Theme: Ah-Choo! I have a code in my nose!
Each of the four theme answers takes a phrase including a word with the letters "OLD" and by saying them, as you would with a HEAD COLD. creates new and amusingly clued answer. This is our third effort from Norm and there is much I love about this effort. What makes the sound alike so impressive, is like marti last Friday, each fractured homonym is spelled differently. he also squeezes out two 14 letter and two 13 letter theme answers. Some really superb long fill and a couple of stinkers, but a fun Friday for me, now to put you to work.
16A. Weeded carelessly? : HOED (HOLD) EVERYTHING (14). Great visual clue.
28A. Editor's rejection of a tribute? : THE ODE (OLD) HEAVE-HO(13). I love this picturing the proffered poem thrown out the window.
46A. Provoke Olympic winners? : GOAD (GOLD) MEDALISTS. Very timely, but is there a conflict with a non-theme reference to the Olympics?
62A. Purchased, then altered? : BOUGHT AND SEWED (SOLD). Reap (rip?) what ye shall sew?
And the hint,
1A. With 70-Across, what you'd likely have if you said this puzzle's four longest answers : HEAD. 70A. See 1-Across : COLD. I do not recall ever receiving the hint to the theme in the very first clue, but this obviously helped buzz through this effort.
Across:
5. Concerning : AS TO. In re for all you fancy people.
9. Frequent settler : DUST. Nice misdirection, and certainly true as there is dust everywhere in Florida.
13. Online "Seems to me..." : IMHO. In My Humble Opinion. Why do opinions need to be humble?
14. Mother of Judah : LEAH. She is an interesting character, one of the MATRIARCHS of Judaism.
15. After-school treat : OREO. Cooookie!
19. ___ glance : AT A.
20. Dote on : PAMPER. You see that is why they call them Pampers, because you dote on your babies!
21. Stop from spreading : STEM. Once again the Gulf Coast must Stem the rising waters.
23. Short : TERSE. Yup.
25. Arctic diver : AUK. We have had this guy before.
Each of the four theme answers takes a phrase including a word with the letters "OLD" and by saying them, as you would with a HEAD COLD. creates new and amusingly clued answer. This is our third effort from Norm and there is much I love about this effort. What makes the sound alike so impressive, is like marti last Friday, each fractured homonym is spelled differently. he also squeezes out two 14 letter and two 13 letter theme answers. Some really superb long fill and a couple of stinkers, but a fun Friday for me, now to put you to work.
16A. Weeded carelessly? : HOED (HOLD) EVERYTHING (14). Great visual clue.
28A. Editor's rejection of a tribute? : THE ODE (OLD) HEAVE-HO(13). I love this picturing the proffered poem thrown out the window.
46A. Provoke Olympic winners? : GOAD (GOLD) MEDALISTS. Very timely, but is there a conflict with a non-theme reference to the Olympics?
62A. Purchased, then altered? : BOUGHT AND SEWED (SOLD). Reap (rip?) what ye shall sew?
And the hint,
1A. With 70-Across, what you'd likely have if you said this puzzle's four longest answers : HEAD. 70A. See 1-Across : COLD. I do not recall ever receiving the hint to the theme in the very first clue, but this obviously helped buzz through this effort.
Across:
5. Concerning : AS TO. In re for all you fancy people.
9. Frequent settler : DUST. Nice misdirection, and certainly true as there is dust everywhere in Florida.
13. Online "Seems to me..." : IMHO. In My Humble Opinion. Why do opinions need to be humble?
14. Mother of Judah : LEAH. She is an interesting character, one of the MATRIARCHS of Judaism.
15. After-school treat : OREO. Cooookie!
19. ___ glance : AT A.
20. Dote on : PAMPER. You see that is why they call them Pampers, because you dote on your babies!
21. Stop from spreading : STEM. Once again the Gulf Coast must Stem the rising waters.
23. Short : TERSE. Yup.
25. Arctic diver : AUK. We have had this guy before.
27. Jurist in '90s news : ITO. If you need to be reminded he presided over the OJ TRIAL. Jurist is not a member of a jury.
33. Basketball Hall of Famer Robertson : OSCAR. The BIG O (4:20), one of the all time great out of Cincinnati.
34. Like Olympic pools : LANED. So are highways and Clark Kent on a good night.
35. Maker of Golf Street shoes : ECCO. We have had this show company many times, rather than the Latin "behold."
38. Instruction on a cap : TWIST. Do we really need this in writing? Are they afraid we will just break the bottle?
41. Some NFL limemen : CTRS. Centers, who get hit in the head so often, they are often....
42. Type of vb. : IRREGular, which is more acceptable than "Needing for Phillips Milk of Magnesia" as a clue. Irregular verbs do not have the same stem word though conjugation.
