Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's Friday puzzle recap. Our puzzle setter, Katie Hale, has constructed a Puzzle wherein she literally uses the word literally correctly and not in the-centuries-old, and seemingly becoming more prevalent, mis-used way of figuratively.
For example, in Little Women Louisa May Alcott wrote that `The land literally flowed with milk and honey.' Tom Sawyer was not turning somersaults on piles of money when Mark Twain described him as `literally rolling in wealth.' Jay Gatsby was not shining when Fitzgerald wrote that he `literally glowed.' Such examples are plentiful, even in the works of the authors we were taught to emulate.
Excuse me? It's not possible that anyone could say that. Oh, never mind.
On to the puzzle. There is no "reveal" as the "gimmick" (if you will) is found within each of the clues in which Katie asks us to suss out the literal meanings of words from five languages other than English. The French, Italian and Spanish may have been familiar to many of us Eurocentric American solvers. The Turkish and Indonesian were likely less so. Here are the five themed answers:
16. Zevk, literally: TURKISH DELIGHT. Zevk is TURKISH for pleasure.
24. Bise, literally: FRENCH KISS. Today's French lesson. Bise is FRENCH for kiss.
36. Cangkir, literally: CUP OF JAVA. Cangkir is cup in Indonesian. The island of Java, Indonesia is the world's most populous island.
50. Quando, literally: WHEN IN ROME. Quando is Italian for, yep, WHEN. What is this world coming to? Last week Sonny and Cher and this week:
Engelbert Humperdinck
58. La lluvia, literally: THE RAIN IN SPAIN. Today's Spanish lesson: Spanish for RAIN. By George, I think she's got it:
Here is the completed grid:
. . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Kid's parent: GOAT. Neither a human child (clue) nor the Greatest Of All Time (answer). An ovine reference.
5. Rebecca in the Basketball Hall of Fame: LOBO. Our esteemed editor, as has been previously pointed out on this blog, seems partial to WNBA references.
9. Texter's "I don't understand": WDYM.
13. Actor Omar: EPPS. Omar often visits us and more often it's his first name that is the answer.
14. Hyaluronic __: ACID. It keeps body tissues hydrated.
15. Frost: HOAR.
19. Early ISP: AOL. America On Line. Remember all those discs they used to give away? I still use their email service for other-than-personal (junk) email.
20. Fictional sleuth Wolfe: NERO. Another frequent visitor.
21. Egyptian cobra: ASP. Cleopatra's ASP is very well known.
22. St. __: Cornwall town: IVES. Polygamy as a learning opportunity:
28. Sought out for advice: WENT TO.
30. Part of a vague ultimatum: OR ELSE.
31. Pianist Rubinstein: ARTUR.
B: 1887 D: 1982
32. Philistine: BOOR.
35. Make a bad impression?: DENT. A clue that was to be taken literally.
39. Reserve: BOOK. Used as a verb as in to BOOK a table at a restaurant.
42. Noshes: EATS. Today's Yiddish/German lesson.
43. Vigilant: AWARE. What do you call a wolf who is cognizant of his surroundings? AWARE wolf.
47. Marquee time: TONITE. Cutesy, intentional mis-spelling. TONITE is also an explosive compound.
49. Plays loudly: BLARES.
54. Sails off course: YAWS.
55. "You __ do this!": CAN. A straightforward fill-in-the-blank clue/answer.
56. Some ballpark figs.: ERAS. A baseball park reference. Earned Run Average.
57. Dust jacket paragraph: BIO. BIOgraphy
63. Humdinger: LULU. A real doozy.
64. Element used in a 5-Down: NEON. It could have been clued as Colorado's new football coach.
65. Dressed: CLAD.
66. Ancient Briton: CELT.
67. Some digital natives, informally: GEN Y. Digital native describes a person who has grown up in the digital age.
68. Moral lapses: SINS. Golfer: "Caddy, do you think it is a sin to play golf on Sunday?" Caddy: "The way you play, sir, its a sin any day of the week!"
Down:
1. Move past, as a breakup: GET OVER.
2. Luxurious: OPULENT.
3. Car loan fig.: APR. Annual Percentage Rate.
4. Judgy sound: TSK. Is it going to be TSK or TUT? Only the perps know for sure.
5. Lithography tool: LASER. We're not talking about 19th Century printmaking here. All you might want to know:
6. Prehistoric paint colour: OCHRE. The extra u in colour leads us to the British spelling.
7. Compete for, in a way: BID ON.
8. First word of the European Union anthem's title: ODE. "ODE to Joy", from Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
9. Taken suddenly: WHISKED AWAY. I can't find my eggbeater. It's as if someone just WHISKED it AWAY.
10. Group celebration after a game-winning play, say: DOG PILE. Also, an early search engine.
11. Slangy agreement: YAH. Today's punt.
12. B.A. Baracus player: MR T.
17. Recon collection: INFO. Reconnoiter is truncated, ergo INFOrmation is also.
18. Cowardly Lion portrayer: LAHR.
19. Big name in speakers: AIWA. Not orators. Music system speakers.
23. Longing for change, maybe: STUCK IN A RUT.
25. "Downton Abbey" countess played by Elizabeth McGovern: CORA. Yet another frequent visitor.
26. Tax form digits: SSN. Social Security Number
27. All ready: SET. Hit It!
29. Capote nickname: TRU.
32. Fluffy wrap: BOA. Sometimes clued with reference to the snake.
33. Again and again, in verse: OFT. The OFT re-posted jokes are wrong. A pirate's favorite letter is P. Because without it he becomes irate.
34. Fresh-squeezed drinks, for short: OJS. Orange Juices. Rarely seen pluralized as here.
37. Hammer end: PEEN. The end of a hammer head (not the shark) opposite the flat striking surface, often wedge-shaped or ball-shaped and used for chipping, indenting, and metalworking.
38. Actor Kilmer: VAL.
39. FYI kin: BTW. For Your Information By The Way.
40. __ and aah: OOH.
41. Like yeast: ONE CELL. Often clued with an amoeba.
44. Horse breed that originated on an Asian peninsula: ARABIAN.
45. Goes back to the start: REWINDS.
46. Exxon, in Canada and Europe: ESSO. Standard Oil (S.O.)
48. Jukebox musical whose first number is "Nutbush City Limits": TINA. Nutbush, Tennessee is Tina Turner's rural home town.
49. "Porgy and __": BESS. A Gershwin reference.
51. "Judy" star Zellweger: RENEE. I didn't know Judy but I knew Zellweger.
52. Hunter slain by Artemis: ORION. Often clued with reference to the constellation.
53. 2004 World Series MVP Ramirez: MANNY. He played in the major leagues for nineteen seasons. This year he received 32.% of the vote in the Hall of Fame balloting. A player needs 75% to get in.
58. Indulgent attention, for short: TLC. Tender Loving Care
59. Shade: HUE.
60. Gerund syllable: ING. By definition.
61. IBMs, e.g.: PCS. Personal ComputerS that aren't Apples.
62. Former boxer Laila: ALI. A frequent visitor who, lately, seems to have replaced her father as the clue of choice.
Well, that's it for today. Now I must go grab something to eat as I am so hungry that I could figuratively eat a horse.
