Theme: Six Servings - a veggie melange today. The circles reveal four jumbles and two anagrams thrown into the pot for good measure.
10A. Long-armed beasts : APES. Peas.
17A. Diamond heist? : STOLEN BASE. Beans.
23. Bare-bones staff : SKELETON CREW. Leeks. Here's a cheery bunch, courtesy of artist Ian O'Keefe:
47A. Divides, as lovers : COMES BETWEEN. Beets.
57A. Stereotypical bachelors' toys : SPORTS CARS. Carrots. You can have one of these McLarens for around $275,000 if you stick with the base package.
63A. He's fifth on the career home run list : MAYS. Yams. Second of the baseball-referencing themers. I know someone around these parts who didn't have any trouble there.
and the reveal:
35A. Dinner side, and what can literally be found in this puzzle's circles : MIXED VEGETABLES. Food! Here's some with a Thai flavor:
Hi everyone - Steve here with Kurt's challenge for the day. I definitely found this one crunchier than usual (and not because the vegetables were under-cooked!) - that middle top section almost did me in, egads!
Any of you solving without circles might have been handicapped by their lack; once I'd tumbled to the theme they definitely gave me a leg-up with the trickily-clued STOLEN BASE when I was having conniptions up in the North Dakota/Minnesota area.
Let's see what else we can find to ponder upon:
Across:
1. Thin locks, as of hair : WISPS
6. League fraction : MILE. This was my first "what????" moment up here. I was fixated on sports league references. Finally, right at the end, the penny dropped. Three miles in a league. Here's the opening to Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade". Cheerful stuff.
14. Tin Pan Alley org. : ASCAP. Performing rights royalty collections agency. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Irving Berlin was one of the founders, which gives me the perfect excuse to have a little fun with Jeeves and Wooster.
15. "... but I play one __" : ON TV. Second "what?????" up here. Took a while, and had me doubting "EVE" - what word ends in "V"?
16. Lead-in for sci : POLI
19. Tiger Woods' ex : ELIN. Still crossword-current though.
20. Fresh from the oven : HOT
21. One may be tossed after a wish : COIN. I read "crossed" first, and wondered how you can cross one finger?
22. Rub the wrong away : ERASE. Nice clue - of course I read "wrong way" first. Something wrong with my eyesight today.
26. Painter who was a leader of the Fauvist movement : MATISSE. Familiar with the artist, unfamiliar with the movement.
29. "__ Ben Adhem" : ABOU. Who? Thank you, crosses. Title character of the Leigh Hunt poem, apparently.
30. Shooting star, to some : OMEN
31. 1928 Oscar winner Jannings : EMIL. He won the very first Best Actor Oscar. (It was actually in 1929, but you could argue he won for his 1928 performances).
32. Early Beatle Sutcliffe : STU. He quit the band in Hamburg to go to art school, leaving the bass-playing duties to be picked up by the left-handed Paul McCartney. Sadly, he died a year later of a brain aneurysm.
40. Firm : SET
41. Reason for a tow job : REPO. Not a flat, as I first thought.
42. Literary governess : EYRE. Quick - name a literary governess who isn't Jane Eyre.
43. Controversial video game feature : GORE. Controversial? To whom?
44. Does a security job : SCREENS
51. Squirrel away : AMASS
52. Fruit discard : RIND. I used to eat orange rinds. I only did it because it annoyed my mom.
53. __ bath : MUD
56. Cost of living? : RENT
60. Eye rakishly : OGLE
61. Place to see crawls : POOL. The front and back varieties. A lot of people think the front crawl is called "freestyle". It's not, the freestyle race allows you to pick your own stroke, it just happens that everyone uses the front crawl because it's the quickest one.
62. Rock's __ Boingo : OINGO
64. Kennel sounds : YIPS
65. Graph lines : X-AXES. Looks odd in the grid, better with the hyphen.
Down:
1. Break-even transaction : WASH. Or, as the water-colorist replied when he was asked what he was putting on the paper - "It's a wash".
2. Comparative words : IS TO
3. Nae sayer : SCOT. The Scots recently voted "nae" in their referendum to leave the United Kingdom.
4. Frequent companion : PAL. I guess that means you can't pal around with an infrequent chum.
5. Dust motes : SPECKS. I like this crossing WISPS for no good reason.
6. Calder piece : MOBILE. I had no clue this gentleman was known as "The father of the mobile". That top section remained stubbornly blank for a long time.
7. Featherbrained : INANE
8. SFPD ranks : LTS. Police lieutenants. SFPD ain't got periods, so I'll leave them out of the answer. Annoyingly.
9. Memorable temptation victim : EVE
10. Brief outline : APERÇU. I know the word, in the sense that I can recognize it when I see it, and spell it, but I realized today that I didn't actually know what it meant. Now I do!
11. __ cap : POLAR. Aren't we missing the word "ice" here?
12. Beethoven's "Für __" : ELISE. I learned this on the piano when I was a kid. My mother loved it, so taken along with the orange peel eating, it was a wash.
