Theme Unoften Opposites - all the theme entries are unusual antonyms:
22A. Rarely used antonym of harmless: NOCUOUS. Innocuous. These fine gentlemen make up the metal band Nocuous. I'll check 'em out on YouTube and report back.
33A. Rarely used antonym of disheveled: KEMPT. Unkempt.
39A. Rarely used antonym of unidentified: ONYMOUS. Anonymous.
46A. Rarely used antonym of crude: COUTH. Uncouth.
57A. Rarely used antonym of cruel: RUTHFUL. Ruthless.
5D. Rarely used antonym of bumbling: GAINLY. Ungainly.
50D. Rarely used antonym of friendliness: COOLTH. Warmth.
What a great idea this puzzle is. I had a lot of fun figuring out the unknowns in the theme entries, new to me were NOCUOUS, ONYMOUS, RUTHFUL, GAINLY and COOLTH. Oddly enough, as I'm typing this, Google has highlighted all the theme entries as "unknown" to its spell-checker. They might like to have a chat to Webster's and the OED and see if they can use their word lists.
With the theme entries not being the longest in the grid, and no asterisks or reveal, then it's the common cluing that sets you on the rights track of what to look for.
Having enjoyed the antonyms, let's see what else we've got to talk about:
Across:
1. Fourth of eight: MARS. The Planets. Let's have some background music courtesy of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and "Mars" from "The Planet Suite" by Gustav Holst.
5. Classic Pontiacs: GTO'S
9. "Shrek" ogress: FIONA. I've never figured out why Shrek has a Scottish accent.
14. Colorado-based sports org.: U.S.O.C. The United States Olympic Committee.
15. Boomers' lobbying group: AARP
16. Equally hot: AS MAD
17. Ousted Iranian: SHAH. The last incumbent of "The Peacock Throne".
18. Flat-package furniture retailer: IKEA. Put it together, realize you've got one piece upside-down or back-to-front and take it all apart and start over.
19. Me.-to-Fla. highway: US ONE
20. Greek: HELLENE. From whence "hellenic".
24. Serve as a foundation for: UNDERLIE
26. Text titter: HEE
27. Grab the tab: PAY.
28. Quick, speculative stock transaction: DAY TRADE
36. Jorge's hand: MANO
37. Nae sayer: SCOT. We've seen this clue before, but it still makes me smile.
38. Mets' div.: NLE. MLB's National League East.
42. Inc. cousin: LLC. Incorporated, and Limited Liability Company.
43. Bullring bravos: OLÉS
45. Time line units: ERAS
48. Entrée topped with pineapple rings: BAKED HAM. Yeek! That's a throwback.
50. Tuna holder: CAN
51. Fizzy prefix: AER-ated.
52. Sticker on organic produce: ECO-LABEL. Voluntary labeling. Green Stickers, for example on appliances, are compulsory.
61. American Girl product: TOY DOLL
62. Very, in music: ASSAI. "Allegro Assai" - "Get your skates on, we've got to finish this song before we get booed off the stage".
63. British peer: EARL
65. Rossini's "Largo al factotum," e.g.: ARIA. I can see the Aria hotel from my window, I'm in Las Vegas. C.C. has a couple of pictures of her in front of the hotel. There are some fantastic restaurants inside.
66. Blown away: IN AWE
67. Pinch at the table: SALT
68. Space: ROOM
69. Small songbirds: LARKS
70. Dash gadget: TACH. I've got one on my dashboard, but I don't pay any attention to it. I did when I drove a stick-shift, but now it's just there for fun, my car makes all the decisions on when to change gear.
71. "¿Cómo __ usted?": ESTÁ. The formal or respectful way to ask "Yo, wassup?"
Down:
1. __ pork: Asian dish: MU SHU. Food!
2. Pale with fright: ASHEN
3. Wonka creator Dahl: ROALD
4. Drag: SCHLEPP
6. "Star Trek" actor: TAKEI
7. Vein glory?: ORE. Nice clue.
8. Life time: SPAN. Another nice clue, some fun ones today.
9. Tap: FAUCET. Ah, a nice reminder of me British roots, fank you, Guv'ner.
10. Publishers, e.g.: ISSUERS
11. Melville novel: OMOO
12. Half an Orkan farewell: NANU. Robin Williams' great entrance onto the grand stage. "I am Mork, from Ork; I come in peace - Nanu Nanu". I think it's like "aloha" - it's both hello and goodbye.
