Which could be clued: "What is it called when you omit Jagger, et al, from your playlist?"
Here's a STONE'S tune that's never skipped on my playlist:
Puzzling thoughts:
Welcome to the first Friday of 2022. Lots to cover today, and I won't leave a single STONE unturned; promise! First off, today brings a memory of what would've been my Uncle Bud's 90th birthday. He passed away at age 85, and was always a family member I trusted and could count on to help me through life's obstacles. He was my first mentor, so to speak. And speaking of mentors, I have been blessed with a few crossword mentors over the past two years as I am developing my puzzle constructing hobby. Two of them happen to be today's collaborators: Christina Iverson and Jeff Chen.
I reached out to them - ala Husker Gary - to ask what was the inspiration for today's grid. Christina replied as follows:
Hi Chris!
I think I pitched the phrase "skipping stones" to Jeff as a potential revealer with a tricky gimmick ... Early in the pandemic when playgrounds were closed, I spent a lot of time on walks to the river with my son, where we'd attempt to skip stones. I think we came up with this idea together after some back and forth over email about how best to implement the stone skipping concept. I seem to remember getting a headache trying to figure out filling around the skipped letters! Jeff had done similar things before and had a better idea of how to make it all come together. Thanks, and looking forward to reading your write up! Christina
I don't know if this captures what Christina and her son did, but it's a fitting graphic:
So to be fair, if your grid came without circles, this puzzle would be nearly unsolvable, given the theme and placement of all of the STONE's that are "SKIPped" - which ultimately answers each of the themers. Here is a picture of the solved puzzle, in case you Finished It Wrong:
In four vertical answers the first names of famous people with the last name STONE are in circles: SHARON (the famous actress and femme fatale), EMMA (whose acting roles include portraying Billie Jean King and Cruella De Vil), SLY (as in SLY and the Family STONE, although his given name was Sylvester Stewart), and MATT (noted for his creation of the animated TV show 'South Park').
In 9 - yes, 9 - perpendicular crossings, the letter(s) in the STONE's name, when skipped (omitted), reveal the correct answer to each of the starred clues:
19-Across. *Works with needles: (S)KNITS. Take out the (S) and you have KNITS
22-Across.*Binge-watch on Netflix, say: V(H)EG OUT.Take out the (H) VEG OUT
24-Across.*Hero's place: DELI(A). No (A) leaves DELI
28-Across. *Work position with little mobility?: DES(R)K J(M)OB. Toss the (R) and (M) et voila: DESK JOB
34-Across. *Italian sparkling wine region: AS(E)TI(S). Moe knows his wines, and ASTI needs no (E) nor an additional (S); SKIP 'em!
37-Across. *Tweetstorm, e.g.: TI(O)RA(A)DE. The clue "Tweetstorm" may have thrown you for a loop if you don't participate on that APP, but when the (O) and (A) are skipped, TIRADE fits as the answer. And as a footnote, go back and read Melissa Bee's recap from Wednesday; she described "Tweetstorm" perfectly
40-Across. *Sandie ingredients: PE(M)CA(Y)NS. PECANS - as in Pecan Sandies (a cookie). No (M) or (Y) in my cookies!
41-Across. *Existential funk: ANG(T)ST. ANGST (I hope you're all getting it by now. The puzzle, that is, not ANGST!)
42-Across. *Crisis specialists: SW(A)AT TEAM. SWAT TEAM
And the reveal: 38-Across. *Makes splashes at the shore ... and what each answer to a starred clue does: SK(M)IP(L)SST(N)ON(T)ES. SKIPS STONES.
You might not have liked today's puzzle, but from a constructor's point of view, this one was brilliant
Across:
1. TV show featuring both blood cells and jail cells: CSI. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had its beginning on CBS back in 2000, and became an instant hit. It spawned several additional spinoffs (the original was in Las Vegas) including NYC and Miami
A tie-in clue was found in 58-Down: (1-Across evidence:) DNA.
4. Not exactly a warm blanket: SNOW. This one came to me right away as I immediately thought of the phrase, "blanket of SNOW". Not something we see too often here in the greater Phoenix area, but does exist in many places in N Arizona where the elevation is above 4,000':
8. "Heavens!": MY GOSH. Moe-ku:
I really don't think
That anyone would utter:
"MY GOSH to Betsy"
14. Boo: HON. Very clever clue for this; had the word Boo been written as "Boo!" you'd immediately think it was ghost-related. But without the quotes you had to dig deeper, and find the synonym 'HON' which is an old-fashioned way of describing one's boyfriend, girlfriend, or companion. We saw this same word on Wednesday clued as "sweetie"
15. Club in a Manilow hit: COPA.
16. Waver's cry: YOO HOO. Did anyone ever drink this?
17. Chef and author Garten: INA. Learning "MOE"ment; she is also known as the Barefoot Contessa
18. Green card offerer: AMEX. Another "brilliant" clue! I was thinking of USCIS - the immigration service that issues Green cards: A Green Card holder (permanent resident) is someone who has been granted authorization to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis. As proof of that status, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) grants a person a permanent resident card, commonly called a "Green Card."
