Theme: Dog Show
17A. *Line never spoken by James Cagney: YOU DIRTY RAT! Well, "you dirty yellow-bellied rat" comes close. c.f. "Play it again, Sam".
23A. *Rock pile at a prehistoric gravesite: BURIAL CAIRN. There are some fine cairns, none prehistoric, in my neighborhood at the tree near the top of Mount Lee, better known as the "Hollywood Sign" hill. I hope there aren't bodies buried underneath. We used to picnic and play on Stonehenge before everyone got serious about the stones. Not cairns, I know, but happy memories of climbing a sarsen stone or two.
40A. *Like Juárez, vis-à-vis El Paso: ACROSS THE BORDER
50A. *Far-fetched, as a story: COCK AND BULL. There are arguments aplenty about the origin of this phrase, most involving two inns on the coaching route from the Midlands to London. However, it's difficult to argue that these lines from John Day's 1608 play Law Trickes were not the first usage - "What a tale of a cock and a bull he told my father".
Which brings us to the, quite frankly, inexplicable reveal:
64A. "__, Batman!": Robin's cry upon spotting the ends of the answers to starred clues?: HOLY TERRIER
So ... we've got four dog breeds which happen to be terriers - fair enough, so far. Now how to tie them together? How about an entry which has TERRIER in it, and has nothing to do with anything else in the puzzle, neither was the phrase ever used in the comic books, nor the TV shows nor the movie series?
I'm completely baffled by this one. I can't see a play on words with "HOLY", there's nothing to tie "YOU DIRTY", "BURIAL", "ACROSS THE" and "COCK AND" to each other. It's totally random. Honestly, this is "*Far-fetched, as a crossword theme" as you can get.
Maybe "YOU DIRTY RAT" was meant to clue us into the reveal was a line never spoken? Or was it all just COCK AND BULL?
There is plenty else to like though, I just wish Mark and/or Rich had been able to come up with a better reveal, or even go with no reveal at all and just find a substitute for that awful 64A.
That being said, let's see what else we've got, and please, if I'm missing the blindingly obvious, let me know via the comments.
Across:
1. Distillery mixture: MASH. Tried BRAN. Was wrong. Always good to get off on the wrong foot.
5. The Flyers' Gritty, e.g.: MASCOT. He's got about as much to do with Philadelphia and hockey as "HOLY TERRIERS!" Maybe this is the theme?
11. Poke fun at: RIB
14. __-inflammatory: ANTI
15. Corrida figure: EL TORO. Denizens of Southern California will remember the "El Toro Y" traffic warnings, a junction between the 5 and the 405 which every day caused alarums and excursions at rush hour.
16. Important card: ACE
19. Cutting remark: DIG
20. 4,300-mile range: ANDES
21. Novelist Waugh: ALEC. A very talented family. His brother Evelyn wrote two of my favorite novels, "Brideshead Revisted" and "Scoop!".
22. "In __ of gifts ... ": LIEU
26. Protect with a levee: EMBANK
30. Canon SLR: EOS. That's one high-end camera. I have a Canon Rebel, mostly to take pictures of my N-scale model railway - you just can't get the depth of field with the iPhone, although in some (bad modelling!) cases that's not such a bad thing!
31. Gorilla expert Fossey: DIAN
32. A pop: EACH
36. Sail (through): COAST
43. MGM part: METRO. Movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, with Sam Goldwyn's name in eye-catching italics. The consummate self-promoter that he was, as Sam Goldfish, formed "Goldwyn" as a co-partnership with Edgar and Archie Selwyn. The name was to be either "Selfish" or "Goldwyn", so not hard to figure out which was the preferred choice. Immediately after the partnership was formed, Sam legally ditched his last name, and replaced it with "Goldwyn". The rest, as they say, is history.
44. Cork's place: EIRE
45. Racing legend Earnhardt: DALE
46. Brouhaha: ADO
48. Held to account: LIABLE
56. Car rental giant: AVIS
57. "Royal" seaside bird: TERN. Here's a turn for the better:
58. Spare: EXTRA
63. GQ or EW: MAG. A magazine. "EW" is "Entertainment Weekly", and though "GQ" purports to be "Gentlemen's Quarterly", it's published monthly. I'm not sure the full name has been used since the mid 60's. and certainly not since 1970.
