Good morning, cruciverbalists one and all. Joseph, aka Malodorous Manatee, here. When C.C. approached me about joining the blogging team I felt pleasantly surprised. When I learned that my first assignment would be on a Thursday I felt a bit intimidated. Steve blogged on Thursdays. I do not know how many of his 354 posts were on Thursdays but he did choose to bid adieu on that day of the week and that is surely significant.
I started solving crossword puzzles thirty years ago. Far more recently, while searching online for an answer (or two), I stumbled across the L.A. Times Crossword Corner. Some time later I returned, scrolled down below the write-up, read through the comments and realized that I had descended into a warren of crossword nerds. Fellow crossword nerds. I am very pleased to have made the discovery.
In short, thank you CC for creating this space and thank you all for allowing me to play in your sandbox.
It is an honor to have been asked to be part of this team. Now, on to the puzzle.
I am less familiar with the work of Mike Peluso than I am with that of some other constructors. However, I greatly enjoyed this puzzle and his by-line is now solidly on the radar. The theme was clever and well executed. The grid, itself, is interesting and a bit out of the ordinary in a refreshing way.
Theme: Parlez-you Franglais? Four, ou Quatre, Homophones
Four pairings of the French name for a city or region with an English word. The words in each pairing sound alike and, when read together, form a plausible proper adjective/noun combination.
17 A. Excursion in a Loire Valley town?: TOURS TOUR. Tours is a city in France located approximately 200 km southwest of Paris. It is considered to be a gateway to use for exploring the chateaux of the Loire Valley. Of course, one can also take a tour of Tours.
25 A. Horse of southeastern France?: RHONE ROAN The Rhone Valley is a region of France very famous for its wines. A Rhone appellation with which some of us may be familiar is Chateauneuf-du-Pape. These days, there are very good wines being made from Rhone varietal grapes that are grown in California, particularly in the Paso Robles area. Two producers, among many, that you might wish to check out are Saxum and Herman Story. There are several stables near Paso Robles where you can rent a horse be it a Roan, a Pinto or a Palomino. Of these, the Roan is the horse most commonly seen in crossword puzzles.
36 A. Relative in a Cote d'Azur family?: NICE NIECE. Nice is another French city. Located less than an hour's drive from Cannes, it is a pleasant place to visit. If your sister's friendly daughter lived there you could have a pleasant visit with your nice Nice niece.
51 A. Swindle at a French festival?: CANNES CON. Home to a major film festival since 1946, Cannes is quite famous. In 1954, actress Simone Silva showed up topless at a festival photo shoot. Bones were broken in the ensuing scruffle. If dancing, in lieu of toplessness, was employed to create a diversion as part of the swindle at the festival would it then be a Cannes Can Can Con?
62 A. Hybrid linguistic term that hints at the answers to 17-, 25-, 36- and 51-Across: FRANGLAIS. The reveal, of course. I took four years of High School French and am able to sorta kinda fake my way in Franglais. Although I took only a single year of Italian (in college), I prefer to converse in Itanglese.
Across:
1. Big bash: FETE. A conundrum right out of the starting gate. Four letters. Is it going to turn out to be Gala or Ball, or FETE.
5. Lestrade's rank, in Sherlock Holmes stories: Abbr.: INSP. Do you know who this guy is? Of course you do.
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| Inspector Gadget |
9. Music rights org.: ASCAP. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
14. Hose color: ECRU. Four letters. Two of them vowels. A crossword staple.
15. Ward of TV's "FBI": SELA. I have a love/hate relationship with proper nouns when they're used in crossword puzzles. If I know 'em then they are a big help. If not, let's just say that crossing two of them in a puzzle should be, at the very least, a misdemeanor.
16. Rattle: DAUNT.
19. Others, to Pablo: OTRAS. A slight pause to determine if it might be Otros.
20. Former trucking watchdog agcy.: ICC. The Interstate Commerce Commission. Be careful 'cause they're a checkin' on down the line.