But NO!! Christina and Jeff - or maybe Rich - threw us a curve ball with the clue. The correct answer is the green card issued by AMEX (short for American Express). "What's in your wallet?" Oops; I think I pulled a "Hahtoolah"! (See this past Tuesday's blog). That's VISA's line. "Don't leave home without it!" is the tagline for AMEX
20. Mob inductee: MADE MAN. According to Wikipedia, "In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a MADE MAN is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oath of omertà , the Mafia code of silence and code of honor
23. Grand __: PRIX. OLE OPRY had too many letters to fit into this space. The Grand PRIX is the ultimate event for Formula 1 race cars
26. Chaney of the screen: LON. Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American stage and film actor, make-up artist, director and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Wikipedia. He looked scary even without makeup
44. Hopped-up refreshment?: ALE. Nice play-on-words; ALE is usually rife with hops which give it the bitter flavor
45. OutKast chart topper with the lyric "My baby don't mess around": "HEY YA". Another of my learned moments today. This song WOULD be skipped from Moe's playlist; sorry for the offensive lyrics
47. Humorist Bombeck: ERMA. She appears more often in crossword puzzles than I recall her appearing in person or on TV
50. Bebop lover: HIPSTER. Bebop is just one of the many things a HIPSTER would love:
55. One crossing the line?: ROAD HOG. Lots of clues used mis-direction today. A ROAD HOG is a driver who, as I like to say, takes their half out of the middle
57. Like some garages: ONE CAR. I had TWO CAR before the perps arrived. ONE CAR garages are quite often found in condo communities. Could a ROAD HOG actually park in a ONE CAR garage??
58. Word with bike or bag: DIRT. DIRT BAG is not one of my favorite expressions, but a DIRT BIKE could be a lot of fun!
59. Fertility clinic collections: OVA. Moe-ku 2:
Fertility lab
Gave kudos, and called them a
Standing OVAtion
60. Ones taking advantage of suckers to get by?: OCTOPI. Yet another mis-directed clue; OCTOPI being the plural of OCTOPUS
61. __ alphabet: NATO. The NATO phonetic alphabet is a Spelling Alphabet, a set of words used instead of letters in oral communication (i.e. over the phone or military radio). Each word ("code word") stands for its initial letter (alphabetical "symbol"). The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows:
62. Lip: RIM. The Grand Canyon has two RIMs; North and South
63. Secure: FASTEN.
64. Early creation: ADAM. And this clue/answer crossed with (56-Down. Tiny bit:) ATOM. A bit of intended "homophonia"??
65. Word in wedding announcements: NEE. Second evidence of "crosswordese", but it fit perfectly
Down:
1. First hominid in space: CHIMP. I guess if you knew what the word "hominid" meant this answer would come easily. I didn't and had to look it up. The first CHIMP in space was named HAM
2. Bat signal?: SONAR. More mis-direction. I was thinking this:
3. Stuck: IN A DILEMMA. What I'm guessing many of you/us were when we saw today's puzzle!
4. Email to watch out for: SCAM. An unfortunate CSO to our dear Irish Miss; she's reported these email SCAMs - as well as telephone SCAMs - to us over the past few months, and Agnes, I hope your accounts are all safe and protected
Another thought; when employees at Hormel get erroneous e-mail do they still call it:
5. One lacking roots: NOMAD.
6. Made the first bet: OPENED. This is what happens in poker, e.g. The first player to bet (add) chips into the pot is said to have OPENED
7. Need on the slopes or the waves: WAX. Another Friday-worthy clue; this of course refers to a snow board/snow skis (for the slopes) or a surfboard (for the waves). WAX helps lower the coefficient of friction and allows you to go faster. But could the clue have also read, "Need on eyebrows or the mustache"? Hmm
8. 1979 #1 hit by The Knack: MY SHARONA. So, I was listening to various YouTube recordings of The Knack's "MY SHARONA", and I wondered, 'has anyone done a parody on the Coronavirus using this melody?' Well, sure enough, there are several of those, too. Look, I am not downplaying the severity of COVID-19 and all its Greek-letter variants. But these lyrics are no worse than what The Knack wrote! I hope this brings a smile. Part (I) of this parody is also good
