Theme: "H2O"
Today, Tom and C.C. replace Hs with Os. Get it? H to O? Fun ensues.Let's dig in to the themers:
23. Destroying personal chicken pens?: BUSTING ONES COOPS. Busting one's chops is an idiom meaning to tease or criticized in a lighthearted way.
39. Spilling a drink or double-dipping chips?: PARTY OOPS. Party hOPS - goes from party to party. I've had to do this at Christmas time before I toned down my calendar.
58. Exuberant support for Polo?: MARCO MADNESS. March Madness - College basketball's championship series of games in March.
83. Attendee at an orca training center?: POD CANDIDATE. PhD candidate.
97. Cold comfort for a YouTuber?: VIDEO COAT. Video chat. You know, what we did during Covid.
118. Relishing every bite of a fluffy French dessert?: LOST IN THE SOUFFLE. Lost in the shuffle.
41. Grain for one who eats like a horse?: COWBOY OATS. Cowboy hats.
 |
| Toy Story's Woody complete with Cowboy Hat |
46. Dirty film at a movie theater?: SCREEN SOOT. Screen shot - taking an image of your computer screen.
Wow!, Tom & C.C. - eight (8) fun, water-making, clues.
As Paul Harvey might say, "Now, for the rest of the fill..."
Across:
1. Taj Mahal locale: AGRA.
5. The Bee Gees brothers: GIBBS.
Jive Talkin'
10. 10% church offering: TITHE. Pop ponied up 10% so Bro & I could attend St. Joe's.
15. Proper partner: PRIM. Prim & Proper - too stuffy if you ask me.
19. Prepare, as water for tea: BOIL. Tell us if you have an electric kettle.
20. Zhou of China: ENLAI. No Clue. WikiP says he was a "Chinse statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as [... China's premier ...] from 1949 until his death in 1973."
21. Ventricles' counterparts: ATRIA. Heart anatomy.
22. 40th anniversary gem: RUBY. Oy!, I only have four (4) years to save up.
23. [See: theme]
26. Polish language?: EDIT. Ha! Who else was thinking Poland?
27. Classical theater: ODEON. Like really classical Greek / Roman.
28. Storybook baddie: OGRE. Try as he might, Shrek wasn't a real baddie.
 |
| He's got a heart of gold. |
29. Mechanic's job: LUBE.
30. Get-together, casually: SESH. My cackles get raised when my co-worker says this.
31. Import tax: TARIFF.
33. Reduced to mush: PUREED.
Will it Blend? - SciFi edition
35. Inning sextet: OUTS. Three outs per side finish an inning.
37. Terrible fate: DOOM.
39. [See: theme]
41. Raven's cry: CAW. Who else thought Poe and wanted to enter "TAP, Tap, Tapping at my chamber door."
44. Impudence: SASS.
47. Snake in the grass: RAT.
49. Like some stories: SHORT. Isaac Asimov's are some of my favorites.
50. Island farewell: ALOHA. Out of context, it also means hello.
Beatles!
52. "Mayfair Witches" network: AMC. I think this is a show DW & Girls enjoy.
53. Like a pug's tail: CURLED.
56. Assent, in Paris: OUI.
57. Hawkish: PROWAR.
58. [See: theme]
61. Copa del Rey cheer: OLE.
63. Soccer icon Wambach: ABBY.
64. Shave sheep: SHEAR.
65. Internet rabble-rouser: TROLL. Don't be one in the comments below ;-)
66. Abruptly stops daydreaming: SNAPS TO.
68. Running time: LENGTH.
70. Nabe where one might find tteokbokki: KTOWN. K-Town is Korean Town a NABourhood where you can find tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes(?)). Houston has a small K-Town in the South Spring Branch area. I went there with my buddies for dinner - we had to cook our own meat :-)
72. Alcohol in windshield wiper fluid: METHYL.
74. Kenyan capital: NAIROBI.
76. Mountain, in Hawaiian: MAUNA.
78. Make slicker, in a way: REOIL.
80. The Beatles' "Back in the __": USSR.
Sir Paul lights up The Philharmonic
82. "Discreet Music" artist Brian: ENO.
