Theme: Back to Square One - and how is that? Let's explain.
40A. Classic American board game symbolized by this puzzle's circles: CHUTES AND LADDERS. In the UK, and, I believe, Canada, the game is called "Snakes and Ladders" although there are many variations. There are even a chain of coffee shops headquartered in Toronto called "Snakes and Lattes".
The game originated in ancient India under the name Moksha Patam, and traveled to the UK to be called "Snakes and Ladders", faithful to the Indian original, and thence to the Americas, where Milton Bradley renamed it "Chutes and Ladders" and produced the first US version in 1943. I hope the clue refers to the name of the US version, and not the provenance.
It's an interesting study of morality, the ladders reward virtue and the snakes, or chutes, punish transgression. The phrase "back to square one" originated from the game.
Here's a game board preserved in the National Museum in Delhi:
OK, history lesson over.
Jeffrey served up a wonderful puzzle here, it takes great skill to be able to hide the theme entries in multiple adjoining fill, and note that the "downwards" entries are all "chutes" and the "upwards" entries are all "ladders".
Downwards: TRASH, MAIL and LAUNDRY
Upwards: ROPE, FIRE and STEP.
As always, Jeffrey hides some landmines, so just when you think you have the thing beat, you find a section that you stare at, fiddle with, write stuff in, take stuff out, you just can't figure it out. For me this week was the top-center, I had terrible trouble getting that straight.
So Bravo! Mr. Wechsler. Let's take a look at what we have:
Across:
1. "Are you getting 100%?" cereal: TOTAL
6. Lover: FLAME. As I mentioned above, this section took me an age to figure out. I just couldn't see FLAME, OILER and even when I finally tripped to PULLMAN I was lost.
11. Excludes: BANS
15. Place to play: ARENA
16. Gulf of Oman vessel: OILER
17. Neutral tone: ECRU
18. Charcuterie fare: MEATS. Food! Originally a way of preserving meats, mainly pork, before refrigeration. Nowadays extends to pates, sausage, and all kinds of interesting stuff.
19. Quaint sleeping coach: PULLMAN CAR. The UK railways ran various all-Pullman services which were first-class only. White tablecloths, candles, waiter food service. I have a couple of Pullman cars on my model railway.
21. Target, as a receiver: PASS TO
23. "Moonlight Sonata" opening movement, e.g.: ADAGIO. Here's Beethoven's masterpiece adagio. Don't bother reading the snarky comments below the piece, it's amazing how those keyboard warriiors want to find some, any excuse to criticize. I think comments should be closed for YouTube.
24. Stand buy: ADE. Lemonade, Ice-T :) What was that commercial for? It was funny.
25. Dromedary feature: HUMP
28. Hybrid fruits: UGLIS
31. Cheerleader's cry: GO TEAM! Or GO WRONG TEAM! as this USC cheerleader celebrates Vince Young's winning touchdown in the 2006 Rose Bowl which confirmed Texas as the National Champions. Ooops.
33. Top __: BANANA
34. "Garfield: __ of Two Kitties": A TAIL. Unheard of, but an easy guess.
37. Deceptive appearance: GUISE
39. __ Plaines: DES
44. Fish often fried: COD. Back in me youth, we ate fish on Fridays, as did all good Catholics (or bad Catholics, in our case, but we had to keep up appearances). The local "chippy" was my mother's night off cooking, we had take-out of fried fish and chips. Three choices, battered cod or haddock; or my dad's favorite, breaded plaice. Wrapped in genuine newsprint. Happy days.
45. Famille member: ONCLE
46. Out of practice: RUSTY. Like my piano skills, I might be able to knock out a "Moonlight Sonata" but I'd have the dogs howling, and not at the moon.
47. Deceptive: TRICKY. A bit like Jeffrey's puzzles.
50. Took to heart: HEEDED
52. Sleep soundly?: SNORE. Loved this clue/answer.
53. Classic movie theaters: RKO'S. RKO had a crack at "verticalization" before anyone had even thought of the term. They figured that if they were producing the movies, they may as well air them in their own theaters and take the box office directly without giving a cut to the theater owners.
54. Maple yield: SAP
57. Martial arts teacher: SENSEI. Literally "one who comes before". An honorific shared in both Chinese and Japanese.
61. Knesset country: ISRAEL. The Israeli Parliament.
63. Brit's afternoon drink: A SPOT OF TEA. Tough to parse if you have all the letters from crosses: ASPOTOFTEA. What? It's the "POT" that throws you.
