A global health and international development professional with twelve years’ experience in directing complex global public health programs, with specific expertise in malaria and behavior change communication. Deep expertise in project management especially for USAID, leading field programs to improve activity implementation, operations, and client service.
WOW! The triple stack of grid spanners at the top and bottom with one in the middle for good measure were very eye-catching! The top set went very easily but the bottom, especially on the left hand side, of this puzzle had beaucoup issues for me. I'll try to make a case for my struggles in the write-up.
Across:
1. "Not my first choice, but it's fine": I GUESS THAT WORKS.
16. Dating milestones: MONTHIVERSARIES - Two days ago was the MONTHIVERSARY of my surgical procedure.
17. Fare for some Catholics on Lenten Fridays: PESCATARIAN DIET - Not a word I've ever used but pretty easy to suss out.
18. GPS heading: SSE.
19. Comedian Foxx: REDD - Redd did 23. Talk dirty: SWEAR on his LP's of sixty years ago but it all seems so tame now.
20. Dubious ability: ESP.
21. Cranks (up): AMPS.
27. Warts and all: AS IS is what is implied when you 28. Select: OPT to buy something at a garage sale
29. Peach: GEM.
32. Smooch in a lift, say: SNOG.
33. Sportswear portmanteau: ATHLEISURE.
37. "Been there": I KNOW THE FEELING.
39. Color choices for bandages, e.g.: FLESHTONES.
40. Sister who brings the snowman Olaf to life: ELSA.
41. "Chopped" host Allen: TED.
42. Post-WWII alliance: OAS.
43. Soften up: MELT.
44. Knife block insert: PARER - PARE is a common verb here
46. __-Rooter: ROTO.
47. Gibbon, for one: APE.
49. Squeezed (out): EKED.
51. "CrazySexyCool" trio: TLC.
54. The Marshall Project cause: PRISON ABOLITION - I had trouble coming to terms with this social construct. Therefore it was not much help with some tough down fills. More info
59. Lacrosse strategy: ONE ON ONE DEFENSE - Man-to-man is much more common term. Saying person-to-person for girls has never really caught on.
2. Says: GOES - I go, "Where do want to go eat?" She GOES, "Any place is fine." I go, "How about The Hacienda on 22nd St?" She GOES, "No, I don't want to go there!" I go, "😧".
3. Lacking flavor or experience: UNSEASONED - UNSEASONED players can be a liability in a championship game
4. More succinctly?: ETC. 😀
5. Medical waste collected in red containers: SHARPS - My grandson, the "phleb" goes through dozens of SHARPS in a day.
6. Spots: SITES - Our school district has just spent big dollars to get SITES for new grade schools to replace 70-year-old buildings we now have
7. Spot: TV AD - Not a problem with Netflix
8. Steers steers: HERDS 😀
9. Graynor of "The Disaster Artist": ARI - The woman in this pictorial collage
10. Gp. known for screenings: TSA.
11. Haggard, perhaps: WAN - This word has stuck with me since H.S. English
12. Sequence: ORDER - Currency in my billfold has to all be in ORDER and facing the same direction.
13. Social reformer Jacob: RIIS.
14. Last: KEEP - Honey is one food that will KEEP forever I'm told
15. Retired boomer: SST.
22. "Bad and Boujee" hip-hop group: MIGOS - Google if you must for lyrics I can't post
24. Fictional detective who was born in Montenegro: WOLFE
25. Pentathlon equipment: EPEES.
26. End in __: A TIE.
27. Tattoo joint?: ANKLE.
29. French Revolution device: GUILLOTINE - As soon as I saw this word I thought of our lovely Madame DeFarge (Janice) who is definitely not as callous as the one in Tale Of Two Cities!
Good morning Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with a Saint Patrick's Day Friday recap.
Today's puzzle comes to us from the team of Ms. Jess Shulman and Mr. Max Woghiren. Jess made her NYT puzzle debut just about one year ago. I was not able to find a previous LAT puzzle by either constructor so this may well be their LAT debuts.
