"A Minor" COMPOSITION in "B#"
The Circle of FIFTHS - A minor = C major: C = "B#" - get it~?
This is Yijing Chen's fifth LA Times puzzle - I blogged her debut puzzle here, and today's offering may have led some Cornerites to a Circle of FITs, or even the fifth circle of hell - see 51A. I however, loved this puzzle - I enjoy the extra challenge of trying to figure out the hidden, underlying meaning of a crossword's theme. It took
me about 8mins over my usual Friday time to finally figure out just the SW corner alone. Once I caught on to the reveal "NOTES" being the musical Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti vocalizations, it was enough to figure out that the theme answers were completely undefinable from the clues themselves - 45A being the most obscure & difficult to parse; I'm not even sure I am 100% correct, but there is no "sourson" word - the closest I could find was soursop - this fruit. T
he solution is to take out the duplicate "notes", ( which had to be doubled to match the plural reveal ) and Bob's your uncle. I am sure this construction is going to cause a fair amount of grumbling, but it's Friday, and it does have a theme, albeit a very cryptic one. An over-sized 15 x 16 grid, no outlier letters, several names, no Twurds, sixteen 3LWs, and no circles, but perhaps "*" on the themers would have helped, as they coincided with other same-length fills: 17. Female sib: DOSIDOS - SISter, abbr in the clue, abbr in the answer, no relation to the actual fill of do-si-do, the dance step ( and now I see, a strain of marijuana, plus the Girl Scout cookie ); the same non-relation goes for all of the themers . . .
18. Cozy eatery: CAREFREE - CAFE, not the 'care-free' attitude, e.g.
23. Man of La Mancha: SEMI MINOR - SEÑOR, Español for "man" in the Spanish city - which we also learned from last week's clue/answer "Dulcinea" fiasco; filled mostly via perps, and I did not know what the definition of "Semi Minor" was;
38. The complete set: ALFALFA - ALL - strangely, a sorta dupe from yesterday . . .
45. Big flowerpot: SOURS ON - URN - "loses interest in"; almost impossible to fill in without understanding the theme
57. Extemporizes: LAVA LAMPS - VAMPS - the "musical improvisation" definition. The green one in my office -
67. Low-level laborer: PETITION - PEON, my first thought, but was obviously too short for the eight-letter fill in the grid
69. "Perfect!," or how to make seven answers in this puzzle match their clues?: NO NOTES - D'Oh~! A deer, a female deer - if you were able to "Be Sharp" and remove the doubled Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do pairings ( and I know it's usually referred to as "SOL" ) from the answers, what you're left with are explanations for the clues 😁
ACROSS:
1. Barnyard call: MAA - cows go "moo", sheep go "baa", so this must be goats
4. A pop: PER
7. Compels: FORCES
13. Like some pickup-only deals: IN-STORE
15. Prehistoric hand tool: STONE AXE - A uniquie fill
19. "Ferrari" actor Driver: ADAM - name #1
20. Second singer to be honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: SINATRA - and the first singer was~? Answer at the end, name #2
22. Some laptops: PCs
25. Ernie's "Sing After Me" duet partner: ELMO - Good guess on my part; not BERT - name #3
28. Monument Valley formation: MESA
30. Winter layer: COAT - I was not fooled, didn't go with SNOW, RIME or HOAR
36. Novelist Quindlen: ANNA - No clue, more here, name #4
40. Approximately: ABOUT
42. Many a K-pop singer: IDOL
44. Starting lineup: A-TEAM
47. Gaelic speaker: CELT
49. Cornerback Bly in the College Football Hall of Fame: DRÉ - No clue, name #5
50. Was gripping?: HELD - Har-har
51. Breathe fire, say: RAGE - the sin of the Fifth Circle of Hell
53. Inhale, maybe: EAT - slang for eating fast
55. Couple: DUAD - Not being DUET caused all sorts of grief
62. "Thrilla in Manila" boxer: ALI - Crossword staple, name #6
64. Approached bedtime: LATENED - "got late"
66. Wife of Zeus: HERA - name #7
71. Peppers in some mole sauces: POBLANOS - oof. I didn't know the name of this pepper, and it's a unique fill, so new to any crossword - more here
72. Writer/illustrator who often wrote in anapestic tetrameter: Dr. SEUSS - the rhyming 'pace', depicted as da - da - DUM. My blogs are written in all-a-puzzle octalmeter . . . name #8
73. Villainous looks: SNEERS - This fish, my S-i-L calls "Vegas", hovered in the corner of the tank and stared at me the whole time I was down on Long Island . . .