67. Raised landform: BUTTE
68. Stable baby: FOAL
69. Befuddled: AT SEA
70. It was originally a sitting meditation pose: ASANA. Now a yoga position.
71. Capital on the Tiber: ROME
72. With 22-Down, intimidate: PSYCH (out).
73. Reach: GET AT
Down:
1. __ Bay Rays: TAMPA. When did they drop the "Devil" part of the name? C.C. would know.
2. Nymph associated with Artemis: OREAD. Not one, but many. These were mountain nymphs, allegedly aggressive, but they didn't seem to have any trouble attracting attention. I wonder why?
3. Needle: TEASE
4. Tiny tunnelers: ANTS
5. Eighteenth, usually: LAST HOLE. My last hole is the nineteenth - the clubhouse bar.
6. Clotheshorse: FOP
7. Sch. with a Brooklyn campus: LIU. This innocuous little fill was the source of a good 20 minutes of head-scratching - couldn't see past NYU. NYU went in, came out, went in, came out, we do the hokey-pokey and we turn about and end up with NYU all over again. Long Island University - of course. Now if you were asking about Iced Tea, you'd be speaking my language.
8. Penne __ vodka: ALLA. Food! I know you wanted "A LA", as did I - but we are speaking Italian, not French. Here's my dinner tonight - ragu Bolognese I made yesterday (the flavors develop if you leave it overnight), linguine, Parmegiano Reggiano, basil from my own bush and - the killer - a poached egg. So I present "Lingine alla Bolognese con l'uovo" in my terrible Italian.
9. Fuse: MELD
10. Writer Bombeck: ERMA. I still struggle to remember ERMA vs IRMA. Sorry, Irma - I mean, Erma.
11. Inoffensive: BENIGN
12. Praise: ACCOLADES
13. New Deal agcy.: NRA
14. __ La Table: cookware shop: SUR. There's one next to the original Farmer's Market on Fairfax here in LA. It has a magnetic attraction - when I shop the market, I swear they teleport me in there and do the hypnosis finger-snap just after I've finished buying something. I have a rather lovely paella pan from my last telekinetic moment, but I have to say it's had a lot of use.
20. Bonn : Wasser :: Barcelona : __: AGUA
22. See 72-Across: OUT
26. Soccer star Rapinoe: MEGAN
27. Beer belly: PAUNCH
29. Unlikely to react: INERT
30. Likely to react?: SASSY
31. "Scram, varmints!": GIT
32. 2017 "Hello, Dolly!" Tony winner: MIDLER. Bette, of course.
33. TV's Arthur: BEA
34. Billing nos.: ACCTS
35. "This __ / Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong" (Shakespeare): THORN. The "thorn" of love.
36. Intrusive MP3 files: AUDIO SPAM. Is this a thing? I know the two words go together, but had anyone ever had an unwanted intrusion of MP3 files? I know U2 came in for some flak a while ago when they gave their latest album away free to anyone who had an Apple iTunes account, but I can't think of anything which might come close to spam. Anyone?
38. Aerodynamic: SLEEK
41. __ sauce: SOY
42. Bridal gown storage option: DRESS BAG. Hmmm, OK.
43. It'll never work: DUD
48. Big Easy cuisine: CREOLE. Food!
49. Co-worker of Lane and Olsen: KENT. Superman in his day job.
51. "Where __ sign?": DO I
54. Pulled a chair up to: SAT AT
55. Insurance giant: AETNA. Founded as the Aetna (Fire) Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Why Aetna? Based on the name of Etna, the active volcano beloved of crossword constructors.
56. Skirt fold: PLEAT
58. Dove, e.g.: SOAP
59. Young salamanders: EFTS
60. Wee: ITSY
62. Sleight of hand: RUSE
63. Egypt's cont.: AFRica. If you'd like a little different take on the by-now bland "Toto" song, here's my favorite Norwegian heavy metal and legendary cover artist Leo Morachiolli. Ear defenders advised for the weak at heart, or hearing.
64. Jack of "Barney Miller": SOO
65. Common Market letters: EEC. European Economic Community.
66. Hot tub sigh: AAH!
I'm in the UK for a few days, I'm crossing my fingers that civil war doesn't break out while I'm here and the hordes descend on Heathrow Airport with pitchforks and torches. If that happens, I'll just pop into the pub for a pint or two and maybe a spot of tea and wait for it to rain. The last time there were major riots in England when I lived there it was during a spell of nice weather. Once it started raining, the rioting subsided. No-one likes to riot in the rain.
Pip-pip, old Chaps! Toodle-oo!
Steve
Happy 60th birthday to dear Steve, the Cal Ripken Jr. of our blog. Steve has a busy job and travels often, but he always prioritizes our blog and writes many posts on the road. Thank you so much for your incomparable dedication and humor, Steve!