I found the theme to be both clever and a bit convoluted (but, hey, it is Friday). The reveal, which has nothing to do with either St. Patrick's Day or Red Nose Day, comes at:
63 Across: "You're blocking the view!," and what is needed to complete the answers to the starred clues?: DOWN IN FRONT.
Actually, we needed two things. First, it helped to be able to identify the unstated initial (FRONT) word of the three song titles that are the answers to the themed clues. Second, in order to stop wondering what was going on, it was necessary for one to realize that the dropped words are words that can be substituted for the word DOWN. In short, a "synonym" for DOWN (is) IN FRONT.
Here are the three themed clues/answers, once again starred for our convenience:
17 Across: *Bilingual Ed Sheeran song featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B: (SOUTH) OF THE BORDER. On most maps, SOUTH is DOWN. DOWN SOUTH refers to being in, or going to, the southern part of the country.
29 Across: *R.E.M. hit single on "Out of Time": (LOSING) MY RELIGION. If your team is LOSING the game you are said to be DOWN (by a run or two or a by a touchdown or by a goal, etc.).
REM
47 Across: *Carl Perkins rockabilly classic popularized by Elvis Presley: (BLUE) SUEDE SHOES. Perhaps, the most direct application of the theme: DOWN = SAD = BLUE.
Carl Perkins With Eric Clapton and George Harrison - 1985
Here are the rest of the, proper-noun-abundant, clues/answers:
Across:
1. Scarecrow innards: STRAW.
6. Italian port: GENOA. Christopher Columbus' place of birth. And, sometimes, berth. Also a variety of salami.
11. Get better, maybe: AGE. Like fine wine.
14. Gear bit: TOOTH.
15. Cheri of "Scary Movie": OTERI. A not-infrequent visitor.
16. Musical about Henry VIII's many wives: SIX.
19. Fury: IRE.
20. "Oh, come on!": PUHLEASE. A very appropriate reaction to this one.
21. Aims: GOALS.
23. "Love Stuff" singer King: ELLE. Unknown to this solver. Thanks, perps.
24. Tub gunk: SCUM.
Hot Tub Scum
26. Vane point: EAST. Weather vane.
34. Poetic rhythm: METER. IAMB did not contain enough letters to fill the squares.
36. Plenty: A LOT. TONS. GOBS. LOTS. WADS. Perps dictated which it was.
37. Jazz org.: NBA.
Of the National Basketball Association
38. "¡Ay, Dios __!": MIO. Today's Spanish lesson. See 22 Down for the translation.
39. Anthem that ends, "We stand on guard for thee": O CANADA.
42. "Dear old" one: DAD.
David Nelson
43. Over thataway: YON. Have you ever heard anyone in an oater say "They went YON" ?
44. "Shane" star Alan: LADD. He went thataway.
Movie Poster - 1953
45. "Spider-Man" trilogy director: RAIMI. Sam RAIMI.
51. Jet set jet: LEAR.
52. Wrote to online, briefly: IMED. Instant MessagED
53. Feels bad: AILS.
55. TikTok upload: VIDEO. A Moe-ku:
Tik Tok VIDEOs
Leave me uninterested
Perhaps I'm just odd
58. Very nearly: AS GOOD AS. Shouldn't the answer be ALMOST AS GOOD AS?
62. Rita Dove's "__ to My Right Knee": ODE.
66. Decathlon number: TEN. By definition.
67. Top-flight: ELITE.
68. Under control: TAMED.
69. Put away: EAT. Idiomatic
70. "I'm out": LATER.
71. Puts one over on: SNOWS.
Down:
1. "Cut it out!": STOP. My girlfriend got mad at me because I would not STOP singing "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees. At first I thought that she was kidding. But then I saw her face.
2. Food sold in blocks: TOFU. Until recently, I didn't know that TOFU could taste so good. It never o-curd to me.
3. "American Pastoral" Pulitzer winner: ROTH. Perhaps better known for Goodbye Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint.
4. Word in several ESPY Award categories: ATHLETE.
5. Cheese shape: WHEEL.
Parmigiano Reggiano - Photo by MM
6. Loosey-__: GOOSEY.Meaning completely relaxed. The phrase, probably aided in longevity by the rhyme, dates from the first half of the 1900's. In earlier usage, it sometimes denoted promiscuity (loose morals), diarrhea (loose bowels), and so on but since about 1950 it has mostly stuck to its present meaning.
