Rebecca Goldstein and Matthew Stock have gotten together and bought stakes in a new steakhouse!
3. Card game that's really taking off?: STRIP POKER. STRIP POKER is a card game where players forfeit clothing instead of chips...unless you call their buff.
8. Namesake of Converse's All Star sneaker: CHUCK TAYLOR. Charles Hollis "CHUCK" TAYLOR (1901–1969) was an American semi-professional basketball player and an all-star shoe salesman.
15. Dance around what's really important: SKIRT THE ISSUE. To SKIRT THE ISSUE means to avoid talking about a complex or awkward topic. As in, "Does this skirt make me look fat?" Umm...
23. Links activity: ROUND OF GOLF. A standard ROUND OF GOLF consists of playing 18 holes in sequential order, though a shorter 9-hole round is also common. It's also a drink order at the 19th hole!
And what do these seemingly unrelated answers have in common? I needed the revealer for this one:
31. With a lot on the line, or a phonetic hint to 3-, 8-, 15-, and 23-Down: HIGH STAKES. Even with the revealer, it still took me a moment to figure out that STAKES becomes STEAKS. Each of the four vertical themers begin (in the HIGH position) with a different cut of steak: STRIP steak; CHUCK steak; SKIRT steak; and ROUND steak.
Our two chefs have cooked up a meaty one today. Vertical themes are rare, and always seem a little tougher, but the rest of the fill was easy to cut through. Over all, I think it was well done.
Let's see what sides they're serving with this:
Across:
1. "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" network: PBS. Fred Roger's show ran from 1968 to 2001 on the Public Broadcasting Service.
4. Collision sound: BAM. Also the sound when seasoning hits the steak!
7. Hill partner, in textbook publishing and country music: MCGRAW. Interesting parallel. Educational publisher MCGRAW Hill vis-à-vis Tim MCGRAW and his wife Faith Hill.
13. Big sellers: HOTCAKES. People scooped up pancakes quickly while they were still warm.
16. "That's old news": I HEARD.
17. "Could there possibly be a good explanation for this?": DARE I ASK.
18. Skating jumps similar to toe loops: LUTZES. Rightbrain grew up in her uncle's roller rink. The first time I met her family was at the rink, and they suggested she take her fiancé for a spin. Being my first time on skates, I'm sure they weren't thinking LUTZES but KLUTZES. That was 45 years ago, and I still appreciate that they somehow kept a straight face.
19. Ruckus: STIR.
20. Motorcycle attachments: SIDECARS. SIDECARS are also cocktails containing brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice. But best not to mix the two.
22. Hair line?: PART. My favorite PART was when they sang the Hair line, "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius."
25. Dangers: RISKS.
26. Disconnect: GAP.
28. "Get __ town!": OUTTA. No way!
30. Ski area near Reno: TAHOE.
34. Gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics?: ORO. Italian for gold.
35. Second, but not first: UNIT. A second is a unit of time.
36. Getting the check: PAYING. ON ME per 57D
37. __ choy: BOK. Florida is so flat, that various entrepreneurs have erected towers (there are three of them) in the middle of nowhere to attract tourists. The most famous is the 205' BOK Tower built in 1920's during the state's land boom. The National Historic Landmark features a 60-bell carillon that plays a concert twice daily to visitors of the surrounding 250-acre gardens.
38. Every evening: NIGHTLY.
40. Prefix with political: GEO. GEOpolitical relates to how a country's physical location, size, and resources affect its politics, power, and relationships with other nations.
41. Revises: AMENDS.
43. Assessment, briefly: EVAL. A quick EVALuation.
44. Boater or bowler: HAT. In my business, a wear a lot of HATs, but neither of these.
45. Greta of classic Hollywood: GARBO. The great Swedish/American actress often just went by GARBO. In 1954, she was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances."
46. Hustle genre: DISCO. Did you do the Hustle?
47. Texting tech: SMS. Short Message Service.
48. Some natural hairstyles: AFROS.
50. Part of QED: ERAT. "Quod ERAT Demonstrandum," said Pliny the Elder in Latin class. "It is proven. Any questions?"
52. Trench coat, wig, and big sunglasses, maybe: DISGUISE.
 |
| Yep, she'd blend in anywhere. |
55. Sando spread: MAYO. A sando is a Japanese-style sandwich. The word comes from a shortened form of sandoitchi, the Japanese loanword for sandwich.
58. Patchy-patterned horses: PINTOS. This patchy PINTO only had 54 horses. On a quiet night, you can hear it rusting.
59. Tacit: UNSPOKEN.
62. Certain spot: LOCALE.
63. Application that combats dark circles: EYE CREAM. I scream, you scream, we all scream for EYE CREAM?
64. Gobbles (down): SNARFS.
65. Some GEs: ACS. General Electric Air Conditioners.
66. __/her/hers: SHE.
