Nye, the Science Guy. Perhaps this phrase is more commonly known as an ELECRTIC BILL.
51. Reply when Ms. Deeley mentions her new TV gig?: COOL, CAT. CAT Deeley is a British television presenter? This is the only person I didn't know, but was very inferable. So, it's COOL.
60. Reply when Mr. Hamill says, "May the Force be with you"?: DITTO, MARK. MARK Hamill, AKA Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. A DITTO MARK looks like a double quote symbol " or " " under a word or words you want to repeat.
I liked the execution of this puzzle better than some punster themes we see. No awkward spellings or twisted phrases made to fit. And, with the possible exception of CAT, all the celebrities are well known. Good, clean fun all around!
And now, on with the show:
Across:
1. Biblical queen's land: SHEBA.
6. "Hurry!" letters: ASAP. As Soon As Possible. I can hear the groans already, and I mostly agree. So, I wrote STAT.
10. Mojito garnish: MINT. I wrote LIME and voilà! I had two of the first three answers wrong!
14. Cultured sort?: PEARL.
15. Interpretation: TAKE. What's your TAKE on this clue?
16. Chimps and gorillas: APES.
17. Like 11-Down and 27-Across, often: ON TAP. It's a "pony keg"-sized mini-theme!
18. [theme]
20. Lode load: ORE.
21. Bam Adebayo's team: HEAT. Bam Adebayo plays on the Miami HEAT basketball team. In March, he scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards (I guess they left their wands at home). That is the second-highest single-game scoring performance in NBA history!
23. Merchant stalls: KIOSKS. In related news, music KIOSKS are bandstands like the one in Henri Rousseau's painting at 2-Down.
24. [theme]
26. Beloved: DEAR.
27. Beer with a Grillo's Pickles flavor, briefly: PBR. Pabst Blue Ribbon. I've heard of people putting a pickle spear in their beer mug, but this concoction seems like a bad idea.
28. Short clip?: VID. Short for VIDeo.
29. Warbled: SANG.
33. Bicycle spokes, essentially: RADII. A single spoke is a radio. Or maybe I'm thinking of an antenna.
36. Grand-scale tales: SAGAS. Anyone seen The Odyssey yet?
38. Battle (for): VIE. Like Matt Damon as Odysseus, taking on giants.
 |
| Except this pic shows his stunt-double, Devyn Dalton, a woman! |
39. [theme]
42. Yahoo! alternative: AOL. So last century...although my brother still uses
43. Midsize car: SEDAN.
44. Great Grandma?: MOSES. I grew up with a Grandma MOSES print hanging by our dining table. I always thought it was just a winter scene of people playing in the snow. It wasn't until returning home as an adult that I really looked at it and noticed everyone was working, making maple syrup.
 |
| "Sugaring Off" 1955 |
45. Lat neighbor: DELT. Lats (Latissimus Dorsi) and DELTs (Deltoids) are upper body muscle groups.
47. "Mean Girls" screenwriter Tina: FEY. She of SNL fame, among other things.
48. Center prefix: EPI. EPIcenter - the exact spot on the ground above where an earthquake starts. Being at the epicenter was disastrous for the poor souls of Venezuela and Columbia recently.
49. Big bustles: ADOS. In the late 1800's, women with big ADOS were all the rage.
51. [theme]
55. One with an eye for dotting i's: EDITOR. EDITORs and proofreaders may correct a missing dot (called a tittle) on a lowercase "i", although in modern digital text it's usually caused by a font glitch rather than forgetfulness.
58. Downsides: CONS.
59. Director DuVernay: AVA. AVA is an award-winning director of TV and movies, including a Best Picture nod for Selma.
60. [theme]
62. Along for the ride, say: IN TOW. Kinda sorta.
64. Nerve: GALL.
65. Lake at the Detroit River's end: ERIE.
66. Track star Bolt: USAIN. He's just the fastest man alive.
67. Fashion monthly: ELLE. Unfortunately, my subscription ran out, so I'm left wearing t-shirts like this.
68. Informal claim: DIBS.
69. Moore of "This Is Us": MANDY. MANDY made a successful pivot from teenage pop star to Emmy-nominated actress.
 |
| Then and now. |
Down:
1. "Weird Al" specialty: SPOOF. "Weird Al" Yankovic has four gold records and six platinum ones, and has won five Grammy's. "I Love Rocky Road!"