9. Draft choice?: YOKE. Has anyone been keeping count of how many mis-direction clues Christina and Jeff used today?
10. It has a nice ring to it: GONG. About the same time that The Knack came out with their hit 'MY SHARONA', Chuck Barris was featuring THIS GONG on a weekly TV show:
11. Home to Athens and Dublin: OHIO. This native Buckeye knew this straight away. Athens, OHIO is the home of Ohio University; Dublin, OHIO is the home of Muirfield Village, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf club
12. Yearly address, initially: SOTU. Short for State of the Union. It's given by the POTUS in late January
13. One sending a Zoom link: HOST. Who had ever heard of or used Zoom prior to COVID-19? Not I
21. Stranger things: EXOTICA. Those with prurient minds might have seen EROTICA before EXOTICA. Not me, of course . . .
22. Friends often pay one: VISIT. Another clue whose answer came quickly to Moe
25. "Supposing ... ": LET'S SAY. LET'S SAY that you got all of today's puzzle solved, but STILL did not know what the @#$! was going on! ;^)
27. Playfully bite: NIP AT. And they call it puppy love
29. Swedish coin: KRONA. Why did Sweden not adopt the Euro, you might ask? Sweden does not currently use the euro as its currency and has no plans to replace the existing Swedish KRONA in the near future. Sweden's Treaty of Accession of 1994 made it subject to the Treaty of Maastricht, which obliges states to join the eurozone once they meet the necessary conditions. The EU countries that do not use the euro as their currency are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden
30. Clanked around, like keys in one's pocket: JANGLED. Or like spurs on a cowboy's boots
31. Swiss peak: MATTERHORN. This majestic peak; and I will lay odds that if Picard shows up today he will have several pictures of his own to share with us; hope so! And if you're curious but don't want to look it up, the summit is 14,692'
32. Oft-spoken tributes: ODES. I speak in haiku and limerick. Speaking of limericks:
Saturday Night Live comic Eugenia
Likes to parody folks from Slovenia.
But her speech has since slurred;
We know why it occurred:
'Cause she now suffers from skits-ophrenia
33. Outdo: BEST. Yup, it's there; toward the bottom ...
34. Serpents in some hieroglyphics: ASPS. No Cleo in the clue??
35. Bias: SKEW. In this case, a noun; SKEW: "a bias toward one particular group or subject"; courtesy of an online dictionary
36. Severus Snape's house: SLYTHERIN. Christina and Jeff are throwing in a bit of Harry Potter on us. These books were quite popular among today's "GEN Y's". Hogwarts, the name of the boarding school for would-be witches and warlocks, has four separate "Houses" that new "students" are assigned to upon their arrival. SLYTHERIN, RAVENSCLAW, HUFFLEPUFF, and GRYFFINDOR. Here is a quiz you can take to see which house would best fit you! Me? I am mostly GRYFFINDOR, but would fit into RAVENSCLAW as well
39. Look on Snape's face, often: SNEER. Sadly, the actor who played Snape - Alan Rickman - died in 2016 at age 69. That kinda hits home . . .
43. Large number: MYRIAD. Fun fact: the origin of the word "MYRIAD" is from the mid 16th century late Latin from Greek murias, muriad-, from murioi, which means the number 10,000. Seems pretty large to me.
Fun Fact #2: You want to know how you can "blow" $10,000 in one year? By spending just $29.70 a day on random stuff
46. Major artery: AORTA. This could be categorized as crossword-ese by now
48. Flick: MOVIE.
49. Top performance level: A-GAME. I always try to bring my "A-GAME" when I blog these puzzles; but today's A-GAME is a CSO to OwenKL and Dash T who use a letter grade {A+, A, B+, etc} for Owen's CC poems
50. One of a buck's four: HOOF.
51. Quechua speaker: INCA. Here is what Brittanica dot com has to say: "Quechua, (Quechua Runa) are South American Indians living in the Andean highlands from Ecuador to Bolivia. They speak many regional varieties of Quechua, which was the language of the INCA empire (though it predates the Inca) and which later became the lingua franca of the Spanish and Indians throughout the Andes"
52. Many adoptees: PETS. The Pandemic contributed to a lot of people getting/adopting PETS
53. Paisley native: SCOT. Paisley is a large town situated in the west central Lowlands of SCOTland. Located north of the Gleniffer Braes, the town borders the city of Glasgow. And here I thought Paisley was this:
54. It's on a roll: TAPE. My first "career" job was selling Scotch TAPE for 3M. Believe it or not, I was one of the first sales reps to peddle the plastic box sealing tape that is now a staple (pun intended) for use in closing corrugated containers
And with that, all of the STONES have been turned. Thanks again Christina and Jeff for an amazing puzzle. Hope one or both of you will stop by today to share any other thoughts. Comments or questions? Please add to the merryment! See you again in two weeks