I'm watchin' you . . . Creepy
74. With 27-Across, big name in watercraft: SEA - AND - 27A. See 74-Across: DOO. Their website
75. Therapist's maj.: PSYchology
DOWN:
1. King with a touching story?: MIDAS - the golden touch of mythology - my first thought was ELVIS😜, #9
2. Battery part: ANODE
3. Breakfast tea variety: ASSAM - Dah~! Not PEKOE
4. Pea sheller's discard: POD
5. Canyon former: EROSION
6. Amber, once: RESIN
7. "Seriously?": "FOR REAL~?" - Rhymes with . . .
8. "Gorilla Warfare" artist Shaquille: O'NEAL - Name #10, but that's who I figured - not too many people named Shaquille - and his "art"
9. NWSL official: REF - abbr for the National Womens' Soccer League; I ventured a guess at something something Sports League . . . enough to take a WAG
10. Didn't ride solo: CARPOOLED
11. Corp. bigwig: EXECutive
12. Goes out with: SEES - Crossword friendly "E"s and "S"s on the edge
14. Retiring: TIMID - Dah~! Not IN BED, but an obscure definition
15. Shake: SCARE - Friday. Vague.
16. Ink spot, for short: TATtoo - so many ladies at the gym with ink art, but I just don't care for it; to me, it's like graffiti on the Venus De Milo
Yecht - looks "dirty"
21. Digital __: remote tech worker: NOMAD - I have not heard this phrase, but sounds like a great way to work in the 21st century
24. Deep defenses: MOATS - two weeks in a row on FridayCaerlaverock castle, Scotland
26. MD-to-be's exam: MCAT - Medical College Admission Test
29. Clearance event: SALE
31. Not nearby: AFAR
32. No longer feral: TAME - this guy only gets feral when the FedEx guy pulls up . . .
Told you he was a licker . . .
33. Impetuous: RASH - I went with RUDE, only 25% correct
34. Clarinet kin: OBOE - about the only 'gimme' in the SW
35. "Do my eyes deceive me?": "COULD IT BE~?" - Solid, but tough to suss in the Down position, and no crossings to work with either
37. Totenberg of NPR: NINA - I don't listen, more here. Name #11
39. Like some flaws: FATAL
41. Linguistic cousin of Hindi: URDU
43. One of a geographic quintet: OCEAN - Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Antarctic & Arctic
46. Formally decrees: ORDAINS - that's the word I could not think of; I was stuck on ORATES
48. Galena, e.g.: LEAD ORE - I knew this, but for some reason, put in IRON - that's these ores
52. Bonny landscapes: GLENS
54. Sierra Nevada lake: TAHOE - Geo name #12
56. Match point?: ALTAR - And I thought I was being clever with "FLAME" = tip, but this is the wedded bliss kind of point - the "location"
58. Sells: VENDS
59. Came together: MET UP
60. Olive oil maker: PRESS
61. Flip: SASSY - flip, the adjective, not the verb
62. Intro courses?: APPS - Ah. The restaurant menu appetizers, that is
63. Swimmer Marchand who won four gold medals at Paris 2024: LEON - oof. Friday. Frawnche. Name #13
65. "__ true!": TOO - I had "TIS" to start
68. __-de-France: Paris's region: ILE - Frawnche #2 - guessed it, put it in, took it out, put it right back in, and I shaked it all about . . . 🙄
70. Govt. cybersecurity monitor: NSA - No. Such. Agency.
Splynter
Grid Flow 29.0answer to 20A << Bing Crosby >>
Notes from C.C.
Happy Birthday to our dear Dave (CrossEyedDave)! He's always there when I need a helping hand with the blog, and he never misses a chance to celebrate our regulars with his wonderful birthday cake pictures. Thank you for your kindness, thoughtfulness, and all the smiles you bring to our little crossword family. We're so lucky to have you in our corner, Dave!
I’ll reserve my comments for later.
ReplyDeleteBut, in the meantime, Happy Birthday,
C-E D! But who will make YOUR cake?
Helpful breakdown of an otherwise-vexing crossword. Could have done without the sexism peppered in though; it undermined Splynter’s authority such as it were.