Down:
1. Degs. conferred after defenses: PHDS. Knowing me as you do, can you believe I have a brother with Doctor of Philosophy degree?
2. Large sushi order: BOAT.
 |
| Yum! Hand me the chopsticks! |
3. [theme]
4. "WonderWater" brand: BAI. So many brands to keep track of...
5. Alias letters: AKA. Also Known As.
6. "Cleanup on aisle five" impetus: MESS. It's always aisle five. If I ran a store, I'd skip 5 like they skip the 13th floor in tall buildings.
7. Half marathon's 13.1: MILES. Athens to Marathon is 26.2 MILES.
8. [theme]
9. Participate in decision-making: GET A SAY.
10. Motorola phone: RAZR. Cell phones kept getting smaller, and my RAZR was the smallest one I owned. Then screen size became a thing and now they are bigger than ever.
11. Combative Olympian?: ARES.
12. Dict. entries: WDS. Dictionary entries are words.
14. Michael of "Juno": CERA. I think he'll still look like a young boy when he's an old man.
15. [theme]
21. Opposite of noite: DIA. It's the difference between night and day! In Portuguese, that is.
23. [theme]
24. North African capital: TUNIS.
26. Emergency kit: GO BAG. It usually contains enough basic supplies to sustain you for three days after a disaster.
27. Sweet smell: AROMA.
29. Comedian Notaro: TIG. TIG Notaro is an Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar-nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. She's gotten the nod for 75% of an EGOT!
31. [theme]
32. Wee hour: ONE AM. Two am is the wee wee hour.
33. Showbiz quartets: EGOTS. The grand slam of winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
36. Come in second: PLACE. Win, PLACE, and Show are bets in horse racing. A Win bet wins only if your selection finishes 1st. A Place bet wins if it finishes 1st or 2nd (so not just "come in second"). A Show bet wins if it finishes 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
39. Sports bar sets: TVS. You can sometimes watch horse racing on sports bar Televisions.
42. Supreme court presence?: NBA STAR. Fun clue...and holding court on TVS in another sports bar.
46. Eager agreement: DO I.
49. Tricks: RUSES.
51. "Te quiero, __ mio": AMOR. "I love you, my love," in español. Sounds a bit redundant.
52. Singer Celine: DION. Her heart will go on and on and....
53. Empire also known as the "Realm of the Four Parts": INCA. The INCA Empire was a vast pre-Columbian state in South America divided into four administrative regions.
56. "Totes": YEAH. "Totes" is slang for "totally", so YEAH seems like a weak equivalent.
57. "I'll get the check": ON ME. PAYING like 36A.
58. [Praying emoji]: PLS. Please! 🙏🏻Some people use this as a "high five" emoji...don't get me started! 😂
60. Org. with LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, and Missouri Tigers: SEC. All these college teams are copy cats, and are members of the the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA.
61. WFH devices: PCS. People who Work From Home often use Personal Computers.
Okay, I'm done grilling these guys.
Be good. RB
Notes from C.C.
Happy Birthday to Lemonade, our Friday sherpa for a long long time. Hope all is well with you and Oo!
 |
It wasn’t necessarily
ReplyDeleteall that easy, but I got it. And I thought the reveal was pretty clever.
FIR, so I’m happy,
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteOnce again the reveal fell into the TLDR category, so d-o completely missed the theme. Completed the puzzle, though. In hindsight, it was a clever construction. Thanx, Matthew and Rebecca. Pintos were known for their exploding gas tanks when rear-ended. I'm only familiar with TIG Nataro as an occasional panelist on WWDTM. Interesting expo, Rusty. (I also have a brother with a PHD. His wife, too. My wife has an EDD. I'm the illiteratus of the family.)
I used to own a PINTO. My ex-wife was driving it, and it got rear ended by a delivery truck but didn't explode. Damned inconsistent cars.
DeleteMy eldest sister and her hubby have PHDs in chemistry. They do understand chemistry - they are still working through their starter marriage after more than 60 years.
From Jinx in Norfolk.
DeleteAfter I finished the puzzle, I heard an ad for WWDTM. Tig will be on this weekend.
DeleteFIR, but yesh->YEAH. Guess I spend too much tome with the comic stripMutts.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I've bought quite a few technical books published by McGraw Hill. I knew Faith and Tim from country music, but forgot they were married. Tim is the son of former Mets and Phillies closer Tug McGraw.
I learned about GO BAGs from reading about an NTSB accident investigator. They have to be ready to hop on a plane right away to get to the scene of one tragedy or another.
I've always said "scarfs down." Guess its regional.
Thanks to Rebecca and Matthew for the fun puzzle. and thanks to Rusty Brain for another entertaining tour. It was most impressive to see "Two am is..." in a sentence.
