Theme: I Get A Rise Out Of You [or maybe not.] We have a circled letter theme, where the circles are contiguous, but not aligned - except for the last one. And 4 of the 5 spell words with something in common. The last one is the opposite. Let's start with the 80% unifier.
7 D. Unlike bread on Passover, and like four of the five sets of circled letters in this puzzle: LEAVENED. Containing yeast or another substance that will cause the dough to rise - we'll get back to this. I understand the best place to get a fast food Passover diner is Seder Rapids.
17 A. Hoodwink: FOOL. Trick somebody, out of playfulness, malice or greed.
and
20 A. Fad toy with unruly hair: TROLL. A troll doll is a type of plastic doll with furry up-combed hair depicting a troll, also known as a Dam doll after their creator Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam. The inspiration came from trolls in old Scandinavian folklore. The toys are also known as good luck trolls.
Reading left to right across the two lines, the red letters [circled in the grid] spell ROLL. A bread roll is a small, usually round or oblong individual loaf of bread served as a meal accompaniment.
19 A. Analogous: AKIN. Of a similar nature or character.
and
23 A. Impertinence: CHEEK. lack of respect; rudeness.
Reading these in a manner akin to that used with 17 and 20A, we get CAKE. Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. The most common ingredients include flour, sugar, eggs, fat (such as butter, oil, or margarine), a liquid, and a leavening agent, such as baking soda or baking powder.
49 A. Lack of waste: ECONOMY. A careful management of available resources.
and
56 A. Amplify, as on social media: SHARE. To repost on a social media platform. Often this is done to broaden the audience. Sometimes I'll do it to ridicule the original post.
The red letters here give us a tasty SCONE. A scone is a traditional British baked good, popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is usually made of either wheat flour or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans.
The red letters here give us a tasty SCONE. A scone is a traditional British baked good, popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is usually made of either wheat flour or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans.
52 A. Not just irks: ENRAGES. Incites extreme anger.
and
59 A. Court for King James, briefly: B-BALL. LeBron and Basketball, no doubt. Clever clue.
This combination gives us a BAGEL. A bagel is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior.
Now, last, but not yeast -- 61. Passover cracker: MATZO. Matzah, matzo, or maẓẓah is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which chametz [leavening] is forbidden. So this is a bread that does not rise.
Some features of this very elegant grid --
Perfect bilateral symmetry;
Perfectly symmetric placement of the leavened theme entries;
Central location of the vertical unifier;
Central across placement of the 5th, unleavened theme entry.
And the most clever of all - each of the leavened entries, located in two adjacent across lines, rise in the middle, as good leavened fill should. And the MATZO, of course, does not. WOW!
By the way, Passover this year started at Sundown on Monday. Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach.
By the way, Passover this year started at Sundown on Monday. Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach.
Hi, Gang - an awestruck JzB here to illuminate this highly elevated puzzle. Let's see what else comes up.
1. Doughy: SOFT. Well, this was an extremely doughy puzzle, but I thought it was kind of hard, or maybe bagelish.
5. Ramsey of "The Last of Us": BELLA. Isabella May Ramsey [b 2003] is a non-binary English actor. They are known for their break-out role as young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones and Ellie in the HBO drama series The Last of Us. They received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the latter.
10. Actor Epps: OMAR. Omar Hashim Epps [b 1973] is an American actor, rapper, and producer. He has been awarded nine NAACP Image Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, one MTV Movie Award, one Black Reel Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Epps's film roles include Juice, Higher Learning, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love & Basketball.
14. On a bye week: IDLE. Said of an NFL team with no game scheduled on a given week.
15. Squad suiting up for opening day, presumably: A-TEAM. The best players on a particular team.
16. Bahama __: MAMA. A tropical drink made from mixed fruit juices and rum.
18. Shampoo target: SCALP. Soft tissue layers that cover the cranium. It is an anatomic region bordered anteriorly by the human face, and laterally and posteriorly by the neck. It extends from the superior nuchal lines and occipital turbulences to the supraorbital foramen.
22. Actress Mendes: EVA.
23. Impertinence: CHEEK. Being sassy
24. Old-Fashioned choice: RYE. Rye whisky is the characteristic component of the classic Old Fashioned cocktail.
25. Hill, in Hebrew: TEL. Literal.
26. Hem and __: HAW. To stop often and change what one is saying during speech because one is not sure of what to say or because one is trying to avoid saying something.
