Words: 72 (missing Q,U,Z)
Blocks: 31
What,
no baseball~!?? How can this be a puzzle from our blog founder and
host without ANY reference to baseball~? I am concerned. Wait; what,
no "U"~? - there is no "I" in TEAM, but there is a "ME" - what about
"U"~? None here. C.C.'s last Saturday puzzle was in May this year, and
upon reviewing that grid, found I had the same result then as I did
today - a few too many 'fun sponge' proper names (*; I count 12, not including place names and brand names) to make this enjoyable, even though I did finish within my personal
time - and yes, with one Google, and red-letter help on two entries. Oh
well. Two 12-letter spanners, that may be related, but I will leave
that up to you to decide;
44. 1994 Ben Stiller comedy : REALITY BITES
Dr. No Wa~!
ACROSS:
1*. 2003 documentary set in the Philippines : IMELDA - starting off with a vague clue, and a proper name to boot
7*. Emulates Cassandra : PREDICTS - no clue, but I had -ICTS, and so I WAGed it. We're talking about this Cassandra, not this Cassandra; she's up next month
Elvira ( Cassandra Peterson )
15. Studio technicians : MIXERS - music studio
16. '70s "SNL" parody : BABA WAWA - Barbara Walters parody from Gilda Radner
17. In-demand groups : A-LISTS
18. Late order? : STEP ON IT
19. Trading ctrs. : MKTS
20. Reserved : TAKEN
22*. Tenor Carreras : JOSÉ
23*. Name meaning "young warrior" in Old Norse : SVEN - Dah~! Not ODIN
25. Finished : DID - like, say I "finished" my homework
26. Money maker : MINT - straight up
30. Coll. supervisors : RAs
31. Misses at the hoedown : GALS - misses as in ladies, not stray gun shots
32. Saws : ADAGES
36. Dossier shorthand : A.K.A. - Also Known As
37. Bass, e.g. : ALE
38. Magic, on scoreboards : ORLando - we did get some basketball, but....
39. Meal opener : OAT - oatmeal, took way to long to dawn on me
40. Plagues : BESETS
42*. Artist who wrote "Diary of a Genius" : DALI - the image associated with the actual book has a theme that is probably inappropriate for this forum; I personally like surrealism
Galatea
of the Spheres
43. "__ seen worse" : I'VE
47. Corrosive fluids : LYES
49. Kyrgyzstan province : OSH
51*. Pianist Templeton : ALEC
52. Mucho : LOTSA
54. Toronado, for one : OLDS - there's a picture like this hanging in my auto parts store
58. Let slide : IGNORE
60. Adds to the database, redundantly : ENTERS IN
61. Key of Beethoven's Ninth : D MINOR - so I did the usual, - M - - OR
62. Nerve condition? : COLD FEET
63. Take : ACCEPT
DOWN:
1*. Saudi Arabia's Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, for one : IMAM - dah~! Not EMIR
2. Parlor cooler : MILKSHAKE
3. Permits to leave : EXIT VISAS - 'DISMISSES' was not working, since I felt "CHINESE" was correct. Turned out to be the noun, not the verb, in this case
4. Taper off : LESSEN
5*. 2000 Richard Gere role : DR T.