2. Postimpressionist painter Rousseau: HENRI. HENRI paints in a Naive or Primitive manner. He's like the Grandma Moses of France! They also have something else in common - they both started painting late in life.
 |
| "View of Montsouris Park, the Kiosk" 1910 |
3. All finished, say: EATEN.
4. Wacoal garment: BRA. Wacoal is a major international manufacturer of women's lingerie and intimate apparel from Japan. But I didn't know this as my subscription to ELLE expired as noted earlier.
5. Cereal that once featured a crossword puzzle in magazine ads: ALPHA-BITS. This one came out in 1959. I'm still working on it because I can't find a Q.
 |
| 799 boxes later... |
6. Currently hitting: AT BAT.
7. Curing agent: SALT.
8. Otherwise called: AKA. Also Known As the answer to this clue.
9. Like a bird feeder: PECKED AT.
10. College paths: MAJORS. College paths: DESIRE. Desire to graduate and get a good job? Maybe, but desire paths are unofficial trails leading more directly to a destination, as often seen on campuses.
11. Some craft pours, for short: IPAS. India Pale Ales.
12. Make out: NECK. This is canoodling, but if you crane your NECK, you can make out a couple in the back row.
13. Tuts: TSKS.
19. Korean automaker: KIA. "Who makes that new KN car?" KIA's redesigned logo created quite a controversy when it was unveiled in 2021. But all publicity is good publicity, and the confusion generated millions of free internet searches.
22. Go amiss: ERR.
25. Grand-scale tale: EPIC. A clecho of 36A, but singular.
26. "Bon appetit!": DIG IN. French cuisine vs. American in a nutshell.
28. Short trip?: VACAY. A little vacation.
30. Rental car giant: AVIS. This may be needed on one's VACAY.
31. River near the Great Pyramid: NILE. Looks more like a pool to me...wait, that's the Luxor in Las Vegas.
32. Meshes well: GELS.
33. Interpretation: READ. It's cleco day. What's your READ on this?
34. Spiky succulent: ALOE.
35. "Hi-ho, the derry-o" locale: DELL. From "The Farmer in the DELL".
36. Heads and tails: SIDES. Although there's a small chance a coin will land on its EDGE.
37. Academic gathering: SYMPOSIUM.
40. Back on the straight and narrow: REFORMED.
41. Fume: BOIL.
46. Be a rat: TATTLE. I didn't know rats could sing.
48. One billion years: EON. However, in formal Earth geology, an eon is a variable block of time lasting hundreds of millions to billions of years rather than an exact number.
50. "Yabba-dabba-__!": DOO. People from Dubai don't watch the Flintstones, but people from Abu Dhabi do! I'll be here all weekend.
51. Classic colas: COKES. In another case of all publicity is good, Coca-Cola's' failed introduction of New COKE in 1985 created a backlash that propelled sales of the original "Classic" COKE. Conspiracy theorists have suggested they did this on purpose to revitalized sales.
52. Board game with settlers: CATAN. Back when my boys lived closer to home, they'd come by on Sundays and we'd play board games. We liked CATAN, and apparently so did everyone else - it has sold over 45 million copies worldwide and is available in more than 40 languages.
53. Dance around: AVOID. I learned to play the guitar so I could AVOID dancing around at school hops.
54. Like some port: TAWNY. TAWNY port gets its name from its warm, amber-brown color, which develops from long aging in oak barrels.
55. Perimeter: EDGE. Heads or tails? I call EDGE!
56. Body wash brand: DIAL.
57. "C'mon, __ be fun": IT'LL.
58. Spot for a tot: CRIB. Some are nice than others.
61. Cal. neighbor: ARI. California and Arizona.
63. Codebreaker Challenge org.: NSA. The National Security Agency. The Codebreaker Challenge is an annual, cybersecurity competition offered to high school and college students who try to solve realistic threat scenarios.
Be good. RB
I couldn’t remember
ReplyDelete“Catan” or the lady so this was a
DNF. Oh well, I guess you can’t win
‘em all!
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteHand up for LIME before MINT elbowed in. Deeley and Moore were both unknown, but the perps decided. Didn't know if it was CATAN or KATAN -- COOL demanded the C. That also informed me that ELUDE was wrong, so AVOID went in. Yay, Wite-Out. Thanx, Desiree, Jeff, and Splynter. (There are two Os in that earthquake country.)
Dang, I did it again. Sorry, Rusty.
DeleteDon’t feel bad, D-O…I’ve done the same to the boyz! They’re both so clever, I mix ‘em up.
Delete====> Darren
FIR, but, yup, lime->MINT, and cia->NSA.