83. [See: theme]
85. __ skirt: POODLE.
87. High-tech FX: CGI. FX == special effects; CGI == Computer-Generated Imagery.
89. Baggage handler: SKYCAP. The guy right outside the terminal that you tip $5/bag to get you checked in.
90. "__ in the Bed": classic counting rhyme: TEN. Does this have anything to do with monkeys jumping?
91. Large deer: MOOSE.
92. Alaska's 365 million: ACRES. MOOSE wouldn't fit (and we just had it :-))
94. Sashimi fish: AHI. Sashimi == fish & no rice; sushi == fish on rice.
95. "Hey, c'mere!": PSST.
96. Foraging insect: ANT.
97. [See: theme]
101. Salt Lake County ski resort: ALTA.
103. Quick-with-a-joke types: WITS. "And he's quick with a joke or to light up your smoke / But there's some place that he'd rather be" [Billy Joel - Piano Man]
104. Pickleball point starters: SERVES.
106. Swung up and down: YO-YOED.
110. Flip-flop, e.g.: SHOE.
113. Common blood type, briefly: A POS. ABO blood typing. A+ means you have the Rh (rhesus) factor and the antigen A in your red-cells (with the B antigen in your plasma). There are three antigens - A, B, & O. //My MOS was 92B [read: my army job was medical lab tech]
115. Per person: EACH.
116. Yoda's power, with "the": FORCE.
117. Prepare for takeoff?: TAXI.
118. [See: theme]
122. __ so slightly: EVER.
123. "OK, we're doing this!": ITS ON. It's on like Donkey Kong!
124. Turner of "Rivals": AIDAN. Irish actor.
125. Fuel fire suppressant: FOAM. Los Angels saw a lot of this in January :-(
126. Darn, say: MEND.
127. Seated twist, e.g.: ASANA. Yoga.
128. "Don't play" symbols: RESTS. Musical reference.
 |
| Notes and Rests |
Down:
1. Man on a mission?: ABBOT. Ha! A mission like the Alamo.
2. Mild yellow cheese: GOUDA. It's a real gooda!
3. Choir platform: RISER.
4. Tin mints: ALTOIDS. When I quit smoking I went through a tin a day. I switched to sugar-free Ice Breakers to save my teeth.
5. Next-__ hardware: GEN. Next GENeration. I think we're up to the iThing 16 now.
6. Gerund suffix: ING. To make a verb function as a noun, add ING - in case you were askING.
7. __ single: BLOOP. In baseball, a bloop single it's a lightly hit fly ball that goes over the infield but not quite to the outfielders.
8. First-rate, as a job: BANGUP. Tom & C.C. did a bang up job on this grid.
9. Romeo follower: SIERRA. The NATO Alphabet.
10. Tic-__-toe: TAC.
11. "See!?": I TOLD YOU.
12. Slacks, slangily: TROU. TROUsers.
13. Half a pair of waders: HIP BOOT.
14. Relax: EASEUP.
15. Media coverage: PRESS.
16. "The disrespect!": RUDE.
17. Bird with a curved bill: IBIS.
 |
| Ibis |
18. Prometheus, for one: MYTH. Greek mythical god of fire.
24. Dirt, so to speak: INFO. The skinny. The word on the street.
Jon Lovitz [L] & Phil Hartman [R]
25. Future readers: SEERS. Cute, Tarot readers SEE the future.
32. Message board: FORUM. Not an ODEON? :-)
34. Community spirit: ETHOS.
36. Pre-1917 autocrat: TSAR. We're back in the USSR. [See: 80a]
38. Race named for a Greek battle: MARATHON. Pheidippides ran 26.2 miles [40km, C, Eh!] from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of victory.
40. Constellation containing Betelgeuse and Rigel: ORION. Knowing this told me Party Foul (filled b/f I knew the gimmick) was wrong.