13. Fruity drinks: ADES
21. Poet's muse: ERATO. I know this, but I went with ERATA for no good reason. The perp eventually corrected my mistake.
23. "Such a tease!": OH YOU! This always reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when he forgets his new date's name. He resorts to "Oh, you!".
25. Sushi bar finger food: EDAMAME. Food! My local sushi bar serves them with sea salt and togarashi. Yum.
29. Years in España: AÑOS
30. Gp. with a "Know Your Rights" web page: ACLU
31. Simpleton: DOLT
32. Sharply outline: ETCH
33. Gearshift topper: KNOB
34. Scat legend Fitzgerald: ELLA
35. Submissive: MEEK
36. Vidal's Breckinridge: MYRA
40. India's first prime minister: NEHRU
41. Like the skin of most fish: SCALY. I looked up the list of scale-less fish, out of interest. There's some pretty scary ones in that community.
44. Seattle NFLer: SEAHAWK
47. How some risks are taken: ON A DARE. Usually very stupid ones, uploaded to YouTube.
49. Goes against: DEFIES
53. PC key combo for "copy": CTRL-C
54. New York City divisions, informally: BOROS. I surprised myself that I didn't hesitate over this one.
55. "The Waste Land" poet: ELIOT
56. Peruvian grazer: LLAMA
57. Amtrak track: RAIL
58. Annapolis inst.: U.S.N.A. United States Naval Academy, natch.
59. Ruler until 1917: TSAR
60. "__ we forget": LEST. Lest us not forget on this "Day of Days" - the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings on June 6th, 1944.
64. Battery size: AAA
Update on Nocuous, the band. I listened to one of their tracks on YouTube, and discovered that their musical genre is "black metal". Per the good folks at Wikipedia:
"Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms."
Probably not the most melodious track I've ever heard, but I kinda-sorta liked it. I was the 86th hit on the post, a little short of the best-to-date 6.2 billion views of "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi. I'm sure they'll catch up eventually.
Here's the grid, and I'll get my coat.
Steve
Notes from C.C..:
Here are three pictures of Melissa's granddaughters Harper and Jaelyn and their parents. So beautiful!
22A. Rarely used antonym of harmless: NOCUOUS. Innocuous. These fine gentlemen make up the metal band Nocuous. I'll check 'em out on YouTube and report back.
33A. Rarely used antonym of disheveled: KEMPT. Unkempt.
39A. Rarely used antonym of unidentified: ONYMOUS. Anonymous.
46A. Rarely used antonym of crude: COUTH. Uncouth.
57A. Rarely used antonym of cruel: RUTHFUL. Ruthless.
5D. Rarely used antonym of bumbling: GAINLY. Ungainly.
50D. Rarely used antonym of friendliness: COOLTH. Warmth.
What a great idea this puzzle is. I had a lot of fun figuring out the unknowns in the theme entries, new to me were NOCUOUS, ONYMOUS, RUTHFUL, GAINLY and COOLTH. Oddly enough, as I'm typing this, Google has highlighted all the theme entries as "unknown" to its spell-checker. They might like to have a chat to Webster's and the OED and see if they can use their word lists.
With the theme entries not being the longest in the grid, and no asterisks or reveal, then it's the common cluing that sets you on the rights track of what to look for.
Having enjoyed the antonyms, let's see what else we've got to talk about:
Across:
1. Fourth of eight: MARS. The Planets. Let's have some background music courtesy of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and "Mars" from "The Planet Suite" by Gustav Holst.
5. Classic Pontiacs: GTO'S
9. "Shrek" ogress: FIONA. I've never figured out why Shrek has a Scottish accent.
14. Colorado-based sports org.: U.S.O.C. The United States Olympic Committee.
15. Boomers' lobbying group: AARP
16. Equally hot: AS MAD
17. Ousted Iranian: SHAH. The last incumbent of "The Peacock Throne".
18. Flat-package furniture retailer: IKEA. Put it together, realize you've got one piece upside-down or back-to-front and take it all apart and start over.
