Theme: Siteswap Eight - or Juggling Jive. The word JUGGLING is spelled out by the circles, starting with the J at the bottom and progressing clockwise in a circle, cascade-style.
17A. Elaborate costume parties : MASKED BALLS
53A. Places for seeing stars? : BOXING RINGS
11D. What can help you avoid getting stuck changing diapers? : SAFETY PINS
28D. Groups with a piece-keeping strategy? : CHESS CLUBS
and the reveal:
48D. Nonsense talk, whose circled letter is the start of what might be done with items in the four longest puzzle answers : JIVE. Cue those falsetto-singing Australians. Get your disco on.
Wow, what a nice puzzle! This one presented three challenges for me - the puzzle itself, trying to figure out what the reveal meant, and finally seeing the juggling theme in the circles. The way I see it, the word JIVE is the juggler (as I've colored in the grid at the bottom). Fine work from Bruce today.
The first known juggling image comes from a wall painting in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian prince c. 1750 BC. The lady on the right doesn't seem to have much to juggle, but the one next to her is doing a cross-handed bedazzle. Neat!
I learned to juggle at a trade show in Maastricht back in the 80's. I was on booth duty and the show was very poorly attended, so customers were few and far between. One of the vendors had hacky sack giveaways, so we all took three or four and learned to juggle. By the end of the week the only activity to be seen across the floor was about 100 people doing three and four siteswaps. Fun times.
Across:
1. Asset for Sherlock : LOGIC
6. Fast : RAPID
11. Additional information? : SUM. Fine example of clue trickery. 1+2 = 3.
14. Important period : EPOCH
15. Eat into : ERODE
16. What makes a deal ideal? : AN "I". Love it.
Coach: There's no "I" in "Team"!
19. Pickle : FIX
20. "Zip it!" : SHH!
21. Prosperity : WEAL. This was new to me - I thought at first I'd made a mistake in the crosses. It seems to be a pretty obscure usage, dictionary searches don't bring it up at first pass, and it's buried pretty deeply in the thesaurus. Nice learning moment.
22. "Blah, blah, blah," for short : ETC, ETC
24. Golden __ : AGER
25. "I used to be Snow White, but I __": Mae West : DRIFTED. She was pretty racy for the times. Still would be, judging by this picture:
26. Part of the pelvis : SACRUM
29. In essence : MAINLY
30. "Bor-r-ring" : HO-HUM
31. LPGA great Lopez : NANCY. During her "farewell" season on tour, one rather famous player could be heard one Thursday: "I'm so sick of this. Every week it's the same thing. Nancy shows up, Nancy gets a plaque, Nancy cries, Nancy misses the cut. Call it a career already". Made me laugh.
32. Green shade : PEA
35. Rare blood type, briefly : A-NEG
36. Shakespearean barmaid : WENCH.
37. Picky details : NITS. We never see any of those around here, right?
38. "But __ got high hopes ... ": song lyric : HE'S
39. Neutral tone : BEIGE
40. Prefix with -gram : PENTA
41. Like angel food cake : SPONGY. I had SPONGE first until MANGY corrected me. MANGE didn't work as an adjective.
43. Curry favor with, with "to" : KISS UP
44. Ill-mannered : UNCOUTH
46. Veers suddenly : ZIGS. Z_GS and wait for the cross.
47. Distance runners : MILERS. I was a pretty OK distance runner, the longer the better - I was too stubborn to admit defeat. The sprint finishers always did for me though - I had no fast gear. Not too sure I've got much of a slow one any more, come to think of it.
48. First name in folk : JONI. Mitchell.
49. How it's always done, initially : SOP. Standard Operating Procedure. The crosses filled this one in for me - I had to think quite hard as to what the acronym stood for. In fact, I had to think so hard that I had Google do the thinking.
52. Heat meas. : B.T.U. British Thermal Unit. The British are very understated with their "thermal units" of weather. Icicles hanging from your ears means "it's a bit chilly out". Hurricane-force winds are "breezy". The opposite applies with heat, as there is rarely any of it. Any day above 70F is "a scorcher". Two consecutive scorchers constitute "a heatwave" and attracts comparisons to the weather in Spain. Three in a row and the Town Hall issues a three-week hosepipe ban.
56. CSA soldier : REB.
57. Green shade : OLIVE. Two shades of green today.
58. Fragrances : ODORS
59. Pack animal : ASS
60. Snooped (around) : NOSED
61. "Check" : NO BET. Poker term. When you decline to open the betting in a particular round and pass to the next player.