7. Basic French verb: ETRE. Today's French lesson - a language in which most verbs are conjugated with AVOIR (to have) or ETRE (to be).
8. Composer Rorem: NED.
Ned Rorem
9. Nickel source: ORE. The metal not the coin.
10. Wind instrument?: AIR GUITAR. Some AIR GUITAR players can actually play actual (in this instance left-handed bass) guitars.
11. Much of an atlas: ASIA.
12. Mary Cassatt's "Little __ in a Blue Armchair": GIRL. A painting (1878).
13. Former couples: EXES.
18. Lip __: BALM. Hand up for first thinking SYNC.
22. "Srsly?!": OMG. Seriously?
24. Actress Ward: SELA.
25. Dolt: CLOD.
26. Awards for "Schitt's Creek": EMMYS. Clued the way it was, any of a shipload of tv shows could have been referenced.
27. Vowel set: A E I O U. I once fell in love with a girl who knew only four vowels. She didn't know I existed.
28. "The Favourite" actress Emma: STONE.
30. Total stranger: RANDO. Oh puhlease!
31. __ folk: INDIE. INDIE folk has its earliest origins in 1990's folk artists who displayedalternative rock influences in their music,
32. "Becoming" memoirist: OBAMA. Not Barack. Not Sasha. Not Malia. Michelle.
33. Low point: NADIR.
35. One to emulate: ROLE MODEL. Hi, Robert.
40. Docket item: CASE. A trial court reference.
41. Ritalin target: Abbr.: ADHD.
46. Unsuccessful candidate: ALSO RAN.
48. Conk out: DIE.
49. Less taxing: EASIER.
50. Say "cheese" by rubbing one's palms together, e.g.: SIGN. At first I thought they were talking about smiling for a photo. But it would not have made any difference because the answer was going to be American SIGN Language in either case.
54. Many apartments in former industrial areas: LOFTS.
55. Rock the __: VOTE. An organization whose mission is to engage and build the political power of young Americans.
56. Concept: IDEA.
57. Minor progress: DENT. My friend sailed his boat into the dock at a rapid pace causing a dent in the hull. He says that it's just a berth mark.
58. Chip in?: ANTE.
59. "__ arigato": DOMO. Today's Japanese lesson.
60. Over again: ANEW.
61. Norms: Abbr.: STDS. Not social diseases. STanDardS.
64. São Paulo greeting: OLA. Today's Portuguese lesson.
65. Card: WIT. Not playing cards. Idiomatic.
Here is how this all looks in the grid. Please pay no attention to the yellow/red highlighted squares at 3 Down. The .puz file solving app that I had to use while away from home does not allow me to override the app's highlighting of one's "current" place in the puzzle.
In this outing he gives us some important tips on how to avoid taking
responsibility for your mistakes ...
... with 4 theme clues that have punful fills answering questions with the
pattern "Start of [someone's] argument with [someone else]?" ...
17A.
Start of a tennis player's argument with a line judge?:
THIS ISN'T MY FAULT. "You can't be serious!"
25A. Start of an artist's argument with a gallery owner?:
I'M BEING FRAMED. FRAMED
is a 2009 BBC Masterpiece film and one of our favorites. It's a sweet story about art, illusion, and love,
starring Trevor Eve and Eve Myles. When the London
National Gallery's water pipes start to leak, they have to move their entire
collection of priceless paintings to an abandoned slate mine in Wales. Curator
Quentin Lester, who’s managing the whole operation by himself, then has to cope with the
curious residents of the nearby Welsh village who have been kept in the dark
about what's going on inside the old mine.
Rather than just a trailer, I'm embedding the entire video (1:28:55)*.
The first 4 or 5 minutes set the stage perfectly and if you decide
you'd like to watch this delightful masterpiece later you can easily
copy and save the YouTube link (right-click Copy video URL). The film is in English, but be sure to
click on closed captions (CC) when you watch it to make it easier to follow some of the Welsh accents. *I guarantee that you'll love it ...
46A. Start of a dress model's argument with a tailor?:DON'T PIN IT ON ME. I'm sure my Mother, the last of the great British seamstresses,
often heard this from brides who had binged a bit too much between the "final"
fitting of their gowns and the day before their weddings. But she specialized in quickly making any dress fit any shape.