44. 1950s war site : KOREA. Among my earliest memories, and then of course there was THIS (0:51).
50. Channel for a spree : HSN. Home Shopping Network.
51. ___ chi : TAI. A very involved martial arts and life force system from CHINA. C.C. any comment? (Morning Tai Chi is quite a sight in almost every big city in China. See this photo from the Shanghai bund.)
52. Ward and others : SELAS. Really norm, and who might these others be? The word is not really a name, but a biblical instruction to pause and contemplate what was read. (Selah).
55. Disapproving utterances : TSKS. How minor is the action to get only on TSK? Followed by a
57. Unpleasant laugh : CACKLE. This is really not a curse word.
61. "Either you do it, ___ will!" : OR I. Well I guess I did it.
65. Mystique : AURA.
66. Word with cast and shadow : OVER. Overcast, overshadow.
67. Fictional sailor : SMEE. Right hook man to the Captain.
68. MapQuest data: Abbr. : RTES. Routes.
69. Sussex stable area : MEWS. If you read enough British Mysteries, you know this TERM.
Down:
1. Drummer's pair of cymbals : HI HAT. I had to buy my son a new set of cymbals.
2. Frustrate the director, perhaps : EMOTE. Not related to EMAIL, or ETAIL, unless you are referring to the long distance device to control your TV and you like baby talk..
3. Informal bridge opening : A HEART. Very informal, hi marti!
4. Pentagon org. : DOD. if you watch NCIS, you know this one. Department of Defense.
5. Inventing middle name : ALVA. Thomas ____Edison.
6. Feel : SEEM.
7. Rain delay sight : TARPaulin. Take me out to the ball game, oops its raining. The Marlins AAA team is in New Orleans.
8. "We'll just see about that!" : OH YEAH. Yeah, wanna make something of it!
9. "I'm such an idiot!" : DOH. Homer you are an Icon!
10. "Topaz" novelist : URIS. Leon, most famous for Exodus.
11. Conscious : SENTIENT. Wonderful long fill, and what makes us so special. Same Latin root as sense.
12. Simultaneously : TOGETHER. Carol, Lois, if you are out there, I know what word comes to mind when you think of Simultaneous, but it is not referring to Oscar Robertson!
17. Summer Olympics equipment : EPEES. Little swords for the fencing crowd.
18. Hard to debate : TRUE. It's twue, I tell you, it's twue! (oo sound 1).
22. They might swing : MOODS. This year, VOTES might have been more apt. (oo sound 2).
24. Chased away : SHOOED. Remind you of marti's cat puzzle? (oo sound 3).
26. ___-El: Superman's birth name : KAL. Dad was Jor-El. El is a Hebrew suffix for "of G-d". Israel, Gabriel etc. Siegel and Shuster were both Jewish and there is speculation of a direct influence from the story of MOSES. LINK.
29. Canadian Thanksgiving mo. : OCTober. Those Canadians know how to party!
30. Raven relative : DAW. This is an abbreviation, or otherwise a variant of the jackdaw, one of the other birds in the Corvine (Crow) family. No relation to See Saw Margery Daw.
31. Slezak with six Daytime Emmys : ERIKA. A regular on One Life to Live until it folded last year.
33. Basketball Hall of Famer Robertson : OSCAR. The BIG O (4:20), one of the all time great out of Cincinnati.
34. Like Olympic pools : LANED. So are highways and Clark Kent on a good night.
35. Maker of Golf Street shoes : ECCO. We have had this show company many times, rather than the Latin "behold."
38. Instruction on a cap : TWIST. Do we really need this in writing? Are they afraid we will just break the bottle?
41. Some NFL limemen : CTRS. Centers, who get hit in the head so often, they are often....
42. Type of vb. : IRREGular, which is more acceptable than "Needing for Phillips Milk of Magnesia" as a clue. Irregular verbs do not have the same stem word though conjugation.
44. 1950s war site : KOREA. Among my earliest memories, and then of course there was THIS (0:51).
50. Channel for a spree : HSN. Home Shopping Network.
51. ___ chi : TAI. A very involved martial arts and life force system from CHINA. C.C. any comment? (Morning Tai Chi is quite a sight in almost every big city in China. See this photo from the Shanghai bund.)
52. Ward and others : SELAS. Really norm, and who might these others be? The word is not really a name, but a biblical instruction to pause and contemplate what was read. (Selah).