19. Me.-to-Fla. highway: US ONE
20. Greek: HELLENE. From whence "hellenic".
24. Serve as a foundation for: UNDERLIE
26. Text titter: HEE
27. Grab the tab: PAY.
28. Quick, speculative stock transaction: DAY TRADE
36. Jorge's hand: MANO
37. Nae sayer: SCOT. We've seen this clue before, but it still makes me smile.
38. Mets' div.: NLE. MLB's National League East.
42. Inc. cousin: LLC. Incorporated, and Limited Liability Company.
43. Bullring bravos: OLÉS
45. Time line units: ERAS
48. Entrée topped with pineapple rings: BAKED HAM. Yeek! That's a throwback.
50. Tuna holder: CAN
51. Fizzy prefix: AER-ated.
52. Sticker on organic produce: ECO-LABEL. Voluntary labeling. Green Stickers, for example on appliances, are compulsory.
61. American Girl product: TOY DOLL
62. Very, in music: ASSAI. "Allegro Assai" - "Get your skates on, we've got to finish this song before we get booed off the stage".
63. British peer: EARL
65. Rossini's "Largo al factotum," e.g.: ARIA. I can see the Aria hotel from my window, I'm in Las Vegas. C.C. has a couple of pictures of her in front of the hotel. There are some fantastic restaurants inside.
66. Blown away: IN AWE
67. Pinch at the table: SALT
68. Space: ROOM
69. Small songbirds: LARKS
70. Dash gadget: TACH. I've got one on my dashboard, but I don't pay any attention to it. I did when I drove a stick-shift, but now it's just there for fun, my car makes all the decisions on when to change gear.
71. "¿Cómo __ usted?": ESTÁ. The formal or respectful way to ask "Yo, wassup?"
Down:
1. __ pork: Asian dish: MU SHU. Food!
2. Pale with fright: ASHEN
3. Wonka creator Dahl: ROALD
4. Drag: SCHLEPP
6. "Star Trek" actor: TAKEI
7. Vein glory?: ORE. Nice clue.
8. Life time: SPAN. Another nice clue, some fun ones today.
9. Tap: FAUCET. Ah, a nice reminder of me British roots, fank you, Guv'ner.
10. Publishers, e.g.: ISSUERS
11. Melville novel: OMOO
12. Half an Orkan farewell: NANU. Robin Williams' great entrance onto the grand stage. "I am Mork, from Ork; I come in peace - Nanu Nanu". I think it's like "aloha" - it's both hello and goodbye.
13. Fruity drinks: ADES
21. Poet's muse: ERATO. I know this, but I went with ERATA for no good reason. The perp eventually corrected my mistake.
23. "Such a tease!": OH YOU! This always reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when he forgets his new date's name. He resorts to "Oh, you!".
25. Sushi bar finger food: EDAMAME. Food! My local sushi bar serves them with sea salt and togarashi. Yum.
29. Years in España: AÑOS
30. Gp. with a "Know Your Rights" web page: ACLU
31. Simpleton: DOLT
32. Sharply outline: ETCH
33. Gearshift topper: KNOB
34. Scat legend Fitzgerald: ELLA
35. Submissive: MEEK
36. Vidal's Breckinridge: MYRA
40. India's first prime minister: NEHRU
41. Like the skin of most fish: SCALY. I looked up the list of scale-less fish, out of interest. There's some pretty scary ones in that community.
44. Seattle NFLer: SEAHAWK
47. How some risks are taken: ON A DARE. Usually very stupid ones, uploaded to YouTube.
49. Goes against: DEFIES
53. PC key combo for "copy": CTRL-C
54. New York City divisions, informally: BOROS. I surprised myself that I didn't hesitate over this one.
55. "The Waste Land" poet: ELIOT
56. Peruvian grazer: LLAMA
57. Amtrak track: RAIL
58. Annapolis inst.: U.S.N.A. United States Naval Academy, natch.
59. Ruler until 1917: TSAR
60. "__ we forget": LEST. Lest us not forget on this "Day of Days" - the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings on June 6th, 1944.
64. Battery size: AAA
Update on Nocuous, the band. I listened to one of their tracks on YouTube, and discovered that their musical genre is "black metal". Per the good folks at Wikipedia:
"Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms."
Probably not the most melodious track I've ever heard, but I kinda-sorta liked it. I was the 86th hit on the post, a little short of the best-to-date 6.2 billion views of "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi. I'm sure they'll catch up eventually.
Here's the grid, and I'll get my coat.
Steve
Here are three pictures of Melissa's granddaughters Harper and Jaelyn and their parents. So beautiful!