60A. Start of
a geometry teacher's argument with a student?:
LET'S SEE THE PROOF. Rachel shows you how to win this argument ...
Here's the grid:
Here's the rest ... Across:
1. Marshy spots: BOGS. Did I ever tell you the story about
the time a buddy and I purloined a
pile of peat
we found stacked by the roadside in Ireland? We found that it doesn't burn
very well if it's not thoroughly dried. In fact it stinks!
36. Kid-lit writer Margaret __ Brown: WISE.
Margaret Wise Brown
(May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books,
including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated
by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for
her achievements.
Margaret Wise Brown
38. Clean with elbow grease: SCOUR. Hand up if you had
SCRUB first?
40. __ novel: DIME. The
dime novel
is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction
issued in series of inexpensive paper bound editions. The term dime novel has
been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, referring
to story papers, five- and ten-cent weeklies, "thick book"
reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines.
41. Ties (up): EVENS.
43. OB test: AMNIO.
Amniocentesis is an obstetric procedure
done to remove amniotic fluid and cells from the uterus for testing or
treatment. Amniocentesis can provide useful information about a baby's
health.
45. British jazz element?: ZED. Nice meta: the word "jazz" has two of these
elements. OTOH, Jazz music originated in the US and British jazz is
derived from it.
Here's bit of the history.
46. [Theme clue]
49. Good guess in Battleship: HIT.
Battleship
is game of guessing, strategy and logical thought that dates back to before
World War One and is known the world over for being a simple game that can be
played with no more than a pencil and two pieces of paper.
Take a shot at this online version.
50. RR stop: STA.
51. Donations to a museum in a will, e.g.: BEQUESTS.
56. Take in: ADMIT.
60. [Theme clue]
63. "Songversation" singer India.__: ARIE.
Songversation
is the fifth studio album by American singer India.Arie. The album was released
on June 25, 2013, by Soulbird Music and Motown Records. Here's the song
Brothers Keeper from that album(lyrics):
64. NFLer since 2016: LA RAM. The
LA RAMS originated in
Cleveland in 1936.
65. Medicine Hat's prov.: ALTA. The
abbreviation for the province of Alberta, Canada
used by Anglophones. Francophones use ALB. A CSO to
CanadianEh! who lives in Toronto, ONT.
Medicine Hat
is in southeast part of the province and is located along the South Saskatchewan
River.
66. Brewer's flowers: HOPS. Humulus lupulus, the common hop
or HOPS, is a species of flowering plant in the hemp family
Cannabinaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and North America.
67. Dessert choice, for short: FROYO. Or FROZENYOGURT, for long. Our grandchildren's favorite is
Sweet Frog, whose mascots are "Scoop" and "Cookie":
68. Secure, in a way: SEAL. The best way is with a kiss:
Down:
1. Odds and ends: BITS.
2. Org. that makes workplace safety posters: OSHA. The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the
Department of Labor.
March is Ladder Safety Month:
Ladder Hero
3. Forward progress on the football field: GAIN. Progress that may
involve some PAIN.
4. Word with metric or merit: SYSTEM. Everything that you want to know about the metric system and more. And here's what the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has to say about their merit system principles.
5. __ o menos: "more or less," in Spanish: MAS. Today's Spanish
Lesson.
6. Garden fixture: URN.
7. Uniformed college gp.: ROTC. The
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
( ROTC) in the United States was created by Alden Partridge and began with the
Morrill Act of 1862 which established the land-grant colleges. Part of
the federal government's requirement for these schools was that they include
military tactics as part of their curriculum.
8. Firing range purchase: AMMO.
9. "Stop teasing me!": LAYOFF. When my oldest granddaughter has had enough
she pleads "STAHP!"
10. Ordinary: STANDARD.
11. "Indubitably": TRUE.
12. Fish that may be hard to fillet: EELS.
13. Loved ones who are blessed at the Feast of St. Francis: PETS.
Many churches in the United States celebrate the
Feast of St Francis of Assision October 4 each year. The feast commemorates the life of St Francis,
who was born in the 12th century and is the Catholic Church’s patron saint of
animals and the environment. It is a popular day for pets to be “blessed”.