21. Newscast attention-getter: TOP STORY. Not to be confused with:
23. National capital on the Cape Verde Peninsula: DAKAR. With a population of roughly one million people, DAKAR is the capital of Senegal. The metropolitan area has two or three times that many residents. Coincidentally, this is the second time in three days that we have seen DAKAR in the daily puzzle.
29. Improve, as a highway: REPAVE.
31. Composer Rorem: NED. Hi Diddly Ho, Ned. Oops, wrong Ned.
32. Rome's __ Veneto: VIA. When I was seventeen we took a family trip to Italy. On the Via Veneto I looked for, but, alas, could not find, Sophia Loren.
33. Going down: SETTING. I first thought that SINKING might work out but SETTING it was. Perhaps, at some point in time, a sinking ship video will be appropriate.
35. Way off the highway: RAMP. THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE could not be made to fit in the allotted space.
40. Minute Maid Park player, to fans: STRO. My mother hailed from Brooklyn and I from Los Angeles. It is probably best, therefore, that we not dive too deeply into this topic lest an animated discussion ensue.
43. Rickety, say: UNSOUND. Of mind, body or structural integrity?
46. "Queen Sugar" creator DuVernay: AVA. We have seen quite a lot of her in crossword puzzles in recent months. A cluing update to Ava Gardner.
47. Clear dishes from: BUS. A word with several meanings. A couple more can be found at 48 Down, below.
50. More work: UTOPIA. Okay, Mike, you slowed me up with this one for a few moments because there is always More Work To Be Done To Be Done.
54. "Because __ so!!": I SAID. The concept came up here recently in a discussion here about dietary laws.
56. Relieve: UNBURDEN. This is what would have happened had The Animals decided to sever ties with their lead singer. Sorry Ray, and yes, everyone else, too.
58. Day-__: GLO.
59. "Dust-colored," in Hindustani: KHAKI. I always have trouble with the spelling of KHAKI. This morning was no exception but it got worked out.
64. Aspect of a problem: FACET See NUKED at 52 Down, below.
65. Accommodates: FITS.
66. "Desperate Housewives" character: BREE. I almost went with BRIE within the context of this puzzle.
67. Set of beliefs: CREDO. Could have been ETHOS. Thank you, perps, once again.
68. Old-time dagger: SNEE. I always have trouble remembering if SNEE is the knife and SMEE is the pirate, or vice versa.
69. Lip: SASS. Alternatively, and in what would have required a much lengthier clue, SASS is, and I quote, "...the most mature, stable, and powerful professional grade CSS extension language in the world." I think they're talking about something to do with computers.
Down:
1. Reeking: FETID. I can think of a possible synonym. Ten letters.
2. Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius: ECO CARS.
3. River through Reno: TRUCKEE.
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| Truckin' On The Truckee |
4. Scand. locale: EUR. I suspect that this was one of the clue/answer parings with which the constructor was least happy.
5. Ratio phrase: IS TO. ISTO INTO UNTO UNDO UNDI Voila, une word ladder. UNDI is a village in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. Okay, that's obscure but I couldn't conjure up a better last rung.
6. Synthetic rubber used in waders: NEOPRENE. There is a tradition at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, where I often ski, of stripping down and skiing in the buff on the last day of the ski season. I once told my daughter that I might give that a try. She looked at me and said, "Dad, you ski with so much Neoprene on that it won't matter." (Knee braces, back brace, elbow sleeve, etc.)
7. Winter weather aftermath: SLUSH. What one often skis on on that last day of the ski season.
8. "Islands in the Stream" duettist: PARTON. Dolly is justifiably famous for a couple of reasons.
9. Loved: ADORED.
10. Man-goat of myth: SATYR. Goat-man, ergo, goat-woman. Are they satyr-ists?
11. Tough mutt: CUR.
12. Japanese carrier that sponsors a major LPGA event: ANA. A timely entry. The ANA Inspiration Tournament, one of the five major champiobnships of women's professional golf, was played just this past weekend. Mirim Lee won the event in a three-way playoff.