ReplyDelete🙄
Deletewait…”sexism”? One photo of a bonnie lass is “sexism”? Puh-leeze… 🤣
Delete====> Darren
FIW, missing LEaN x PaBLANOS. I can mispel in Espanol now!
ReplyDeleteI would never have come close to finishing this one without the reveal. Finally, NO NOTES becomes a solid clue! For me discovering the theme also changed this one from a drudge to a challenge.
HBDTY CE:D!
I was saddened by Ernie singing with ELMO. Is Bert seeing other Muppets too? I always thought they were such a cute couple.
FLN - Darren, if you were in grade school now, they likely would have labeled you ADHD and drugged you up to make you easier to control. Me too.
Thanks to Yijing Chen for what turned out to be a fun exercise. And thanks to Splynter - I must have misunderstood. I heard that you couldn't hold your licker, but you obviously can.
Probably! ====> Darren
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteLotsa head-scratching on this one until the reveal pulled the veil aside. I really liked it. My first thought at 1D was Michael, but it was too long. Hand up for TIS before TOO (Hi, Splynter) showed up. Thanx Yijing and Splynter.
Happy birthday, CE:D. Hope it's a great one.
Well, the author of this puzzle has quite the imagination to come up with this theme, and the talent to pull it off, which made for a very tough challenge for me. I did manage to suss the gimmick after I got the reveal, which was made harder having only two themers with consecutive NOTES, and the fill words and phrases made no sense in relation to the clues, had to rely on perps for every one. Moo became MAA right out the gate, and perps got me the unknowns ROC, ANNA, NOMAD, and DRE. Ultimately my very lengthy streak of LAT FIRs was broken today because I didn’t know a swimmer or how to spell a pepper, like Jinx I had an A which should have been an O. Yijing ~ very fine work putting this one together, I very much enjoyed it even if I failed by a letter. Also thanks to Splynter for explaining it all.
ReplyDeleteHappy b/day to C-E-D! 👊🏼
Yooper Phil ⬆️⬆️⬆️ , forgot to click on “google account”.
DeleteI appreciate the creative work by the constructor. Like most others, I was lost until the reveal, and then I had to go back and correct my errors. FIR but I can’t say I enjoyed it. To each his own.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Ce:D. A day for beautiful blue-eyed doggies along with some leg candy. Six comments in and most of my thoughts have been expressed, though I knew how to spell POBLANOS with my wife's spicy cooking and trips to TIJUANA TAXI . The challenge of sussing the the theme made this a Friday puzzle, but I ended up enjoying this one. DUAD was a surprise. Thank you Ms. Chen and Splynter
ReplyDeleteUgh.
ReplyDeleteDitto
DeleteFIR. I had a heck of a time with this one. I tried my best to make sense of the long theme answers but resigned myself to the fact that the perps made them so. Once I got the reveal, no easy task, I went back and saw how it all made perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many unknowns for me that for a while I didn't think I'd finish at all. But persistence paid off.
Overall a somewhat enjoyable puzzle.
I had to wait for the reveal, which I got only with perps, how is NO NOTES a fill for “Perfect!”, to get the theme. ROC and DRE were total unknowns and DUAD didn’t look right, but it is correct, just a very rare word as defined by the dictionary. So FIR, but struggled.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday CE:D🎉🎊🎁🎂. Cute doggie.
Thank you Splynter for the great review. Cute doggie.
The slang phrase "no notes" means that something is completely flawless, ideal, or requires no changes or criticism.
DeleteHi there~!
DeleteThink in terms of grading papers, or essays - the teacher had 'no notes' for the student to address - that's how I interpreted the meaning . . .
Thanks. It now makes sense.
DeleteTook 19:12 to hit the high notes.
ReplyDeleteTook longer than usual. Lower-left section took about half the time.
I applaud the creativity, but the juice wasn't worth the squeeze for me today.
FIR but hated this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteDitto, joyless, but I'm sure the author is oh so proud
DeletePuzzle was too tough for me. I got about half, and wasn't enjoying the experience, so will try again on Monday as I rarely get far on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this explanation. I solved the puzzle, eventually through pattern recognition, but couldn't figure out what NO NOTES meant.
ReplyDeleteMiultiple personality syndrome? 😀
DeleteWell, I had a great birthday cake for CE:D, but I can’t get it to appear.