The above drivel was me/
DeleteGood morning. Unlike yesterday, it was a FIR today. The clueing was tricky but easy to guess. The food connection didn't connect in my brain. I have no 'beef' with the constructors on that issue. One of the few puzzles that I didn't have to make any changes.
ReplyDeleteBAI, TIG, DIA, YEAH, PLS, PCS, MAYO- from the clues I really didn't know but the perps did it for me.
GO BAG- most important item? $$$$, change of underwear, medicine, and never let your car's gas tank get below 1/2 full in hurricane season.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteVertical themed puzzles usually keep me in the dark until I reach the reveal clue. Then, I wonder how I missed seeing the themers while solving. Today’s theme and reveal were clever and well executed and, for me, very well hidden. Unlike yesterday’s offering, the perps were friendly and the fill was pretty straightforward. I found the cluing ranged from easy to difficult, but all gettable. Overall, a satisfying and enjoyable solve.
Thanks, Rebecca and Matthew, and thanks, RB, for the detailed and informative expo and your inimitable RB humor. Tummy rubs to Buster!
Ray O, hope you’re feeling better and on the mend.
Have a great day.
Oops,, forgot to wish Happy Birthday to Lemony! Hope you enjoy a very special day! 🎂🎉🎊🎈
ReplyDeleteF inished in 6:09 today.
ReplyDeleteI knew the Actress of the Day (Garbo).
L iked this puzzle much better than yesterday's.
E mends v. amends was a decision, while the Portuguese clue (noite/dia) wasn't helpful at all.
T extspeak (pls) doesn't belong in crossword puzzles.
FIR. Oh my, what a workout, of course it is Thursday after all.
ReplyDeleteI missed the theme completely. I stared at the reveal for a while and gave up. I had to come here to have it explained.
Overall an OK puzzle.
FIR. Oh my, what a workout, of course it is Thursday after all.
ReplyDeleteI missed the theme completely. I stared at the reveal for a while and gave up. I had to come here to have it explained.
Overall an OK puzzle.
DNF. I flunked the NE because I held on to has A SAY and I didn’t know CHUCK, RAZR, LITZES and didn’t remember MCGRAW.
ReplyDeleteAs for the theme, I missed that too. I saw all those Ks, so I looked for a hint in that direction until I was stopped by the ROUND OF GOLF.
PLS and TIG showed up with perps. I didn’t know totes also meant YEAH, and sando threw me although we’ve had it before, but a WAG took care of that crossing.
All in all not a pleasant solve for me.
Thank you RB for a great review.
That should be LUTZES
DeleteMonkey, I've rarely heard the expression "Get a say," but "Have a say" just wouldn't fit. So I'm with you on that one.
DeleteOtherwise, though, I enjoyed today's puzzle. Probably my favorite Rebecca Goldstein challenge yet. Even if she and Matthew didn't include a ribeye amongst all those other inferior cuts!
Saw the name Rebecca Goldstein and knew that it was going to be a rough puzzle for me. Almost gave up a couple times, but kept at it. Struggled with the SE, especially because I put in “high steaks” instead of “high stakes”. Corrected my error, and finished it wrong with 2 errors. Didn’t know the answer for “totes”, and had no clue what WFH meant.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-A pleasant solve where unknowns took care of themselves. The gimmick required 2 steps to “get”.
-I must have been hibernating when the CHUCK TAYLOR tennis shoes of my misspent youth switched from strictly for boys to now being worn mostly by girls.
-SKIRT THE ISSUE: When my DW asks my opinion, I have to EVAL what she really is asking
-I remember when pet rocks sold like HOT CAKES for about 6 months
-A hilarious TV SIDECAR
-My barber kept getting my PART on the wrong side and so I took a sticky note and put it on the top of my head with an arrow pointing in the right direction. He’s a good friend and laughed really hard.
-Our gym teachers had the kids do the Hustle in class. The boys hated it until they loved it.
-QED?
-One day it dawned on me why someone a bumper sticker with 13.1 on it
-WFH: My golf partners daughter is not happy with being told she has to go back into the office now
-Happy Birthday, Lemon. I miss your pithy comments at this station.
-Big Easy – Your list paralleled mine
-Nice job, RB.
Addendum vis-a-vis QED and Mark Twain's quote.
ReplyDelete-We really did go to the Moon and the Earth is round.
Well, that should be "Mark Twain's "quote." According to Snopes, there's no evidence that he actually said that. Maybe Hal Holbrook said it to Dixie Carter.
DeleteTesting Thursday. Thanks for the workout Matthew and Rebecca, and RustyBrain.
ReplyDeleteOfficially a DNF with a couple of unknowns. But I did eventually see the HIGH STeaKS. theme and gave an Aha.