And they bless us back.
18. "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" quintet:
IAMBS.
IAMBIC Pentameter
is the poetic meter used by Shakespeare, consisting of 5 pairs of
unstressed and stressed syllables per line.
And this is how Jeffrey signs his puzzles.
19. Solar __: FLARE. Solar flares are large eruptions of
electromagnetic radiation from the Sun lasting from minutes to hours.
The largest flares are rated as X-Class
on a scale of intensity similar to the Richter scale for seismic events.
These flares are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as
coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and are capable of creating long lasting
radiation storms that can harm satellites, communications systems, and even
ground-based technologies and power grids.
23. Socials with cucumber sandwiches: TEAS.
25. "Hedda Gabler" dramatist: IBSEN.
26. Like Inti Punku: INCAN.
Inti Punku
(Quechua "sun gate") is an archaeological site in the Cusco Region of Peru that
was once a fortress of the sacred city,
Machu Picchu. It is now also the name of the final section of the Incan Trail between
the Sun Gate complex and the city.
Machu Picchu
27. "The Scholomance" trilogy writer Novik: NAOMI.
Naomi Novik
is the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author of the Nebula Award-winning
novel Uprooted, Spinning Silver, and the nine-volume
Temeraire series, as well as a founder of the
Archive of Our Own. The Scholomance trilogy is about a
school for the dark arts in Transylvania. The first two books are
The Deadly Education
and
The Last Graduate. Here's a review of the final book,
The Golden Enclaves
which was published in September 2022.
Naomi Novik
28. Scrawny: GAUNT.
29. Yellow shade: MAIZE.
30. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" villain __ Squalor:
ESME. While solving the puzzle I glossed past the clue and seeing
"Squalor", I immediately filled ESME, as she was the heroine of
this J.D. Salinger's novel. Coming back to blog it, I noticed something more sinister going on, as
she was described as a villain somehow involved in a series of
children's books about a "unfortunate events" chronicled by a guy named
Daniel Handler, alias
Lemony Snicket. The saga is complicated by lots of intrigue, literary allusions, and
other stuff, so
you can either read this, or watch this trailer for one of the adaptions [or both if you're a glutton
for punishment]:
31. Safe document: DEED.
32. Was short: OWED.
33. DVR pioneer: TIVO.
TiVo Inc.
was an American corporation with its primary product being its eponymous digital
video recorder. On September 8, 2016, TiVo Inc. was acquired by Rovi
Corporation. The new entity became known as TiVo Corporation, which in turn,
merged with Xperi in December 2019. Now we just store the stuff in the
cloud (aka "fog") and stream it on demand (aka "binging").
48. Colorful fabric: MADRAS. "Once you can accept the universe as
matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid
comes easy."- Albert Einstein. Checkered Past: A Brief History of the Madras Plaid Shirt. Hand up if you wore them?
51. Ho-hum: BLAH. Relax, it's almost over.
52. Designer Saarinen: EERO.
Eero Saarinen
(/ˈeɪroʊ ˈsɑːrɪnən, ˈɛəroʊ -/, Finnish: [ˈeːro ˈsɑːrinen]; August 20, 1910 –
September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer
noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments.
Saarinen is best known for designing the
General Motors Technical Center in Michigan,
Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., the
TWA Flight Center (now TWA Hotel) in New York City, and the
Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
Eero Saarinen
53. Swab brand: QTIP.
54. Spree: TEAR. If the clue had been "Tear:", how likely would you
have been to fill SPREE?
55. Texas MLBer: STRO. A CSO to Anon -T
57. Tunneling rodent: MOLE. Or a 42D.
58. Tiny amount: IOTA.
59. Nonstick brand: TFAL. It seems to get stuck in a lot of crossword
fill though.
61. Stable staple: HAY.
62. Angsty genre: EMO. OPERA wouldn't fit.
Cheers, Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading, for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
* A note on the Framed
video. If you open the clip I think that YouTube will remember it, and it
may show up on your TV streaming service if you use one.
A global health and international development professional with twelve years’ experience in directing complex global public health programs, with specific expertise in malaria and behavior change communication. Deep expertise in project management especially for USAID, leading field programs to improve activity implementation, operations, and client service.
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