Theme: None
Total blocks: 30
Total words: 72
Still remember Patrick Berry's trick to count total words in a grid? You add the number of upper-left corners (the numbered squares that form the starts of two entries), and then add that to the grid's highest number. In today's grid, the number of those upper-left corners is 6: MARY JANE/MCI, LADY DI/LIMO, BOBS/BAS, RHYMES/RIOS, PLEASURE/PT BOATS, ANTE/ATTYS. And the grid's highest number is 66 (Across). So we have total 72 words, the maximum allowed for a themeless Saturday puzzle (78 for themed one).
A complete disaster for me this morning. Definitely need more time to get used to Rich Norris' multiple words and tricky clues.
I don't know. Last Saturday I was able to fill in lots of blanks. Not much luck today. Rich Norris is starting to show his true color. "Toto, I've a feeling we are not in Kansas any more." The good news is that most of my fills are correct. So I think I am making progress.
I like how EXTREME MEASURES (8D: "Outside the box" solutions) is positioned in the grid. But I don't understand the rationale for the clue. Why? Is "Outside the box" a movie? Why it's in quotation marks?
Across:
1A: Spider-Man's girl: MARY JANE. Stumped immediately. Could only think of Kirsten Dunst who played MARY JANE in "Spider-Man". I like her in "Marie Antoinette".
2A: "Candle in the Wind" dedicatee: LADY DI. Another stumper. Wanted DIANA, then thought of the original dedicatee Marilyn Monroe. Neither would fit. More familiar with the title Princess Di than LADY DI.
15A: French town at the foot of Mont Blanc: CHAMONIX. Non. Je n'ai aucune idée. See this map. Wikipedia says the first Winter Olympics was held here in 1924.
16A: "That was exhausting!": I'M BEAT. Yeah, that's how I am feeling now.
17A: Red-handed: IN THE ACT
18A: Ltr. opener: MESSRS. This is the old fashioned way, isn't it? (Note from Kazie: MESSRS is actually French, short for Messieurs, plural of Monsieur, because the possessive (mon/ma/mes) changes to agree with the noun (c.f. Madame/Mademoiselle/Mesdames). English simply borrowed yet another French term instead of creating its own.)
19A: "Flowers for __": Daniel Keyes sci-fi classic: ALGERNON. Nope. I've never heard of the book or the author. Wikipedia says it won the Hugo Award for best Short Story in 1960.
22A: Drifts on waves: BOBS. Does this refer to fisherman's bobbers bobbing?
26A: Extended operatic solo: SCENA. New word to me. Dictionary defines SCENA as "an extended operatic vocal solo, usually including an aria and a recitative."
28A: Like: A LA
29A: Wear and tear, e.g.: RHYMES. V-8 moment for me. Great clue.
32A: Gold medals, in Guadalajara: OROS. Not medallas de ORO?
33A: Spaghetti western director Leone: SERGIO. I've heard of these major movies he made. Did not know his name though. Thought SERGIO is a Spanish name, as in golfer SERGIO Garcia. But SERGIO Leone is an Italian.
35A: Completeness: ENTIRETY
37A: "Hawaii Five-O" order: BOOK 'EM DANNO. Someone mentioned this catchprase on the Comments section a few weeks ago. But I blanked this morning.
39A: Hedonist's pursuit: PLEASURE. What's the difference between Hedonism and Epicureanism again?
41A: Bursts: ERUPTS. Reminds me of the SCORIA clue we had last June: "Volcanic rock ejecta". I think that's how we started this "Holy hotwick lava bomb".
44A: U. of Maryland athlete: TERP
45A: One of numerous childhood spots?: MEASLE. I was picturing my childhood playground, not any MEASLE spot. Clever clue.
47A: Goddess of dawn: EOS. Aurora for the Romans. Just mentioned yesterday that George Sand's original name is Aurore. Dennis quoted her "Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age." last time.
48A: Military operations centers: BASES
50A: CBS forensic drama: CSI
51A: Prelude to a deal: ANTES. Poker. Not the business deal I was thinking.