27. Org. with flag bearers?: NFL. Officials in the National Football League have flags used to indicate rule infractions.
29. Third No. 1 hit for Bruno Mars: GRENADE.
5. Ramsey of "The Last of Us": BELLA. Isabella May Ramsey [b 2003] is a non-binary English actor. They are known for their break-out role as young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones and Ellie in the HBO drama series The Last of Us. They received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the latter.
10. Actor Epps: OMAR. Omar Hashim Epps [b 1973] is an American actor, rapper, and producer. He has been awarded nine NAACP Image Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, one MTV Movie Award, one Black Reel Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Epps's film roles include Juice, Higher Learning, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love & Basketball.
14. On a bye week: IDLE. Said of an NFL team with no game scheduled on a given week.
15. Squad suiting up for opening day, presumably: A-TEAM. The best players on a particular team.
16. Bahama __: MAMA. A tropical drink made from mixed fruit juices and rum.
18. Shampoo target: SCALP. Soft tissue layers that cover the cranium. It is an anatomic region bordered anteriorly by the human face, and laterally and posteriorly by the neck. It extends from the superior nuchal lines and occipital turbulences to the supraorbital foramen.
22. Actress Mendes: EVA.
23. Impertinence: CHEEK. Being sassy
24. Old-Fashioned choice: RYE. Rye whisky is the characteristic component of the classic Old Fashioned cocktail.
25. Hill, in Hebrew: TEL. Literal.
26. Hem and __: HAW. To stop often and change what one is saying during speech because one is not sure of what to say or because one is trying to avoid saying something.
27. Org. with flag bearers?: NFL. Officials in the National Football League have flags used to indicate rule infractions.
29. Third No. 1 hit for Bruno Mars: GRENADE.
32. "The Gilded Age" airer: HBO. Home Box Office, an American pay television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
35. "Sorry, but ... ": ALAS. Used to express unhappiness, pity, or concern.
37. Olympic sprinter Szewinska: IRENA. Irena Szewińska [1946 - 2018] was a Polish sprinter who was one of the world's foremost track athletes for nearly two decades, in multiple events. She is the only athlete in history, male or female, to have held the world record in the 100 m, the 200 m and the 400 m.
38. "I'm convinced!": SOLD. I agree with what you're proposing.
39. Gas station station: PUMP. A two-sided fuel dispensing station, generally customer operated.
40. Family nickname: DADDY. Affectionate term for one's father.
41. Lip balm additive: ALOE. The juice extracted from the leaves of the ALOE plant.
42. Dramatic segment of 44-Across: EXPOSE. A video, report or piece of writing that reveals the truth about a situation or person, especially something involving shocking facts.
44. David Muir's field: TV NEWS. Scheduled programming designed to report on significant current events
46. Cassini of fashion: OLEG. Oleg Cassini [1913 -2006] was a fashion designer born to an aristocratic Russian family with maternal Italian ancestry. He came to the United States as a young man after starting as a designer in Rome, and quickly got work with Paramount Pictures. Cassini established his reputation by designing for films.
48. Dom Pérignon maker, informally: MOET. Moët & Chandon, also known simply as Moët, is a French fine winery and part of the luxury goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. Moët et Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house.
57. Bolted: RAN. Suddenly and quickly run away from something.
60. Diving position: PIKE. The body is bent at the waist with legs straight, lower legs in front of the diver's face.
63. "Angel eyes" band: ABBA. a Swedish pop supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome.
64. __ Saint Laurent: YVES. Yves Saint Laurent SAS, also known as Saint Laurent and YSL, is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1962 by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. The company specializes in haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather accessories, and footwear. Its cosmetics line, YSL Beauty, is owned by L'Oréal. Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent [1936 - 2008] referred to as Yves Saint Laurent or YSL, was a French fashion designer who, in 1962, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century.
65. Express in words: UTTER. Speak.
66. Dollop: BLOB. A small indefinite quantity of a viscous or semi-solid substance.
67. Message status: SENT. Transmitted from the writer.
68. Many holiday events: MEALS. Events where people eat food together.
69. Some evergreen shrubs: YEWS. Any of a genus (Taxus of the family Taxaceae, the yew family) of evergreen gymnospermous trees and shrubs with stiff linear leaves and seeds surrounded by a fleshy red aril
Down:
1. Aerate, as flour: SIFT. Move a granular material through a sieve.
2. Impetus to clean the fridge: ODOR. A quality of something that stimulates the olfactory organ, in this case unpleasantly.