66. Lyft driver's ballpark fig.: E.T.A.
67. Café option: AU LAIT. Coffee with hot milk added. I'm not sure what would happen if you ordered coffee with cold milk in France, the entire world is quiet on the subject. Here's the hot version:
68. Real estate ad number: AREA
69. Anthem contraction: O'ER
70. "Hard to Stop" air conditioners: TRANES
71. Use one's outside voice: YELL
Down:
1. "The Good Place" Emmy nominee Rudolph: MAYA, Minnie Riperton's ("Loving You") daughter. Who knew? No me, I just looked her up.
2. In a trice: ANON. I'd rather go with "soon" than "in a trice". If I want something "anon", it's "soon" - not right now, but not next February, more when it's convenient for the giver. If I want something "in a trice", it's more demanding "now", "ASAP" or "STAT". Funny how the "now" words are very recent.
3. Poker choice: STUD. A variant of the gambling game. Most of what you see today is Texas Hold 'Em.
4. Keep out of sight: HIDE
5. Debussy's "La __": MER. An orchestral piece. It takes a little while to get going, so you can listen to it "anon". Actually, it's been playing for 15 minutes while i work my way down this blog, and it's never really ever got started. Not on my favorites list to this point.
6. Chancel feature: ALTAR
7. Tablet accessories: STYLI. They still exist, mostly in the electronic form to draw on your iPad or other "small, portable, electronic devices" as the airlines like to call them.
8. Chick with Grammys: COREA
9. Soothsayer: ORACLE
10. Little one: TOT
11. Circle lines: RADII. Bones, too.
12. Less approachable: ICIER
13. Started: BEGUN
18. Library ID: ISBN. What happened to the good old Dewey Decimal System? Do librarians still use it?
22. Hall of Fame Dodger manager Tommy: LA SORDA
24. Luau strings: UKES
25. Estée contemporary: COCO. Lauder. Chanel.
26. Mild cheese: EDAM. I tried BRIE first, all the time grumbling that it's not always mild. Then I was wrong, so I ungrumbled. (Degrumbled?)
27. Nursery rhyme trio: MICE. Not PIGS then. A lot of backspacing/wite-out today.
28. Frequent prank caller to Moe's Tavern: BART
29. Arctic garb: ANORAKS
33. Snacked, say: ATE
34. McBride of "Hawaii Five-0": CHI
35. Sailor's pronoun: HER. "Thar she blows!" and sundry other stuff.
37. Very little: A DAB
38. Market: SELL
39. Walnut or pecan: TREE
41. Bar mixer: SODA. Not on my bar. Tonic, please!
42. Round signal: BELL This is quite nice - the end of a round in a boxing contest, but alarm bells tend to be round too.
47. Like a band in a bus: ON TOUR. Jackson Browne's paean to his tour team, recorded across the street from where I used to live - at the BBC's Maida Vale studios. I often used to pop in on my way back from work to see what was going on, sadly I missed this session in the (very tiny) auditorium.
49. "The Sopranos" actor Robert: ILER
50. Brief appearance: CAMEO
51. Egg-shaped: OVATE. Darn, I confidently put OVOID and then backed off, letter by letter.
52. Cuban export: CIGAR
53. Street of mystery: DELLA
54. "Trumbo" Oscar nominee Cranston: BRYAN. More famous for "Breaking Bad", a title I have tried on numerous occasions to make into a crossword theme. Never got there!
55. Set free: UNTIE
59. CT scan component: X-RAY
60. Run out of gas: TIRE. People tire, cars stop. I had a Jaguar XJS which had a gas gauge that never worked (quelle surprise!) and I had to estimate when I needed to fill up based on the mileage since the last time I topped up the tank. Sure enough, I ran dry on the 134 freeway in Toluca Lake - directly on an overpass above a gas station. A quick scoot down the embankment, a gallon in a plastic can and I was on my way in about five minutes flat.
61. Traditional dance: REEL
62. Mostly depleted sea: ARAL
64. Party accessory: HAT
65. UFO passengers, supposedly: ET'S
A sad day for grammarians everywhere, the Apostrophe Protection Society has this week disbanded, saying that "ignorance and laziness have won".
D'oh! May the greengrocers' plural live forever.
Steve
Oh, sorry, here'res' the grid. I like posting grid's.