52A: Not in favor: Abbr. OPP. Opposed.
53A: Peevish: PETULANT
57A: Kind of number of clock: ATOMIC. What is ATOMIC clock again? My memory is so bad now.
59A: Communicate well with: RELATE TO. John Daly's swing & his demeanor are so hard to RELATE TO, yet he has so many followers.
63A: Ability: TALENT. Are they really the same?
64A: Competitor's payment: ENTRY FEE. I always associate "Competitor" with "rival" rather than one who competes.
65A: Music provider: STEREO
66A: Hangs around to see: STAYS FOR
Down:
1D: Early 12th century year: MCI. 1101. Easiest fill in the grid.
2D: Philip of "Kung Fu": AHN. I mentioned last time that AHN is Ang in Chinese, as in director Ang Lee. Or simply AN, literally "peace". Korean Hanja uses lots of old Chinese characters.
4D: Jewish Community Center grps: YMHAS (Young Men's Hebrew Associations). New to me.
5D: One of the Coen brothers: JOEL. He is married to Frances McDormand, "Marge" in "Fargo". The Coen brothers were born and grew up here in MN, so our local media follows them very closely.
6D: "I hate to be _ , but ...": complaint opening: A NAG
7D: With grace: NICELY
9D: Prom coach: LIMO. Have never heard of LIMO referred to as a coach.
10D: Words of agreement: AMENS
11D: Sound units, briefly: DBS. Know decibles, not familiar with the abbreviation though.
12D: Post-Katrina retail sign, perhaps: YES WE'RE OPEN. Did not come to me readily.
13D: Are afraid to: DARE NOT
14D: "Piece of cake": IT'S EASY. No sir, this puzzle is hard.
20D: Incessantly: NO END. Like today's multiple words, NO END, so many.
22D: __-relief: BAS. Or low relief. And high relief (alto-relievo) & sunkun relief, the three main types of relief.
24D: Familiar red-white-and-blue symbol: BARBER'S POLE. I was thinking of flag.
27D: Latin horn: CORNU. Oh, is that how we got cornucopia? It's horn-shaped.
29D: Mexico's San Juan and Conchos, e.g.: RIOS. Thought they are just cities. Have never heard of those two Mexican flow-ers.
30D: Nonsense: HOKUM
31D: French-Swiss author Madame de __: STAEL. I tried to connect this lady with Lesley Stahl, as STAEL & Stahl has the same pronunciation. That's a very odd portrait, no earrings, no necklace, no bracelet, not even a flower in her hand.
34D: Lose it: GO APE
36D: Concerning: IN RE. Sometimes the answer is AS TO.
39D: Mosquito Fleet craft: PT BOATS. Knew PT BOATS (Patrol Torpedo Boats) from reading various JFK biographies. Have never heard of the term Mosquito Fleet. See definition #6. Why "Mosquito"?
40D: Was enthusiastic about: LEAPT AT
46D: Like some partners: SILENT. SILENT partner is "One that makes financial investments in a business enterprise but does not participate in its management." It's a new term to me. I was thinking of SAME SEX.
49D: Gumption: SPINE. Thought of SPUNK.
51D: Some partners: Abbr.: ATTYS. Hard one. But I like the clue.
54D: __-1: "Ghostbusters" vehicle: ECTO. No idea. Have never heard of the car ECTO-1 or the movie "Ghostbusters". ECTO is always clued as "Prefix for outside" in our old puzzle.
55D: Resort near Snowbird: ALTA. See this map. I've never heard of the name Snowbird. Is it a city? A county?
56D: Not: NARY. I need " __ a one" for the answer to leap to me immediately.
58D: Debussy subject: MER. Debussy's "La MER".
60D: Reason for a repeat?: EFF. Maybe it's a gimme for all you teachers. But it's a tough clue for me. I was not in the test score direction at all. In China, you pass when your score is 60 (out of 100).
61D: Auto racer Fabi: TEO. Absolutely no idea. Not a racing fan. Know nothing about TEO Fabi or Formula One, except their boss Max Mosley's sensational scandal.
Answer Grid.