Down:
1. NASA vehicles : LEMS. Lunar Exploration Modules.
2. Fish with vermilion fins : OPAH. Reminds me of the toasts in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Ώπα!
3. "Jeepers!" : GOSH
4. "Ugh!" : ICK
5. Enjoy Orbit : CHEW GUM.
6. Masonry-reinforcing rod : REBAR. From "reinforcing bar", which is too much of a mouthful.
7. Inland Asian sea : ARAL
8. D.C. player : POL. Got me with "NAT" first.
9. Set-for-life set : IDLE RICH
10. Lot : DESTINY
12. Form a coalition : UNITE
13. Personalized collection of love songs, say : MIX CD. Mix tapes in my day. The main character in Nick Hornby's book "High Fidelity" makes mix tapes for any girl he's trying to date. John Cusack starred in the movie. Jack Black has an outstanding performance, one of his early successes.
18. Consider : DEEM
23. Toronto Argonauts' org. : C.F.L. Canadian Football League. Nine teams, currently.
24. "... bug in __" : A RUG. As snug as a ..
25. Hustle or shuffle : DANCE
26. Former Mideast ruler : SHAH
27. Tops : A-ONE
29. Like many a stray dog : MANGY
31. Bay sound : NEIGH
33. Incredulous dying words : ET TU?
34. "Hurry!" letters : ASAP! Not STAT. Wait for the crosses if you've just got the A.
36. Tried to make it on one's own : WENT SOLO
37. Storied loch : NESS. More than 22 miles long. Spectacular views too.
39. New Orleans' __ Street : BOURBON, I went for an early-morning run down Bourbon Street one Sunday morning. Let's just say it wasn't one of my better ideas.
40. Crude smelting product : PIG IRON
42. "Once upon a midnight dreary" poet : POE.
43. Two-checker piece : KING. I think this fella can jump backwards, but I haven't played checkers since I was five.
44. Eclipse shadow : UMBRA
45. Times in ads : NITES
46. Daydreamed, with "out" : ZONED. Sorry, what was that?
49. Stuffed shirt : SNOB
50. Brutish one : OGRE. I read "British one" first, and wondered why OGRE? We're not all meanies.
51. "You there!" : PSST
54. Ones following the nus? : XIS. It's all Greek to me.
55. Court promise : I DO. As in promising to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. We geeks learn the meaning of third normal form in a relational database by memorizing: "The key, the whole key and nothing but the key, so help me Codd".
And with that, I think I'm done. Time for some caffeine.
Steve
17A. Elaborate costume parties : MASKED BALLS
53A. Places for seeing stars? : BOXING RINGS
11D. What can help you avoid getting stuck changing diapers? : SAFETY PINS
28D. Groups with a piece-keeping strategy? : CHESS CLUBS
and the reveal:
48D. Nonsense talk, whose circled letter is the start of what might be done with items in the four longest puzzle answers : JIVE. Cue those falsetto-singing Australians. Get your disco on.
Wow, what a nice puzzle! This one presented three challenges for me - the puzzle itself, trying to figure out what the reveal meant, and finally seeing the juggling theme in the circles. The way I see it, the word JIVE is the juggler (as I've colored in the grid at the bottom). Fine work from Bruce today.
The first known juggling image comes from a wall painting in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian prince c. 1750 BC. The lady on the right doesn't seem to have much to juggle, but the one next to her is doing a cross-handed bedazzle. Neat!
I learned to juggle at a trade show in Maastricht back in the 80's. I was on booth duty and the show was very poorly attended, so customers were few and far between. One of the vendors had hacky sack giveaways, so we all took three or four and learned to juggle. By the end of the week the only activity to be seen across the floor was about 100 people doing three and four siteswaps. Fun times.
Across:
1. Asset for Sherlock : LOGIC
6. Fast : RAPID
11. Additional information? : SUM. Fine example of clue trickery. 1+2 = 3.
14. Important period : EPOCH
15. Eat into : ERODE
16. What makes a deal ideal? : AN "I". Love it.
Coach: There's no "I" in "Team"!
19. Pickle : FIX
20. "Zip it!" : SHH!
21. Prosperity : WEAL. This was new to me - I thought at first I'd made a mistake in the crosses. It seems to be a pretty obscure usage, dictionary searches don't bring it up at first pass, and it's buried pretty deeply in the thesaurus. Nice learning moment.
22. "Blah, blah, blah," for short : ETC, ETC
24. Golden __ : AGER
25. "I used to be Snow White, but I __": Mae West : DRIFTED. She was pretty racy for the times. Still would be, judging by this picture:
26. Part of the pelvis : SACRUM
29. In essence : MAINLY
30. "Bor-r-ring" : HO-HUM
31. LPGA great Lopez : NANCY. During her "farewell" season on tour, one rather famous player could be heard one Thursday: "I'm so sick of this. Every week it's the same thing. Nancy shows up, Nancy gets a plaque, Nancy cries, Nancy misses the cut. Call it a career already". Made me laugh.