17A. *Line never spoken by James Cagney: YOU DIRTY RAT! Well, "you dirty yellow-bellied rat" comes close. c.f. "Play it again, Sam".
23A. *Rock pile at a prehistoric gravesite: BURIAL CAIRN. There are some fine cairns, none prehistoric, in my neighborhood at the tree near the top of Mount Lee, better known as the "Hollywood Sign" hill. I hope there aren't bodies buried underneath. We used to picnic and play on Stonehenge before everyone got serious about the stones. Not cairns, I know, but happy memories of climbing a sarsen stone or two.
40A. *Like Juárez, vis-à-vis El Paso: ACROSS THE BORDER
50A. *Far-fetched, as a story: COCK AND BULL. There are arguments aplenty about the origin of this phrase, most involving two inns on the coaching route from the Midlands to London. However, it's difficult to argue that these lines from John Day's 1608 play Law Trickes were not the first usage - "What a tale of a cock and a bull he told my father".
Which brings us to the, quite frankly, inexplicable reveal:
64A. "__, Batman!": Robin's cry upon spotting the ends of the answers to starred clues?: HOLY TERRIER
So ... we've got four dog breeds which happen to be terriers - fair enough, so far. Now how to tie them together? How about an entry which has TERRIER in it, and has nothing to do with anything else in the puzzle, neither was the phrase ever used in the comic books, nor the TV shows nor the movie series?
I'm completely baffled by this one. I can't see a play on words with "HOLY", there's nothing to tie "YOU DIRTY", "BURIAL", "ACROSS THE" and "COCK AND" to each other. It's totally random. Honestly, this is "*Far-fetched, as a crossword theme" as you can get.
Maybe "YOU DIRTY RAT" was meant to clue us into the reveal was a line never spoken? Or was it all just COCK AND BULL?
There is plenty else to like though, I just wish Mark and/or Rich had been able to come up with a better reveal, or even go with no reveal at all and just find a substitute for that awful 64A.
That being said, let's see what else we've got, and please, if I'm missing the blindingly obvious, let me know via the comments.
Across:
1. Distillery mixture: MASH. Tried BRAN. Was wrong. Always good to get off on the wrong foot.
5. The Flyers' Gritty, e.g.: MASCOT. He's got about as much to do with Philadelphia and hockey as "HOLY TERRIERS!" Maybe this is the theme?
11. Poke fun at: RIB
14. __-inflammatory: ANTI
15. Corrida figure: EL TORO. Denizens of Southern California will remember the "El Toro Y" traffic warnings, a junction between the 5 and the 405 which every day caused alarums and excursions at rush hour.
16. Important card: ACE
19. Cutting remark: DIG
20. 4,300-mile range: ANDES
21. Novelist Waugh: ALEC. A very talented family. His brother Evelyn wrote two of my favorite novels, "Brideshead Revisted" and "Scoop!".
22. "In __ of gifts ... ": LIEU
26. Protect with a levee: EMBANK
30. Canon SLR: EOS. That's one high-end camera. I have a Canon Rebel, mostly to take pictures of my N-scale model railway - you just can't get the depth of field with the iPhone, although in some (bad modelling!) cases that's not such a bad thing!
31. Gorilla expert Fossey: DIAN
32. A pop: EACH
36. Sail (through): COAST
43. MGM part: METRO. Movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, with Sam Goldwyn's name in eye-catching italics. The consummate self-promoter that he was, as Sam Goldfish, formed "Goldwyn" as a co-partnership with Edgar and Archie Selwyn. The name was to be either "Selfish" or "Goldwyn", so not hard to figure out which was the preferred choice. Immediately after the partnership was formed, Sam legally ditched his last name, and replaced it with "Goldwyn". The rest, as they say, is history.
44. Cork's place: EIRE
45. Racing legend Earnhardt: DALE
46. Brouhaha: ADO
48. Held to account: LIABLE
56. Car rental giant: AVIS
57. "Royal" seaside bird: TERN. Here's a turn for the better:
58. Spare: EXTRA
63. GQ or EW: MAG. A magazine. "EW" is "Entertainment Weekly", and though "GQ" purports to be "Gentlemen's Quarterly", it's published monthly. I'm not sure the full name has been used since the mid 60's. and certainly not since 1970.