ReplyDeleteI’m the outlier. If this had been the first crossword puzzle I’d ever attempted, there would never have been a second.
ReplyDeleteHated the gimmick, the obscurities, and the overly cutesie clues.
Finished with red letter help but zero pleasure.
Ok a bit of a rant…maaaaybe 90 plus % of people who daily enjoy a challenging puzzle wouldn’t be able to finish this one? Maybe 99.5% can’t finish? Do you have metrics? Why post one that is so difficult if the majority of us who are not crossword savants have no chance? Ok, I feel a little less frustrated. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLoved this one. Didn't get the revealer until near the end which helped make everything come into view. Best Friday in a while.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone please explain to this dense Monkey how Perfect! is a clue for NO NOTES.
ReplyDelete¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DeleteI am a blind deer in the forest on this one...
I'm glad you brought that up because I didn't know this one either. But here goes:
DeleteAfter a rehearsal, performance, or script read-through, a director or network executive gives a performer or showrunner "notes"—which are suggestions, critiques, or changes for improvement. Saying someone has "no notes" means their work, performance, or creation is completely flawless and requires zero changes.
Okay...
Thank you RB. Apparently it was too subtle for my morning brain.
DeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-Seeing obvious phrases like CAREFREE that had no real connection to the cluing made me realize “something was afoot”.
-The reveal took me back to “Complete set/ALfaLfa” and my 5 watt bulbed clicked on! What fun but definitely no for a first time solver.
-Me too! I struggled with knowing PEON had to be the laborer but fumbled with placing TI in the right position. Not knowing the gender of the swimmer nor POBLANO gave me one bad cell. I’ll get over it.
-The LAVA LAMPS in my classroom were useful to show many concepts, particularly convection currents for volcanoes
-IN STORE: I still prefer to get our pizza than have someone come to the door
-The familiar Dr. DRE makes no house call today
-Happy Birthday, CED!
-Firs rate expo and puppy, Splynter.
-Irish has not posted yet and I will be back to get her point of view. :-)
The music education system that many of us use is the Solfege system. It is named for the fifth note of the musical scale, Sol. That is its correct spelling, not "SO" as in today's puzzle. Just sayin'. This has been a losing battle ever since the "Do-re-mi" song in "West Side Story," where it is supposed to rhyme with "sew."
ReplyDeleteSigh . . .
DeleteI would propose reading the whole write-up, which has some links in blue - including one about "SOL" - for one's edification.
The struggle continues . . .
Oh well, the fun is in the learning!
DeleteI picked the "CrossEyedDave" Moniker not only to point out my ineptitude at Cross Word Puzzles, but as a reference to my always posting with a blue link...
The Do Re Me song is from The Sound of Music.
Delete“Sound of Music”
DeleteA melodic and quasi-harmonic offering from Yijing Chen today.
ReplyDeleteThe plethora of names was my savior.
I managed to suss out Sinatra, Dre, Dr Suess, Adam, Anna, Ali, Nina etc
And I somehow knew poblanos.
I FIR with several erasures and extra time invested. However I missed the theme until Splynter put it into my range.
FIW Had 56D as "NOT" and 56D as "Ember" and never recovered the SW corner. I did get "Petitions" but couldn't sort out how to fix it all. Good one though, very clever.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am a little annoyed! (On my birthday of all things...)
ReplyDeleteHere I am, could not wait to get in the Blog, and read all your wonderful Happy Birthday wishes, and I get teased, tortured, lunch money stolen, painfully FIR'd without a single perp, and still have no idea what the theme was about...
And yes Monkey, I still do not understand how "perfect" is a clue for "no notes..."
Thank you Splynter for Splainin' and for that Bonnie Lass, (my goodness, those legs go on forever. Must be A.I.?). And Tats on Venus De Milo, I whole heartedly agree!
This was a was a toughie from Yijing Chen. Even the reveal was hard to understand. I saw words and phrases emerging from the fog and entered them without getting the theme until it finally clicked. DOH!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad this was Splynter's, and he nailed it with Circle of Fits.
And Happy Bday Dave!
DeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI will always give credit where credit is due and the author deserves a lot of credit and admiration for this creative and well-executed theme. However, a puzzle that causes frustration and confusion instead of satisfaction and enjoyment is not my cup of tea. Based on the comments so far, I’m in the minority because many of you not only solved it but liked it, while I did neither. Once a purist, always a purist, I guess.