40A. Classic American board game symbolized by this puzzle's circles: CHUTES AND LADDERS. In the UK, and, I believe, Canada, the game is called "Snakes and Ladders" although there are many variations. There are even a chain of coffee shops headquartered in Toronto called "Snakes and Lattes".
The game originated in ancient India under the name Moksha Patam, and traveled to the UK to be called "Snakes and Ladders", faithful to the Indian original, and thence to the Americas, where Milton Bradley renamed it "Chutes and Ladders" and produced the first US version in 1943. I hope the clue refers to the name of the US version, and not the provenance.
It's an interesting study of morality, the ladders reward virtue and the snakes, or chutes, punish transgression. The phrase "back to square one" originated from the game.
Here's a game board preserved in the National Museum in Delhi:
OK, history lesson over.
Jeffrey served up a wonderful puzzle here, it takes great skill to be able to hide the theme entries in multiple adjoining fill, and note that the "downwards" entries are all "chutes" and the "upwards" entries are all "ladders".
Downwards: TRASH, MAIL and LAUNDRY
Upwards: ROPE, FIRE and STEP.
As always, Jeffrey hides some landmines, so just when you think you have the thing beat, you find a section that you stare at, fiddle with, write stuff in, take stuff out, you just can't figure it out. For me this week was the top-center, I had terrible trouble getting that straight.
So Bravo! Mr. Wechsler. Let's take a look at what we have:
Across:
1. "Are you getting 100%?" cereal: TOTAL
6. Lover: FLAME. As I mentioned above, this section took me an age to figure out. I just couldn't see FLAME, OILER and even when I finally tripped to PULLMAN I was lost.
11. Excludes: BANS
15. Place to play: ARENA
16. Gulf of Oman vessel: OILER
17. Neutral tone: ECRU
18. Charcuterie fare: MEATS. Food! Originally a way of preserving meats, mainly pork, before refrigeration. Nowadays extends to pates, sausage, and all kinds of interesting stuff.
19. Quaint sleeping coach: PULLMAN CAR. The UK railways ran various all-Pullman services which were first-class only. White tablecloths, candles, waiter food service. I have a couple of Pullman cars on my model railway.
21. Target, as a receiver: PASS TO
23. "Moonlight Sonata" opening movement, e.g.: ADAGIO. Here's Beethoven's masterpiece adagio. Don't bother reading the snarky comments below the piece, it's amazing how those keyboard warriiors want to find some, any excuse to criticize. I think comments should be closed for YouTube.
24. Stand buy: ADE. Lemonade, Ice-T :) What was that commercial for? It was funny.
25. Dromedary feature: HUMP
28. Hybrid fruits: UGLIS
31. Cheerleader's cry: GO TEAM! Or GO WRONG TEAM! as this USC cheerleader celebrates Vince Young's winning touchdown in the 2006 Rose Bowl which confirmed Texas as the National Champions. Ooops.
33. Top __: BANANA
34. "Garfield: __ of Two Kitties": A TAIL. Unheard of, but an easy guess.
37. Deceptive appearance: GUISE
39. __ Plaines: DES
44. Fish often fried: COD. Back in me youth, we ate fish on Fridays, as did all good Catholics (or bad Catholics, in our case, but we had to keep up appearances). The local "chippy" was my mother's night off cooking, we had take-out of fried fish and chips. Three choices, battered cod or haddock; or my dad's favorite, breaded plaice. Wrapped in genuine newsprint. Happy days.
45. Famille member: ONCLE
46. Out of practice: RUSTY. Like my piano skills, I might be able to knock out a "Moonlight Sonata" but I'd have the dogs howling, and not at the moon.
47. Deceptive: TRICKY. A bit like Jeffrey's puzzles.
50. Took to heart: HEEDED
52. Sleep soundly?: SNORE. Loved this clue/answer.
53. Classic movie theaters: RKO'S. RKO had a crack at "verticalization" before anyone had even thought of the term. They figured that if they were producing the movies, they may as well air them in their own theaters and take the box office directly without giving a cut to the theater owners.
54. Maple yield: SAP
57. Martial arts teacher: SENSEI. Literally "one who comes before". An honorific shared in both Chinese and Japanese.
61. Knesset country: ISRAEL. The Israeli Parliament.
63. Brit's afternoon drink: A SPOT OF TEA. Tough to parse if you have all the letters from crosses: ASPOTOFTEA. What? It's the "POT" that throws you.
67. Raised landform: BUTTE
68. Stable baby: FOAL
69. Befuddled: AT SEA
70. It was originally a sitting meditation pose: ASANA. Now a yoga position.
71. Capital on the Tiber: ROME
72. With 22-Down, intimidate: PSYCH (out).
73. Reach: GET AT
Down:
1. __ Bay Rays: TAMPA. When did they drop the "Devil" part of the name? C.C. would know.