3. Torchiere, for one: FLOOR LAMP. A lamp with a tall stand of wood or metal.
4. Sesame Street worrywart: TELLY. Telly Monster is a furry pinkish-purple monster with an orange nose from Sesame Street. He is a recurring character from 1979 to 1990, a major character from 1991 to 2015 and a minor character from 2016 to present.
5. Humanities degs.: BAs. Bachelor of Arts Degrees.
6. "You get the idea": ET CETERA. Meaning "and other things," used to indicate not everythign relevant has been mentioned.
8. Film mistakenly announced as Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars: LALA LAND. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
9. Psych (up): AMP. To excite, arouse, or work up a person's emotions.
10. Nebraska city: OMAHA. Omaha is a city in the U.S. state of Nebraska, on the Missouri River close to the Iowa border. A stop on the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, it's known for its pioneer history, museums and cultural centers.
11. Pay restitution: MAKE WHOLE. Financially compensate the victim of a crime or recipient of another legal settlement.
12. Paris pal: AMIE. Friend in French.
13. Relative standing: RANK. A position in an ordered hierarchy.
21. Journey segment: LEG. A portion of a journeym generally between two stopping points.
23. "Weekend Update" comic Michael: CHE. Michael Che Campbell [b1983] is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. Che is best known for his work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he has served as co-anchor on Weekend Update alongside Colin Jost, and the two were co-head writers from 2017 until 2022.
27. Part shaded by a backward cap: NAPE. The back of one's neck.
28. State of change: FLUX. The action or process of flowing.
30. Rodeo cry: RIDE 'EM. Shout of encouragement to one riding a rodeo animal.
31. Burial city of the Wright brothers: DAYTON. Dayton is a city in western Ohio. It’s home to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, with a vast collection of aircraft from early 1900s planes to a space shuttle exhibit. Carillon Historical Park contains a Wright Brothers plane, 19th-century buildings and antique trains.
33. Squander: BLOW. Waste something, especially money or time, in a reckless and foolish manner.
34. Poems to things: ODES. A lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.
36. One with a supporting role in the kitchen?: SPOON REST. A piece of kitchenware that serves as a place to lay spoons and other cooking utensils, to prevent cooking fluids from getting onto countertops, as well as keeping the spoon from touching any contaminants that might be on the counter. Another clever clue.
38. Eartha Kitt song with the lyric "Been an angel all year": SANTA BABY.
43. Fruit in the liqueur Bargnolino: SLOE. Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Pacific Northwest and New England regions of the United States.
45. Cast or oil, sometimes: VERB. This seems a bit strained to me, for the sake of a pun. I'm never fond of a part-of-speech reference clue.
47. Use a hula hoop: GYRATE. Move in a circle or spiral, especially quickly.
48. Tony winner Idina: MENZEL. Idina Kim Menzel [b. 1971] is an American actress and singer. Particularly recognized for her work in musicals on Broadway, she has been nicknamed the "Queen of Broadway" for her commanding stage presence, powerful mezzo-soprano, and reputation as one of the most influential stage actors of her generation. Here is a list of her awards
49. Best Play and Best Game, for two: ESPYS. An ESPY Award is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC except 2020, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony.
50. Leek kin: CHIVE. Chives, scientific name Allium schoenoprasum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and Chinese onion.
51. Like cognac barrels: OAKEN. Make from oak wood.
53. Triangular part of a house: GABLE. The generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns.
54. Recommended spot to catch a sneeze: ELBOW. I would think a tissue in one's hand would be more effective.
55. Marble hunks: SLABS. Large, thick, flat pieces of stone, concrete, or wood, typically rectangular.
58. "__ girl!": ATTA. An informal expression of encouragement or admiration to a woman or girl.
61. Kate Middleton, to Prince George: MUM. One's mother.
62. Suturing ctrs.: ORs. Operating Rooms in hospitals or surgical centers.
So ends this clever and timely puzzle. And speaking of hospitals, I have my first cataract surgery next Monday. Rally looking forward [so to speak] to seeing more clearly.
Cool regards!
JzB