13. Box score abbr.: PTS.
18. Low clouds: STRATI. Would a selection of violins, violas, guitars, harps and cellos from the master be Stradi varius? Amati pleased with that pun.
22. "__ of Us": Joan Osborne hit: ONE. I was not familiar with this ONE.
24. City addr. info: APT NO. Apt.
26. Eggs: OVA. Alternative clue: plural of a single cell often found in crossword puzzles.
27. Point: AIM.
28. Velvet feature: NAP. Another one of those playful, pesky, and potentially perplexing homonyms.
30. London's Old __: VIC. An over-200-year-old, 1,000-seat theatre in London. Was it called The Vic when it first opened?
34. Serengeti bovine: GNU.
Tourist: "Can you tell me how to get to the museum?"
Wildebeest: "Sorry, I'm gnu in town."
35. Enlists again: RE UPS. One of those where, when you look at the completed puzzle the next day, you ask yourself something along the lines of "what the heck is a reups?"
37. Flood: INUNDATE.
38. Richmond winter hrs.: EST. Did anyone here attend Erhard Seminar Training? EST, as it was known, had a significant number of enthusiastic, proselytizing adherents in the 1970's and 1980's.
39. Sounding like a dove: COOING.
40. Cul-de-__: SAC. Cul-de-sac comes from the French, n'est ce pas, originally meaning bottom of the sack.
41. FDR power program: TVA. Many people were displaced when the TVA dams were built. The flooding was central to the film O' Brother Where Art Thou? The soundtrack album sparked renewed interest in traditional American music. In 2010, I got to see Ralph Stanley perform at a music festival high up in the Rocky Mountains. The Seldom Scene performed, too. Quite a delightful afternoon.
42. Was a candidate: RAN. Often clued with a reference to the Akira Kurosawa motion picture.
44. Falls for lovers?: NIAGARA. It is somewhat surprising that this particular tourist attraction has not sold the naming rights.
45. Newsstand buys: DAILIES.
47. 1800s Mexican leader Juárez: BENITO. Perhaps, it is a good thing that the theme was not Itanglese.
49. Shoeshine targets: SCUFFS.
52. Microwaved: NUKED. In my desk drawer is a copy of Life magazine published the week I was born. The magazine was received as a gift decades later. In the Letters to the Editor section of the magazine is a somewhat lengthy discussion about the correct F-Stops and Shutter Speeds to use when photographing nuclear tests in the desert near St. George, UT. These were above-ground tests. Can you say fallout? Talk about placing one's focus on a less important FACET of an issue!
53. Longtime Utah senator Hatch: ORRIN.
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| Doe's Sis? |
57. Massachusetts motto starter: ENSE. Having scrupulously avoided taking Latin as a language in school, I need to look up these state motto clues if the perps do not suffice.
59. Louisville-based fast-food company: KFC. Although based in Tennessee, KFC is very, very big in China. Yum China owns/franchises KFC as well as Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Thomas Friedman is correct, The World Is Flat.
60. Laugh syllable: HAR. Over the decades, The Simpsons has provided many chuckles. This was a gag appreciated by budding and veteran mathematicians alike:
61. Nolan Ryan, notably: ACE. I was lucky enough to see The Ryan Express (a riff on the title of David Westheimer's novel Von Ryan's Express) pitch at the Big A.
63. Dumbbell abbr.: LBS. Doh! This type of dumbbell. Now I get it.
Well, that's it for the maiden voyage...with not a single reference to Tom Lehrer, Weird Al, or Mel Brooks to be found. Have to keep some powder dry. Big thanks to C.C., Tom, Chairman Moe and the others who are helping me learn how to navigate the blog. Because of their generous assistance, things (hopefully) went better than they did for RMS Titanic.
MM Out
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Notes from C.C.:
Abejo's wife Linda informed me that he's now at the ICU and on a
ventilator. Please keep your thoughts and prayers on him!
Abejo with his tuba at a church Fat Tuesday event.