32. Green shade : PEA
35. Rare blood type, briefly : A-NEG
36. Shakespearean barmaid : WENCH.
"Oh, ill-starred wench! Pale as your smock!"
Othello
37. Picky details : NITS. We never see any of those around here, right?
38. "But __ got high hopes ... ": song lyric : HE'S
39. Neutral tone : BEIGE
40. Prefix with -gram : PENTA
41. Like angel food cake : SPONGY. I had SPONGE first until MANGY corrected me. MANGE didn't work as an adjective.
43. Curry favor with, with "to" : KISS UP
44. Ill-mannered : UNCOUTH
46. Veers suddenly : ZIGS. Z_GS and wait for the cross.
47. Distance runners : MILERS. I was a pretty OK distance runner, the longer the better - I was too stubborn to admit defeat. The sprint finishers always did for me though - I had no fast gear. Not too sure I've got much of a slow one any more, come to think of it.
48. First name in folk : JONI. Mitchell.
49. How it's always done, initially : SOP. Standard Operating Procedure. The crosses filled this one in for me - I had to think quite hard as to what the acronym stood for. In fact, I had to think so hard that I had Google do the thinking.
52. Heat meas. : B.T.U. British Thermal Unit. The British are very understated with their "thermal units" of weather. Icicles hanging from your ears means "it's a bit chilly out". Hurricane-force winds are "breezy". The opposite applies with heat, as there is rarely any of it. Any day above 70F is "a scorcher". Two consecutive scorchers constitute "a heatwave" and attracts comparisons to the weather in Spain. Three in a row and the Town Hall issues a three-week hosepipe ban.
56. CSA soldier : REB.
57. Green shade : OLIVE. Two shades of green today.
58. Fragrances : ODORS
59. Pack animal : ASS
60. Snooped (around) : NOSED
61. "Check" : NO BET. Poker term. When you decline to open the betting in a particular round and pass to the next player.
Down:
1. NASA vehicles : LEMS. Lunar Exploration Modules.
2. Fish with vermilion fins : OPAH. Reminds me of the toasts in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Ώπα!
3. "Jeepers!" : GOSH
4. "Ugh!" : ICK
5. Enjoy Orbit : CHEW GUM.
6. Masonry-reinforcing rod : REBAR. From "reinforcing bar", which is too much of a mouthful.
7. Inland Asian sea : ARAL
8. D.C. player : POL. Got me with "NAT" first.
9. Set-for-life set : IDLE RICH
10. Lot : DESTINY
12. Form a coalition : UNITE
13. Personalized collection of love songs, say : MIX CD. Mix tapes in my day. The main character in Nick Hornby's book "High Fidelity" makes mix tapes for any girl he's trying to date. John Cusack starred in the movie. Jack Black has an outstanding performance, one of his early successes.
18. Consider : DEEM
23. Toronto Argonauts' org. : C.F.L. Canadian Football League. Nine teams, currently.
24. "... bug in __" : A RUG. As snug as a ..
25. Hustle or shuffle : DANCE
26. Former Mideast ruler : SHAH
27. Tops : A-ONE
29. Like many a stray dog : MANGY
31. Bay sound : NEIGH
33. Incredulous dying words : ET TU?
34. "Hurry!" letters : ASAP! Not STAT. Wait for the crosses if you've just got the A.
36. Tried to make it on one's own : WENT SOLO
37. Storied loch : NESS. More than 22 miles long. Spectacular views too.
39. New Orleans' __ Street : BOURBON, I went for an early-morning run down Bourbon Street one Sunday morning. Let's just say it wasn't one of my better ideas.
40. Crude smelting product : PIG IRON
42. "Once upon a midnight dreary" poet : POE.
43. Two-checker piece : KING. I think this fella can jump backwards, but I haven't played checkers since I was five.
44. Eclipse shadow : UMBRA
45. Times in ads : NITES
46. Daydreamed, with "out" : ZONED. Sorry, what was that?
49. Stuffed shirt : SNOB
50. Brutish one : OGRE. I read "British one" first, and wondered why OGRE? We're not all meanies.
51. "You there!" : PSST
54. Ones following the nus? : XIS. It's all Greek to me.
55. Court promise : I DO. As in promising to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. We geeks learn the meaning of third normal form in a relational database by memorizing: "The key, the whole key and nothing but the key, so help me Codd".
And with that, I think I'm done. Time for some caffeine.
Steve