13. Resilient strength : SINEW. I've never seen this in the sense of "possessing strength" before. I like it.
18. Anti votes : NOES
22. Name on a historic B-29 : ENOLA. Gay, the pilot's mom.
23. Cosecant's reciprocal : SINE
24. Teach, in a way : TAME
25. Final notice? : OBIT. Common enough in the shortened form not to need an abbreviation indication in the clue.
26. Kids' drivers, often : MOMS. Moms drive their kids. In return, orange-peel-eating kids drive their moms nuts.
27. Valéry's valentine : AMIE. Former president of France is Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. I hope it's his wife he's sending valentines to - his successor, François Mitterrand, famously had a string of mistresses.
28. Printed words : TEXT
31. It may need a boost : EGO
32. Roy Rogers' birth name : SLYE. He wasn't born "Roy" either. Franklin Slye.
33. Fork-tailed flier : TERN
34. Exploits : USES
36. Smeltery waste : DROSS. Smeltery? I think most people call 'em steelworks.
37. Hit or miss : VERB
38. Three-sided blade : EPÉE. It's only got one side when you get to the business end - the point.
39. " ... I've __ to the mountaintop": King : BEEN. Martin Luther King Jr's last speech. He was assassinated the next day.
43. Beaux __: noble deeds : GESTES. Note the pluralization of both words.
44. Ice cream designs : SWIRLS
45. Copper : CENT
46. Three-time 21st-century World Series champs : RED SOX. In 2004, most Bostonians would have doubted they'd ever live to see the day they won one, considering they hadn't won one since 1918. Chicago Cubs fans take heart.
47. Billiards shot : CAROM. Aha! I said. MASSE! That came out about two seconds later.
48. Greek finale : OMEGA. The last letter of the alphabet. Nice clue.
49. Virile : MANLY
50. Military unit : TROOP. Funny old word, troop. In the plural, it's ambiguous - compare "American troops" (a non-specific number) and "The army is sending 1,000 troops to .." (a very specific number). "Troops" is interchangeable with "soldiers", but "soldier" is not interchangeable with "troop". "A troop of soldiers" is some number more than a few. Confused much?
53. Tailless cat : MANX. From the Isle of Man.
54. Goad : URGE
55. British mil. decorations : D.S.O.S. Distinguished Service Orders. It's no use giving distinguished service if you're not an officer - you won't get this gong. Officers only. Weird.
57. Tom Clancy figure : SPY
58. Hawaiian dish : POI
59. Org. in Tom Clancy novels : C.I.A. I see what you did with 57A there.
And I think that's all I've got. Here's the grid:
Steve
10A. Long-armed beasts : APES. Peas.
17A. Diamond heist? : STOLEN BASE. Beans.
23. Bare-bones staff : SKELETON CREW. Leeks. Here's a cheery bunch, courtesy of artist Ian O'Keefe:
47A. Divides, as lovers : COMES BETWEEN. Beets.
57A. Stereotypical bachelors' toys : SPORTS CARS. Carrots. You can have one of these McLarens for around $275,000 if you stick with the base package.
and the reveal:
35A. Dinner side, and what can literally be found in this puzzle's circles : MIXED VEGETABLES. Food! Here's some with a Thai flavor:
Hi everyone - Steve here with Kurt's challenge for the day. I definitely found this one crunchier than usual (and not because the vegetables were under-cooked!) - that middle top section almost did me in, egads!
Any of you solving without circles might have been handicapped by their lack; once I'd tumbled to the theme they definitely gave me a leg-up with the trickily-clued STOLEN BASE when I was having conniptions up in the North Dakota/Minnesota area.
Let's see what else we can find to ponder upon:
Across:
1. Thin locks, as of hair : WISPS
6. League fraction : MILE. This was my first "what????" moment up here. I was fixated on sports league references. Finally, right at the end, the penny dropped. Three miles in a league. Here's the opening to Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade". Cheerful stuff.
Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
14. Tin Pan Alley org. : ASCAP. Performing rights royalty collections agency. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Irving Berlin was one of the founders, which gives me the perfect excuse to have a little fun with Jeeves and Wooster.
15. "... but I play one __" : ON TV. Second "what?????" up here. Took a while, and had me doubting "EVE" - what word ends in "V"?
16. Lead-in for sci : POLI
19. Tiger Woods' ex : ELIN. Still crossword-current though.
20. Fresh from the oven : HOT
21. One may be tossed after a wish : COIN. I read "crossed" first, and wondered how you can cross one finger?
22. Rub the wrong away : ERASE. Nice clue - of course I read "wrong way" first. Something wrong with my eyesight today.
26. Painter who was a leader of the Fauvist movement : MATISSE. Familiar with the artist, unfamiliar with the movement.
29. "__ Ben Adhem" : ABOU. Who? Thank you, crosses. Title character of the Leigh Hunt poem, apparently.