ReplyDeleteI was going to enter "Kentucky" for Bam Adebayo's team. That 2016-17 Wildcats team could have been a national champion with a better coach. Coach Cal was great in the early "one-and-done" days, but other coaches evolved without him. He concentrated on being an NBA farm team program instead of a college championship program. That helped him recruit top high school players, but hurt his ability to bring in proven upper classmen.
PBR is kinda the Weird Al of beer. They also brewed "Billy Beer" during the Carter administration.
I'm wondering if ELECTRICITY BILL is British, since our editing team seem to be Anglophiles. To wit: CAT Deeley.
Thanks to Desiree and Jeff for the Thursday crunch. A little too much A&E for my taste, but that's just m. And thanks to Rusty Brain for another fine narrative.
Should have typed "Pabst Brewing Company" instead of PBR. Stoopid decaf.
DeleteGood morning. It was easy sailing until I got to the FL-GA line. FIVE proper names- CAT, AVA, USAIN, MANDY, CATAN, and a wine description-TAWNY. USAIN and AVA were gimmes but the others were unknowns, making me scramble to AVOID a DNF. Whew!
ReplyDeleteMs. Deeley- RB's not the only person not knowing who she it.
PBR pickle flavored doesn't even sound good. I once tried a 'Lemon-lime Bud Lite'. It tasted like I was drinking what I thought Lysol (never had that)might taste like.
Now, I'll 'slip out the B-L-ACK JACK.
The above was me. I keep forgetting having to identify myself before making a comment. One of these day's I'll remember.
DeleteFIR. This had a little bite to it. But it is Thursday after all.
ReplyDeleteLast to fall was the SE. I didn't know either Cat or Mandy, and the board game Catan wasn't in my wheelhouse. So a WAG finished it for me.
Except for "cool cat", I got the theme early on. That helped somewhat.
Overall an OK puzzle.
I enjoyed Jeff and Desiree's demonstration of the FINE ART of a themed puzzle today. Very clever! Hand up for not knowing CAT Deeley, but happily, I'd heard of CATAN, and my "evade" changed to AVOID somewhere along the way. When I wasn't able to sleep through the night, I naturally considered getting up and doing the crossword puzzle; when I remembered it was Thursday and that RustyBrain would be at the helm, I got right up to do it. Love the humor. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeletepic for 36d reminded me of a great twilight zone!
ReplyDeleteFWH in 17. I sailed right along for most of the fill even though I DNK 8 of the 20(!) names. I count MOSES among the DNKs, because I did not notice Grandma is capitalized.
ReplyDeleteIts a FWH, not a FIR because I kinda got stuck in the SE and had to look up some of the names (MANDY and CATAN).
W/Os: READ/TAKE, SUNG/SANG, SERB/DELT. I noted the clechos at 36A/25D and 15A/33D.
Also, DNK PBR makes a pickle flavored beer. I like beer and I like pickles, but doubt I would like a pickle flavored beer.
Thanx, DP&JS. Overall a good CW, a bit tough, but it is Thursday. I would be happier with far fewer names, though. CATAN crossing USAIN and MANDY is a bit naughty. Only one I knew was USAIN.
Thanx RB for the terrific write-up. I do like Weird Al.
FIR and enjoyed the theme very much. The only celebrity name I’d DNK was CAT, but what else could it have been? MANDY, CATAN, and PBR were the other unknowns, besides the weird way to clue BRA, but perps helped.
ReplyDeleteMINT, lots of it, not just for garnish, is what makes the mojito, one of my favorite drinks.
I believe as Jinx mentioned, it’s more common to say ELECTRIC bill here.
Thank you RB for the fine review.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun and fresh theme, especially the themers, Black, Jack and Fine, Art. Hand up for Lime/Mint, Tell On/Tattle, and Dove/Dial. Favorite clue was Great Grandma=Moses. I confused Cat Deely (unknown) with Kat Denning at first. Cat Stevens would have been a better choice, IMO. Overall, though, a solid Thursday offering.
Thanks, Desirée and Jeff, and thanks, RB, for the fun and facts. Your humor is infectious and, as Martha Stewart says, “That’s a good thing.” Tummy rubs to Buster!
Have a great day.
Did not finish! Thought the SE was horrible with all the unknown names. A TV show I didn't know of, which had an actress I didn't know and then a British comedian. It didn't help that I spelled the sprinter "Usane". Thank you for the write up, I always appreciate the explanations.
ReplyDeleteThe usual crunch after an easy Humpday. DNF for one letter😟. In the SE stuck with TAnNY “port” instead of TAWNY so even with an ALPHA-BITS run couldn’t fill I __ TOW.