55. Disapproving utterances : TSKS. How minor is the action to get only on TSK? Followed by a
57. Unpleasant laugh : CACKLE. This is really not a curse word.
61. "Either you do it, ___ will!" : OR I. Well I guess I did it.
65. Mystique : AURA.
66. Word with cast and shadow : OVER. Overcast, overshadow.
67. Fictional sailor : SMEE. Right hook man to the Captain.
68. MapQuest data: Abbr. : RTES. Routes.
69. Sussex stable area : MEWS. If you read enough British Mysteries, you know this TERM.
Down:
1. Drummer's pair of cymbals : HI HAT. I had to buy my son a new set of cymbals.
2. Frustrate the director, perhaps : EMOTE. Not related to EMAIL, or ETAIL, unless you are referring to the long distance device to control your TV and you like baby talk..
3. Informal bridge opening : A HEART. Very informal, hi marti!
4. Pentagon org. : DOD. if you watch NCIS, you know this one. Department of Defense.
5. Inventing middle name : ALVA. Thomas ____Edison.
6. Feel : SEEM.
7. Rain delay sight : TARPaulin. Take me out to the ball game, oops its raining. The Marlins AAA team is in New Orleans.
8. "We'll just see about that!" : OH YEAH. Yeah, wanna make something of it!
9. "I'm such an idiot!" : DOH. Homer you are an Icon!
10. "Topaz" novelist : URIS. Leon, most famous for Exodus.
11. Conscious : SENTIENT. Wonderful long fill, and what makes us so special. Same Latin root as sense.
12. Simultaneously : TOGETHER. Carol, Lois, if you are out there, I know what word comes to mind when you think of Simultaneous, but it is not referring to Oscar Robertson!
17. Summer Olympics equipment : EPEES. Little swords for the fencing crowd.
18. Hard to debate : TRUE. It's twue, I tell you, it's twue! (oo sound 1).
22. They might swing : MOODS. This year, VOTES might have been more apt. (oo sound 2).
24. Chased away : SHOOED. Remind you of marti's cat puzzle? (oo sound 3).
26. ___-El: Superman's birth name : KAL. Dad was Jor-El. El is a Hebrew suffix for "of G-d". Israel, Gabriel etc. Siegel and Shuster were both Jewish and there is speculation of a direct influence from the story of MOSES. LINK.
29. Canadian Thanksgiving mo. : OCTober. Those Canadians know how to party!
30. Raven relative : DAW. This is an abbreviation, or otherwise a variant of the jackdaw, one of the other birds in the Corvine (Crow) family. No relation to See Saw Margery Daw.
31. Slezak with six Daytime Emmys : ERIKA. A regular on One Life to Live until it folded last year.
32. Leave : VACATE. I like it better in vacation, but same word.
35. Figure on ice : EIGHT. Another nice clue, and a continuing hello to our skaters, CA and Robin.
36. Placekicker's target : CROSS BAR. Just great long non-theme fill, the bar in between the goal posts in football over which the ball must travel.
37. Produce prolifically : CRANK OUT. Norm was really cranking out some fun fill.
39. Answer to a prob. : SOLution.
40. Ad starter? : TRI. TRIAD, A group of three, often in music signifying a three note chord. (JzB?)
43. Clock-setting std. : GMT. Greenwich Mean Time. was established in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference when it was decided to place the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, England. This is where Longitude is 0 0 0.
45. Almost half a glass? : ESSES. GLASS. 40%.
47. Per : EACH.
48. Microscopic alga : DIATOM. One of the great parts of the living Earth. LINK. More new fill.
49. ESPN effect : SLOW MOtion. Norm is on fire with his creativity.
53. Staggering : AREEL. Oh, drat, a dreaded A word!
54. Went (with) : SIDED. You agree with me?
56. "Why not" : SURE. Oh thank you, I hope you mean it and you did not just....
58. Give : CAVE. up in?
59. Wasn't guessing : KNEW. you would agree.
60. Country runners: Abbr. : LDRS. LeaDeRs. That kind of country. The are often full of
63. Hot air : GAS. Which must mean it is my time to
64. Corner key : ESCape.
Answer grid.
Another long day at the office, but it was fun as we closed on five homes for first time home buyers, and the puzzle was a nice segue to get me ready rest. have a great long weekend, and enjoy.
Lemonade
Note from C.C.:
Here is a lovely picture of dear Marge. She said the photo was taken about 5 years ago. Here is a recent photo of her grandson Logan, who's 2 1/2. So cute. Awesome indeed.