2. Nymph associated with Artemis: OREAD. Not one, but many. These were mountain nymphs, allegedly aggressive, but they didn't seem to have any trouble attracting attention. I wonder why?
3. Needle: TEASE
4. Tiny tunnelers: ANTS
5. Eighteenth, usually: LAST HOLE. My last hole is the nineteenth - the clubhouse bar.
6. Clotheshorse: FOP
7. Sch. with a Brooklyn campus: LIU. This innocuous little fill was the source of a good 20 minutes of head-scratching - couldn't see past NYU. NYU went in, came out, went in, came out, we do the hokey-pokey and we turn about and end up with NYU all over again. Long Island University - of course. Now if you were asking about Iced Tea, you'd be speaking my language.
8. Penne __ vodka: ALLA. Food! I know you wanted "A LA", as did I - but we are speaking Italian, not French. Here's my dinner tonight - ragu Bolognese I made yesterday (the flavors develop if you leave it overnight), linguine, Parmegiano Reggiano, basil from my own bush and - the killer - a poached egg. So I present "Lingine alla Bolognese con l'uovo" in my terrible Italian.
9. Fuse: MELD
10. Writer Bombeck: ERMA. I still struggle to remember ERMA vs IRMA. Sorry, Irma - I mean, Erma.
11. Inoffensive: BENIGN
12. Praise: ACCOLADES
13. New Deal agcy.: NRA
14. __ La Table: cookware shop: SUR. There's one next to the original Farmer's Market on Fairfax here in LA. It has a magnetic attraction - when I shop the market, I swear they teleport me in there and do the hypnosis finger-snap just after I've finished buying something. I have a rather lovely paella pan from my last telekinetic moment, but I have to say it's had a lot of use.
20. Bonn : Wasser :: Barcelona : __: AGUA
22. See 72-Across: OUT
26. Soccer star Rapinoe: MEGAN
27. Beer belly: PAUNCH
29. Unlikely to react: INERT
30. Likely to react?: SASSY
31. "Scram, varmints!": GIT
32. 2017 "Hello, Dolly!" Tony winner: MIDLER. Bette, of course.
33. TV's Arthur: BEA
34. Billing nos.: ACCTS
35. "This __ / Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong" (Shakespeare): THORN. The "thorn" of love.
Countess: Even so it was with me when I was young:
If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn
Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong;
All's Well that Ends Well, Act III sc i.
36. Intrusive MP3 files: AUDIO SPAM. Is this a thing? I know the two words go together, but had anyone ever had an unwanted intrusion of MP3 files? I know U2 came in for some flak a while ago when they gave their latest album away free to anyone who had an Apple iTunes account, but I can't think of anything which might come close to spam. Anyone?
38. Aerodynamic: SLEEK
41. __ sauce: SOY
42. Bridal gown storage option: DRESS BAG. Hmmm, OK.
43. It'll never work: DUD
48. Big Easy cuisine: CREOLE. Food!
49. Co-worker of Lane and Olsen: KENT. Superman in his day job.
51. "Where __ sign?": DO I
54. Pulled a chair up to: SAT AT
55. Insurance giant: AETNA. Founded as the Aetna (Fire) Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Why Aetna? Based on the name of Etna, the active volcano beloved of crossword constructors.
56. Skirt fold: PLEAT
58. Dove, e.g.: SOAP
59. Young salamanders: EFTS
60. Wee: ITSY
62. Sleight of hand: RUSE
63. Egypt's cont.: AFRica. If you'd like a little different take on the by-now bland "Toto" song, here's my favorite Norwegian heavy metal and legendary cover artist Leo Morachiolli. Ear defenders advised for the weak at heart, or hearing.
64. Jack of "Barney Miller": SOO
65. Common Market letters: EEC. European Economic Community.
66. Hot tub sigh: AAH!
I'm in the UK for a few days, I'm crossing my fingers that civil war doesn't break out while I'm here and the hordes descend on Heathrow Airport with pitchforks and torches. If that happens, I'll just pop into the pub for a pint or two and maybe a spot of tea and wait for it to rain. The last time there were major riots in England when I lived there it was during a spell of nice weather. Once it started raining, the rioting subsided. No-one likes to riot in the rain.
Pip-pip, old Chaps! Toodle-oo!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
Happy 60th birthday to dear Steve, the Cal Ripken Jr. of our blog. Steve has a busy job and travels often, but he always prioritizes our blog and writes many posts on the road. Thank you so much for your incomparable dedication and humor, Steve!
Steve and Jill, June 12, 2016
Tea at The Queen Mary