Two blank squares: missing C at the cross of ACS (hand up for having no clue about the abbreviation WFH) and SEC. I should have know the Z in the cross of LUTZES and RAZR.
Inkblots galore.
I moved from SPat to Snit and never did get STIR (although I corrected CEtA to CERA). I like sushi but have never had or heard of a sushi BOAT. DH does not like sushi and my restaurant experience with it is limited.
I still don’t think that a STIR is quite as intense as a Ruckus.
I don’t drink WonderWater and didn’t know BAI (although I think I have seen it a few times at other peoples’ homes).
Don’t ASK would not fit. DARE I ASK did - eventually.
Hand up for wanting Have A SAY before GET.
How many 5 letter North African capitals did you try before TUNIS perped. I had Cairo, but Rabat was another possibility I didn’t remember. Apparently Cairo can also be slang for “money” which should have made my Cairo okay no matter how you interpreted “capital”. Bzzt.
Happy Birthday Lemonade!
Wishing you all a great day.
Much better CW than yesterday, FIR in 16. 12 names, only DNK 4, but several other fills I needed perps for, for instance "Lutzes", "Dia", and "Amor".
ReplyDeleteOverall, a clever CW with a terrific theme, though I had to look for a while to see it after completing the CW. Thanx RG&MS, very entertaining CW. Best clue: 42D, "Supreme court presence?" although there are several other witty clues too.
Thanx too to RB for the nice write-up. Amusing, informative and fun, and answered the unknowns for me.
HBD Lemonade!! Which 29th BD is this for you? Your 40th? 50th?
Had a hard time with the NE until MCGRAW and LUTZES suddenly synapsed. Liked the str8forward theme; STAKES/steaks on the HIGH part of the answers and the switch to vertical.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t it ScARFS?
Didn’t know “second”/UNIT, “Sando”/MAYO, “Tigers”/SEC they fortunately perped. WFH (“work from home” a new one for me but should have been “totes” “obvi”)
DARE I ASK:
Is it called a ROUND OF GOLF because of the shape of the ball?
Would waffles sell as fast as HOTCAKES or would folks waffle?
“Noite”? Ah Portuguese: LIU “NOY chee” in Brazil, “Noyt” in Portugal
I get great actors John Cena (supper) a muscle hunk confused with Michael CERA (wax) a twink only because of similar last names.
Collison/BAM, please don’t remind me 😦
Rusty B the write up was cleverer (more clever?) than the puzzle thanks
Seems like you are recovering well. Good for you (and for us.)
DeleteI agree with Jinx that you must be feeling somewhat better Ray-o. I loved your waffle/HOTCAKES line.
DeleteI too wanted Scarfs not SNARFS. Again I agree with Jinx that it may be regional. I think I have heard it in CWs eons ago.
The 30 best professional golfers in the world are playing four ROUNDS OFGOLF this weekend in the finale of the season-long FedEx Cup Championship. The winner of this tournament will win $10 million, but the biggest payout came after last weekend's tournament. Scotty Schefler bagged a $23 million bonus for his performance throughout the season, and nearly another half-million for his mediocre performance in the tournament. (He didn't even have to play last week to win the big money, because he had accumulated enough points that he had a mathematic lock on the prize.)
ReplyDeleteRebecca and Matthew served up a nice challenge today. One difference between yesterday's puzzle and today's was that when I FIR, I was confident of it. This vegetarian failed to understand the theme, so many thanks for that, Rusty! I also failed to understand "Second, but not first: UNIT," so again, I appreciate your explanation. Your comment on the wee hour afforded me today's LOL.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Lemonade!
Back from Spain!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Lemonade!
Get well soon Ray-O, hope you didn't hurt your funny bone...
silly theme link...
Honorable Mention...
Hola! First, happy birthday, Lemonade! I hope you enjoy a wonderful celebration.
ReplyDeleteI finished the puzzle in good time and was pleased to see PBS at the start.
TIG Notaro was interviewed on a talk show, otherwise I would not know the name, which I thought was an odd one.
I also thought it should be SCARFS.
Here, in the desert Southwest, we could not survive without A/Cs.
Have UN BUEN DIA, everyone! My company is still here and will be coming over soon, so I need to hustle.
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteHBD to my former Friday partner - Lemonade714. Hope you are doing well, young man
Finished today's puzzle with only a couple of WO's: EMENDS > AMENDS; PAINTS > PINTOS
RB - loved your comment to ONE AM (wee hour). Fortunately, my wee wee hour is about SIX or SEVEN AM (TMI)
There were several unfamiliar and unusual answers/words in the puzzle, but when a constructor has 5 theme entries and uses 55 letter spaces, the grid and fill usually become compromised. I guess this was one case where the editor allowed them, due to the cleverness of the reveal/entries
RB, you crack me up - well done on your recap