C.C.
Total blocks: 30
Total words: 72
Still remember Patrick Berry's trick to count total words in a grid? You add the number of upper-left corners (the numbered squares that form the starts of two entries), and then add that to the grid's highest number. In today's grid, the number of those upper-left corners is 6: MARY JANE/MCI, LADY DI/LIMO, BOBS/BAS, RHYMES/RIOS, PLEASURE/PT BOATS, ANTE/ATTYS. And the grid's highest number is 66 (Across). So we have total 72 words, the maximum allowed for a themeless Saturday puzzle (78 for themed one).
A complete disaster for me this morning. Definitely need more time to get used to Rich Norris' multiple words and tricky clues.
I don't know. Last Saturday I was able to fill in lots of blanks. Not much luck today. Rich Norris is starting to show his true color. "Toto, I've a feeling we are not in Kansas any more." The good news is that most of my fills are correct. So I think I am making progress.
I like how EXTREME MEASURES (8D: "Outside the box" solutions) is positioned in the grid. But I don't understand the rationale for the clue. Why? Is "Outside the box" a movie? Why it's in quotation marks?
Across:
1A: Spider-Man's girl: MARY JANE. Stumped immediately. Could only think of Kirsten Dunst who played MARY JANE in "Spider-Man". I like her in "Marie Antoinette".
2A: "Candle in the Wind" dedicatee: LADY DI. Another stumper. Wanted DIANA, then thought of the original dedicatee Marilyn Monroe. Neither would fit. More familiar with the title Princess Di than LADY DI.
15A: French town at the foot of Mont Blanc: CHAMONIX. Non. Je n'ai aucune idée. See this map. Wikipedia says the first Winter Olympics was held here in 1924.
16A: "That was exhausting!": I'M BEAT. Yeah, that's how I am feeling now.
17A: Red-handed: IN THE ACT
18A: Ltr. opener: MESSRS. This is the old fashioned way, isn't it? (Note from Kazie: MESSRS is actually French, short for Messieurs, plural of Monsieur, because the possessive (mon/ma/mes) changes to agree with the noun (c.f. Madame/Mademoiselle/Mesdames). English simply borrowed yet another French term instead of creating its own.)
19A: "Flowers for __": Daniel Keyes sci-fi classic: ALGERNON. Nope. I've never heard of the book or the author. Wikipedia says it won the Hugo Award for best Short Story in 1960.
22A: Drifts on waves: BOBS. Does this refer to fisherman's bobbers bobbing?
26A: Extended operatic solo: SCENA. New word to me. Dictionary defines SCENA as "an extended operatic vocal solo, usually including an aria and a recitative."
28A: Like: A LA
29A: Wear and tear, e.g.: RHYMES. V-8 moment for me. Great clue.
32A: Gold medals, in Guadalajara: OROS. Not medallas de ORO?
33A: Spaghetti western director Leone: SERGIO. I've heard of these major movies he made. Did not know his name though. Thought SERGIO is a Spanish name, as in golfer SERGIO Garcia. But SERGIO Leone is an Italian.
35A: Completeness: ENTIRETY
37A: "Hawaii Five-O" order: BOOK 'EM DANNO. Someone mentioned this catchprase on the Comments section a few weeks ago. But I blanked this morning.
39A: Hedonist's pursuit: PLEASURE. What's the difference between Hedonism and Epicureanism again?
41A: Bursts: ERUPTS. Reminds me of the SCORIA clue we had last June: "Volcanic rock ejecta". I think that's how we started this "Holy hotwick lava bomb".
44A: U. of Maryland athlete: TERP
45A: One of numerous childhood spots?: MEASLE. I was picturing my childhood playground, not any MEASLE spot. Clever clue.
47A: Goddess of dawn: EOS. Aurora for the Romans. Just mentioned yesterday that George Sand's original name is Aurore. Dennis quoted her "Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age." last time.
48A: Military operations centers: BASES
50A: CBS forensic drama: CSI
51A: Prelude to a deal: ANTES. Poker. Not the business deal I was thinking.