30. Shooting star, to some : OMEN
31. 1928 Oscar winner Jannings : EMIL. He won the very first Best Actor Oscar. (It was actually in 1929, but you could argue he won for his 1928 performances).
32. Early Beatle Sutcliffe : STU. He quit the band in Hamburg to go to art school, leaving the bass-playing duties to be picked up by the left-handed Paul McCartney. Sadly, he died a year later of a brain aneurysm.
40. Firm : SET
41. Reason for a tow job : REPO. Not a flat, as I first thought.
42. Literary governess : EYRE. Quick - name a literary governess who isn't Jane Eyre.
43. Controversial video game feature : GORE. Controversial? To whom?
44. Does a security job : SCREENS
51. Squirrel away : AMASS
52. Fruit discard : RIND. I used to eat orange rinds. I only did it because it annoyed my mom.
53. __ bath : MUD
56. Cost of living? : RENT
60. Eye rakishly : OGLE
61. Place to see crawls : POOL. The front and back varieties. A lot of people think the front crawl is called "freestyle". It's not, the freestyle race allows you to pick your own stroke, it just happens that everyone uses the front crawl because it's the quickest one.
62. Rock's __ Boingo : OINGO
64. Kennel sounds : YIPS
65. Graph lines : X-AXES. Looks odd in the grid, better with the hyphen.
Down:
1. Break-even transaction : WASH. Or, as the water-colorist replied when he was asked what he was putting on the paper - "It's a wash".
2. Comparative words : IS TO
3. Nae sayer : SCOT. The Scots recently voted "nae" in their referendum to leave the United Kingdom.
4. Frequent companion : PAL. I guess that means you can't pal around with an infrequent chum.
5. Dust motes : SPECKS. I like this crossing WISPS for no good reason.
6. Calder piece : MOBILE. I had no clue this gentleman was known as "The father of the mobile". That top section remained stubbornly blank for a long time.
7. Featherbrained : INANE
8. SFPD ranks : LTS. Police lieutenants. SFPD ain't got periods, so I'll leave them out of the answer. Annoyingly.
9. Memorable temptation victim : EVE
10. Brief outline : APERÇU. I know the word, in the sense that I can recognize it when I see it, and spell it, but I realized today that I didn't actually know what it meant. Now I do!
11. __ cap : POLAR. Aren't we missing the word "ice" here?
12. Beethoven's "Für __" : ELISE. I learned this on the piano when I was a kid. My mother loved it, so taken along with the orange peel eating, it was a wash.
13. Resilient strength : SINEW. I've never seen this in the sense of "possessing strength" before. I like it.
18. Anti votes : NOES
22. Name on a historic B-29 : ENOLA. Gay, the pilot's mom.
23. Cosecant's reciprocal : SINE
24. Teach, in a way : TAME
25. Final notice? : OBIT. Common enough in the shortened form not to need an abbreviation indication in the clue.
26. Kids' drivers, often : MOMS. Moms drive their kids. In return, orange-peel-eating kids drive their moms nuts.
27. Valéry's valentine : AMIE. Former president of France is Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. I hope it's his wife he's sending valentines to - his successor, François Mitterrand, famously had a string of mistresses.
28. Printed words : TEXT
31. It may need a boost : EGO
32. Roy Rogers' birth name : SLYE. He wasn't born "Roy" either. Franklin Slye.
33. Fork-tailed flier : TERN
34. Exploits : USES
36. Smeltery waste : DROSS. Smeltery? I think most people call 'em steelworks.
37. Hit or miss : VERB
38. Three-sided blade : EPÉE. It's only got one side when you get to the business end - the point.
39. " ... I've __ to the mountaintop": King : BEEN. Martin Luther King Jr's last speech. He was assassinated the next day.
43. Beaux __: noble deeds : GESTES. Note the pluralization of both words.
44. Ice cream designs : SWIRLS
45. Copper : CENT
46. Three-time 21st-century World Series champs : RED SOX. In 2004, most Bostonians would have doubted they'd ever live to see the day they won one, considering they hadn't won one since 1918. Chicago Cubs fans take heart.
47. Billiards shot : CAROM. Aha! I said. MASSE! That came out about two seconds later.
48. Greek finale : OMEGA. The last letter of the alphabet. Nice clue.
49. Virile : MANLY
50. Military unit : TROOP. Funny old word, troop. In the plural, it's ambiguous - compare "American troops" (a non-specific number) and "The army is sending 1,000 troops to .." (a very specific number). "Troops" is interchangeable with "soldiers", but "soldier" is not interchangeable with "troop". "A troop of soldiers" is some number more than a few. Confused much?
53. Tailless cat : MANX. From the Isle of Man.
54. Goad : URGE
55. British mil. decorations : D.S.O.S. Distinguished Service Orders. It's no use giving distinguished service if you're not an officer - you won't get this gong. Officers only. Weird.
57. Tom Clancy figure : SPY
58. Hawaiian dish : POI
59. Org. in Tom Clancy novels : C.I.A. I see what you did with 57A there.
And I think that's all I've got. Here's the grid:
Steve