41. [See: theme]
42. Starbuck's boss: AHAB. Melville's Moby Dick rather than CEO of the said named coffee chain.
43. Cautious (of): WARY.
44. __ Club: SAMS. Wal-Mart's Wholesale club and competitor of COSTCO. In college DW & I "joined" Sam's hoping to save $$. We did but spent the entire grocery budget on 50 packs of ramen, a dozen burritos, 4 tubes of toothpaste, 40 rolls of toilet paper, and 3 lbs of beef jerky :-)
45. Menotti's shepherd boy: AMAHL. Waseeley probably knows Menotti's opera featuring Amahl and the Night Visitors.
46. [See: theme]
48. Letters before a recap: TLDR. Too Long; Didn't Read. Basically, a memo's Executive Summary.
51. Really hated: LOATHED.
53. Welsh herding dog: CORGI.
54. Mushroom in bulgogi hot pot: ENOKI.
55. Muscle used in lateral raises: DELT. Deltoids are the muscles on your torso's sides.
57. Cacio e __: pasta dish: PEPE.
59. Baseless rumors: CANARDS.
60. Replay effect: SLOMO. For our first anniversary, I purchased a VCR for DW so she could record her soaps. She claims I bought it for myself 'cuz it had cool features like 4x SLOw MOtion :-)
62. Don Quixote's home: LAMANCHA. Spanish Lit.
66. Moved stealthily: SNUCK.
67. Take it all off: STRIP.
Adam Ant
69. Grove growth: TREE.
71. Rolls of bills: WADS.
73. Lo-cal brews: LITES.
75. Lawn bowling game: BOCCE. When Pop & his wife go to The Hill in STL, they play bocce ball.
77. Dasani competitor: NAYA. Bottled water brands.
79. Time to give up?: LENT. The forty (40) days following Fat Tuesday "to give up" something (fast) until Easter. It's no fair giving up drinking if you don't.
80. South Indian semolina porridge: UPMA.
81. Any day now: SOON.
83. King or queen, in chess: PIECE. I'm so glad someone threw me a bone with the "in chess" bit.
84. Newspaper: DAILY. Clark Kent worked for the newspaper at the DAILY Planet.
86. Jeans pioneer Strauss: LEVI.
88. 2,240 pounds: GROSS TON.
92. Super Bowl commercials, e.g.: AD SPOTS. This year, 30 seconds will run you about $8,000,000.
93. Existentialist Kierkegaard: SOREN.
95. Bribes: PAYOFFS.
98. Torino locale: ITALIA. DW's first car, a Torino, was located in Shreveport, LA :-)
99. Incarnation of Shiva: AVATAR. An Indian (Asian, not Native American) god.
100. Gadget enthusiast: TECHIE. My reason for the 4x SLO MO feature.
102. Vegan protein: TOFU.
103. Bizarro: WEIRD. It's weird to me that the word doesn't follow the "I before E (except after C) unless it sounds like an A" rule. Bizarro!
105. Storage sites: SHEDS.
107. "Friend __?": OR FOE. Um, if foe, wouldn't they lie?
108. Brilliant display: ECLAT.
109. Considers to be: DEEMS. Seems to be that I deem it that way.
110. Originate (from): STEM.
111. "__ a nice day!": HAVE.
 |
| Blazing Saddles |
112. Farm workers: OXEN. Serf fit too. Just sayin'.
114. Peak in Thessaly: OSSA.
119. Cookbook writer Garten: INA. Crosswordom's favorite foodie?
120. Warmed the bench: SAT. In my youth when I played baseball, I was not a bench warmer. Other sports are another matter.
121. Iron-__: heat-activated patches: ONS.
 |
| Iron On on a 86d LEVI jacket |
The Grid:
 |
| The Grid |
The skinny:
WO: PARTY foul -> OOPS
ESPs: ENLAI, AMAHL, LAMANCHA, AIDAN
Fav: Polish language == EDIT
Cheers, -T
Notes from C.C.:
1) Thanks for the great write-up, Tony!
2) Happy 54th Birthday to dear Splynter, our faithful Wednesday Sherpa. Splynter also blogged the Saturday puzzles for us for many years. May this year bring you joy, good health, a loyal four-legged friend and a special two-legged friend.
 |
| Splynter with Cooper on Christmas Day |