66. Lyft driver's ballpark fig.: E.T.A.
67. Café option: AU LAIT. Coffee with hot milk added. I'm not sure what would happen if you ordered coffee with cold milk in France, the entire world is quiet on the subject. Here's the hot version:
68. Real estate ad number: AREA
69. Anthem contraction: O'ER
70. "Hard to Stop" air conditioners: TRANES
71. Use one's outside voice: YELL
Down:
1. "The Good Place" Emmy nominee Rudolph: MAYA, Minnie Riperton's ("Loving You") daughter. Who knew? No me, I just looked her up.
2. In a trice: ANON. I'd rather go with "soon" than "in a trice". If I want something "anon", it's "soon" - not right now, but not next February, more when it's convenient for the giver. If I want something "in a trice", it's more demanding "now", "ASAP" or "STAT". Funny how the "now" words are very recent.
3. Poker choice: STUD. A variant of the gambling game. Most of what you see today is Texas Hold 'Em.
4. Keep out of sight: HIDE
5. Debussy's "La __": MER. An orchestral piece. It takes a little while to get going, so you can listen to it "anon". Actually, it's been playing for 15 minutes while i work my way down this blog, and it's never really ever got started. Not on my favorites list to this point.
6. Chancel feature: ALTAR
7. Tablet accessories: STYLI. They still exist, mostly in the electronic form to draw on your iPad or other "small, portable, electronic devices" as the airlines like to call them.
8. Chick with Grammys: COREA
9. Soothsayer: ORACLE
10. Little one: TOT
11. Circle lines: RADII. Bones, too.
12. Less approachable: ICIER
13. Started: BEGUN
18. Library ID: ISBN. What happened to the good old Dewey Decimal System? Do librarians still use it?
22. Hall of Fame Dodger manager Tommy: LA SORDA
24. Luau strings: UKES
25. Estée contemporary: COCO. Lauder. Chanel.
26. Mild cheese: EDAM. I tried BRIE first, all the time grumbling that it's not always mild. Then I was wrong, so I ungrumbled. (Degrumbled?)
27. Nursery rhyme trio: MICE. Not PIGS then. A lot of backspacing/wite-out today.
28. Frequent prank caller to Moe's Tavern: BART
29. Arctic garb: ANORAKS
33. Snacked, say: ATE
34. McBride of "Hawaii Five-0": CHI
35. Sailor's pronoun: HER. "Thar she blows!" and sundry other stuff.
37. Very little: A DAB
38. Market: SELL
39. Walnut or pecan: TREE
41. Bar mixer: SODA. Not on my bar. Tonic, please!
42. Round signal: BELL This is quite nice - the end of a round in a boxing contest, but alarm bells tend to be round too.
47. Like a band in a bus: ON TOUR. Jackson Browne's paean to his tour team, recorded across the street from where I used to live - at the BBC's Maida Vale studios. I often used to pop in on my way back from work to see what was going on, sadly I missed this session in the (very tiny) auditorium.
49. "The Sopranos" actor Robert: ILER
50. Brief appearance: CAMEO
51. Egg-shaped: OVATE. Darn, I confidently put OVOID and then backed off, letter by letter.
52. Cuban export: CIGAR
53. Street of mystery: DELLA
54. "Trumbo" Oscar nominee Cranston: BRYAN. More famous for "Breaking Bad", a title I have tried on numerous occasions to make into a crossword theme. Never got there!
55. Set free: UNTIE
59. CT scan component: X-RAY
60. Run out of gas: TIRE. People tire, cars stop. I had a Jaguar XJS which had a gas gauge that never worked (quelle surprise!) and I had to estimate when I needed to fill up based on the mileage since the last time I topped up the tank. Sure enough, I ran dry on the 134 freeway in Toluca Lake - directly on an overpass above a gas station. A quick scoot down the embankment, a gallon in a plastic can and I was on my way in about five minutes flat.
61. Traditional dance: REEL
62. Mostly depleted sea: ARAL
64. Party accessory: HAT
65. UFO passengers, supposedly: ET'S
A sad day for grammarians everywhere, the Apostrophe Protection Society has this week disbanded, saying that "ignorance and laziness have won".
D'oh! May the greengrocers' plural live forever.
Steve
Oh, sorry, here'res' the grid. I like posting grid's.