Thank you, Splynter, for explaining the theme and all its nuances so clearly and concisely. I was totally in the dark until I read your review. I’m sure you enjoyed your time with the handsome Cooper.
Have a great day.
So sorry, Happy Birthday, Dave! Hope you celebrate in style!
ReplyDeleteAck!
ReplyDeleteThe (wonderful) answer to perfect=no notes is spelled out in replies to earlier posts!
If you have already read the Blog, you must re-read it to see all the replies that have accrued, and then re-read it again to make sure you didn't miss anything!
Just an FYI-PSA
Happy Birthday, CED !
ReplyDeleteHappy BD to CED! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long while - and the “reveal” from perps - to get it! Then it all fell into place! I only learned about actors getting “notes” a few years ago. (Never a theater geek, but did have a few bit parts in a few school plays.) I liked the theme once it fell to me. And - I did wish for accuracy - “SOL”, not “so”! Thank you very much! 🤔. But - I s’ppose, one can’t have everything 🤗
Sophia, I have an amusing story about the SOL-SO confusion. Oscar Hammerstein wrote "The Sound of Music," and its "Do-re-mi" song that contains the line "So: a needle pulling thread"-- as if it rhymes with "sew."
DeleteThe amusing part arises from the fact that I knew Hammerstein's widow, Dorothy. One day we were talking about "The Sound of Music," and any contributions she might have made to it. Well, it turns out that she told Oscar that the word is SOL, not SO, and it doesn't rhyme with "sew." He was appalled at his mistake, and immediately got on the phone, but it was too late to make the change.
Some of my favorite LAT puzzles have been Friday's. Unfortunately, today's is not one of them, for the reasons Irish Miss gives in her comments above.
ReplyDeleteI'll just mention one specific, the Reveal at 69-A, where the clue "Perfect!" leads to NONOTES. Two points: first, I've directed plays for decades, and do indeed give my notes to the cast at the end of rehearsals. If I say "no notes," they're happy because they get to go home; and they know that there is no such thing as perfection in theater, and Ken is probably just tired. Second, the clue is so obscure, arcane, and misleading, I had no idea it was referring to the familiar phrase I have used many times.
Horrible
ReplyDeleteQuite a challenge. Had no idea what was INSTORE. The constructor is obviously a musical evil genius. As mentioned the theme answers had nothing to do with the clues PER se. No circles or even * marks designating a theme clue. Can’t imagine trying to put this crazy quilt together. Truly impressive. Last to go was changing duet to DUAD to produce ORDAINED for an unexpected win.
ReplyDeleteNWSL was self perped. “Match point” (not tennis) ALTAR was a stretch. Hand ✋ for moo, DRÉ? ROC? LEON? LATENED, (c’mon). “Shake”/ SCARE meh. Our travel nurses are more like NOMADs than a “remote worker”
who is usually stationary. working from home.
Still not convinced of NO NOTES despite all the splainin’. Could have been equally cleverly but more clearly clued.
HBD CED! 🎂 (sorry, the cake is store bought 😉)
I have a confession to make,
ReplyDeleteThe whole post a picture of a birthday cake started out as a joke...
ALA Rodney Dangerfield...
speaking of Rodney...
And I wouldn't be me, if I didn't post something silly about the theme...
no notes? This is perfect!
Challenging puzzle as far as figuring out the theme- FIR but needed to read the blog to figure out to understand the theme- very creative Yijing Chen!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday CED
I try not to be overly critical here on the Blog…but Irish Miss, Ray-O, et al, pretty much said it: this one sucked like a Dyson. To be fair, I gotta give props to Ms. Chen for her convoluted construction, but unless one has intimate music theory knowledge (oh, we all know what the Circle of Fifths is, right?) the theme hook here is dubious at best. Even with getting a FIR (thank the perps!) it was not a fun experience, sorry. I’ll just leave it at that…and put this author on my Do Not Fly list.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, C.E.D.! Hope you have a fine day, brother.
At least I enjoyed Splynter’s bits of levity — and I am amazed you figured out the thing! Nice licks, too 🐶
====> Darren / L.A.
It is amusing how many comments the blog gets when many (mostly anonymous) do not like the puzzle. I also did not realize there was a reference to the French swimmer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Marchand as it was filled by the perps
ReplyDeleteyeah I'm sorry, this puzzle was just straight up cheeks.
ReplyDelete