52A: Not in favor: Abbr. OPP. Opposed.
53A: Peevish: PETULANT
57A: Kind of number of clock: ATOMIC. What is ATOMIC clock again? My memory is so bad now.
59A: Communicate well with: RELATE TO. John Daly's swing & his demeanor are so hard to RELATE TO, yet he has so many followers.
63A: Ability: TALENT. Are they really the same?
64A: Competitor's payment: ENTRY FEE. I always associate "Competitor" with "rival" rather than one who competes.
65A: Music provider: STEREO
66A: Hangs around to see: STAYS FOR
Down:
1D: Early 12th century year: MCI. 1101. Easiest fill in the grid.
2D: Philip of "Kung Fu": AHN. I mentioned last time that AHN is Ang in Chinese, as in director Ang Lee. Or simply AN, literally "peace". Korean Hanja uses lots of old Chinese characters.
4D: Jewish Community Center grps: YMHAS (Young Men's Hebrew Associations). New to me.
5D: One of the Coen brothers: JOEL. He is married to Frances McDormand, "Marge" in "Fargo". The Coen brothers were born and grew up here in MN, so our local media follows them very closely.
6D: "I hate to be _ , but ...": complaint opening: A NAG
7D: With grace: NICELY
9D: Prom coach: LIMO. Have never heard of LIMO referred to as a coach.
10D: Words of agreement: AMENS
11D: Sound units, briefly: DBS. Know decibles, not familiar with the abbreviation though.
12D: Post-Katrina retail sign, perhaps: YES WE'RE OPEN. Did not come to me readily.
13D: Are afraid to: DARE NOT
14D: "Piece of cake": IT'S EASY. No sir, this puzzle is hard.
20D: Incessantly: NO END. Like today's multiple words, NO END, so many.
22D: __-relief: BAS. Or low relief. And high relief (alto-relievo) & sunkun relief, the three main types of relief.
24D: Familiar red-white-and-blue symbol: BARBER'S POLE. I was thinking of flag.
27D: Latin horn: CORNU. Oh, is that how we got cornucopia? It's horn-shaped.
29D: Mexico's San Juan and Conchos, e.g.: RIOS. Thought they are just cities. Have never heard of those two Mexican flow-ers.
30D: Nonsense: HOKUM
31D: French-Swiss author Madame de __: STAEL. I tried to connect this lady with Lesley Stahl, as STAEL & Stahl has the same pronunciation. That's a very odd portrait, no earrings, no necklace, no bracelet, not even a flower in her hand.
34D: Lose it: GO APE
36D: Concerning: IN RE. Sometimes the answer is AS TO.
39D: Mosquito Fleet craft: PT BOATS. Knew PT BOATS (Patrol Torpedo Boats) from reading various JFK biographies. Have never heard of the term Mosquito Fleet. See definition #6. Why "Mosquito"?
40D: Was enthusiastic about: LEAPT AT
46D: Like some partners: SILENT. SILENT partner is "One that makes financial investments in a business enterprise but does not participate in its management." It's a new term to me. I was thinking of SAME SEX.
49D: Gumption: SPINE. Thought of SPUNK.
51D: Some partners: Abbr.: ATTYS. Hard one. But I like the clue.
54D: __-1: "Ghostbusters" vehicle: ECTO. No idea. Have never heard of the car ECTO-1 or the movie "Ghostbusters". ECTO is always clued as "Prefix for outside" in our old puzzle.
55D: Resort near Snowbird: ALTA. See this map. I've never heard of the name Snowbird. Is it a city? A county?
56D: Not: NARY. I need " __ a one" for the answer to leap to me immediately.
58D: Debussy subject: MER. Debussy's "La MER".
60D: Reason for a repeat?: EFF. Maybe it's a gimme for all you teachers. But it's a tough clue for me. I was not in the test score direction at all. In China, you pass when your score is 60 (out of 100).
61D: Auto racer Fabi: TEO. Absolutely no idea. Not a racing fan. Know nothing about TEO Fabi or Formula One, except their boss Max Mosley's sensational scandal.
Answer Grid.
C.C.