ReplyDeleteTheme was fun, except DNK “Deeley” but nothing went with COOL except CAT
Inkover: Ore/ARI,
Here we go again 🙄. How is “hurry!” the same as As Soon As Possible l? An error stuck in the constructor’s /EDITOR’s database “groan” “groan”
“Short trip/clip”: LIU: VACAY is an example of a Hypocorism: Making a pet name or cute version of a word by shortening it and adding an "-y" or "-ie" while VID is called apocope (pronounced uh-POK-uh-pee), which is a type of clipping where you drop the end of a word. Yeah , I know, who cares
PBR pickled flavor beer? 😝. “Wacoal”? “Big bustles”? ADO
Have used the same AOL address since email became a thing. Gives away my age.
Bustles and BRAS 🤭
Enjoy the day
Musings
ReplyDeleteToday’s constructors who live in Winnepeg
-A very pleasant solve with some interesting cluing
-I had no idea on CATAN and I thought I might have COOLKAT for Kat Denning (who we have seen here) not Ms. Deeley whoever that is. I feel better when Irish had the same issue. :-)
-My neighbor’s daughter in law always shows up with her five children IN TOW
-MANDY appears to be a lovely lady but I like Barry Manilow’s version
-BOA and. BRA don’t appear to be interchangeable
-Lincoln, NE was founded as a salt mining town
-That picture of that man NECKING with his employee cost him his job and marriage. She suffered a similar fate. You're never safe from cameras.
Desiree and Jeff gave us an impressive Thursday offering.
ReplyDeleteThe theme names were recognizable and fair.
I didn’t know Cat 🐱 Deeley but she was easy to suss.
I love to savor and sip on a tawny port. 🇦🇺 Australian preferred.
I also had lime before mint in my mojito.
The recap intro was cringe 😬
I just wish there were more names in the lower right. lol.
ReplyDeleteBetter than last week
ReplyDeleteTerrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Desiree and Jeff (welcome fellow-Canadians), and RB.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in good time and saw the theme actor phrases. Hand up for not knowing CAT, but perps were kind.
I got the ELECTRICITY BILL , but I call ours the Hydro BILL.
Two inkblots to change Ended to EATEN, and stands to KIOSKS.
It took me a few moments to parse ALP HABITS.
I knew CATAN and the Wacoal BRA, and did not fall for lime.
PBR perped, but I don’t think I want to try it.
I liked those clecho clues and the crossing VID and VACAY.
Wishing you all a great day.
Thank you, Desirée, Jeff and RustyBrain
ReplyDeleteYes, I liked the execution as well. I think I've seen it done before, but it has been a while. I have no idea who CAT Deeley is, but that's COOL, because the reply was obvious with perps.
Hand up for my mother having a Grandma MOSES print hanging on a wall in my youth.
I'm down to 4 active email accounts now, and that works well for me. Gmail, Comcast, AOL and Yahoo. They serve different needs. I had 9 email accounts at one time. 2 each on Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, and 1 each on Comcast, ATTBI, and my employer's company email system.
I don't think I would care for pickle flavored beer. Never had a Mojito, so my first guess - lime - had to change to MINT. I also had to change ended to EATEN.
Back later.
Enjoyed this puzzle. FIR. Did not know Ms. Deeley, but perps easily filled it in. Besides the clever theme answers, I also liked cultured pearl and radii for bicycle spokes. I had my epic and saga mixed up, until perps demanded a switch. Thanks Desiree, Jeff and RB!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention above that one of my old golfing buddies still has his Prodigy emailid (but it is now being managed by ATT). Prodigy was around before AOL IIRC. There are still some 30M AOL user accounts...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, more rain and thunderstorms again today. I managed to get the lawn mowed before it started.
From yesterday, on Cross Eyed Dave's review of Erik's crossword with the consecutive DEE and GEE entries... Hover over CED's "Contact me" Email in his avatar. Appropriate.
FLN, Dash T - so you were at "Hacker Summer Camp chillin' w/ my homies." I'm thinking there have been plenty of talented people there that could solve the NSA's Codebreaker Challenge. I would also think that the NSA may have had a presence there as well, along with the FBI and other three letter agencies. Perhaps hiding in plain sight, doing covert ops and picking up intel. Why wouldn't they be there?
Anyway, with your interests, that must have been a blast for you to attend.
Yes, get some rest and don't be a stranger here.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Smiled broadly at Cultured PEARL.
ReplyDeleteSYMPOSIUM is an excellent crossword word.
Good reading all your comments.
Ojai Guy. Pretty doable Thursday, but if I'd been hauling a phone directory, I would have steered around the Southeast'
Delete