6. Little help? : ASST - har-har, abbr assistant
7. "Curious George" media brand : PBS KIDS - my Google; I did not know George had 'sold out' for the money. I recall reading his book that showed how to make a paper boat;
9*. "Proof of Heaven" author Alexander : EBEN
10. Fist bump : DAP - huh~?? The urban dictionary definition - I only know this DAP
11. Battle site commemorated on a 3-cent stamp : IWO JIMA - I am so proud of myself - I WAGed this off the "A" only
12. Vixia camcorder maker : CANON
13. Plot thickener : TWIST
14. Fill up : SATE
21*. "Skyfall" singer : ADELE - Gratuitous James Bond Daniel Craig image
24. Cancels out : NEGATES
26. Improvisational game : MAD LIBS - played it as a kid; "34a." led to the name per Wiki
27. __ cake : CRAB
28. Hot stuff : SALSA
29. Like some retirements : EARLY
33. Solo : GO IT ALONE - GuITAr jam was looking like a possibility, but I was gritting my teeth
34. Show unwelcome interest : EAVESDROP
35. Notre Dame figs. : STEs
38. Courtroom procedures : OATHS
41. Put up : ERECTED
42. Cold : DISTANT
45. Canadian dollar coin : LOONIE - we've seen this before; the loon featured on the face
47. Peruvian prairie : LLANO
48*. Tovah Feldshuh Broadway role : YENTL - I knew this actress from her days as a defense lawyer on Law & Order
51. "Wait __!" : A SEC
52. Use a beam on : LASE
53*. Radamès' love : AIDA - not sure if we were looking for the person, or the synonym
55*. Rockefeller Center muralist : SERT
59. Safari maker : GMC - I had the "M", so that left me very few choices; we shot the downtown bus chase scene at the 48hr film festival from a GMC Safari; I was 'rocket-launcher guy'
44 comments:
All but the NW and a single cell in the SW done when I broke down and hit the check button. Three words went red, and none of the reds had any perps going thru them: MIntjulep>MILKSHAKE, EXcuseS??>EXITVISAS, and mAgmA>SALSA. Once I erased the offending letters I finished that section handily, but that one darn cell in the SW plagued me until I gave up and hit the reveal button. "Put up," I was thinking the meaning was either house or endure, instead of ERE_TED, and ALEC was just plain unknown.
He does so love to drink a MILK SHAKE,
And he never objects to a crumb of CRAB CAKE.
Or a cinnamon TWIST
Or a MINT julep,
But now when he walks, whole buildings quake!
Each suitor she'd decide to ACCEPT or IGNORE
Based on the way he ENTERS IN the door
So after all this
Twas an IRONIC TWIST
That she exited more marriages than Zsa Zsa Gabor!
No man will believe what Cassandra PREDICTS,
But when they have trouble, on her blame is fixed!
So she warns every maiden
That true love is fadin'
And to GO IT ALONE, because all men are dicks!
Morning, all!
I had a hard time getting started with this one. After my first pass, the entire top four rows were blank with the exception of JOSE. But, as I progressed down the grid I began to make a little headway here and there and was eventually able to get 'er done. Problems today were mostly caused by cluing that had me mixing up parts of speech ("Plagues" as a verb instead of a noun, for example), but once I got going I figured out what was going on and had less and less trouble.
There were a few obscurities that I had never heard of, but that were easy enough to guess based on the clues with a little perp help, such as IMELDA and CHINESE DREAM. REALITY BITES wasn't totally unknown, but it certainly didn't spring immediately to mind. Again, though, once the perps started dropping it was easy enough to dredge up.
Two thumbs up for me. A challenging puzzle that started out very imposing but ended up being very doable.
Nice Saturday slog for me. I got the SNL bit quickly. Bass Ale came slowly, even though I used to drink it occasionally, notably after a Porche I was riding in burned to a briquette in the heart of South Philly, near a bar with it on tap.
Good morning!
I could get no traction in the NW; the NE was easier. I was able to work my way around and head back up the west coast. Once I could see VISAS, it all fell into place. The K's in MILKSHAKE didn't trip me up the way the K in TOMKAT/KERI did. Nicely done, C.C. -- definitely Saturday difficulty.
I had EMIR for 1d which killed the NW. Finally googled 22a and with SVEN it all fell into place. Splynter, what is your "time limit?"
First 4 fills were Dr T, Jose, AKA and ORL. (Note lack of Oxford comma). Finally got some serious traction in the SW with Llano and Lyes, allowing that quadrant to fill, then kind of curled around counter-clockwise from there. So, Yup. Saturday level of difficulty, and challenging the entire way. But got er done. Good puzzle. Thank you C.C. And Splynter.
It's "Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day" .... AARRRRRRRGG !!
C.C. Thank You for a FUN Saturday puzzle.
The BABA WAWA answer cracked me up!
Splynter: Nice write-up ... as always.
YR (A follow-up to my "oppressive Florida weather" from yesterday).
Well I just received my Electric Power bill ... geez, it was high ... $ 29.31 ... guess I went crazy running the A/C. LOL !!!
Husker & Avg.Joe, looking forward to a great game today.
Though Hondo & I will be rooting for "The U."
Cheers !!!
Arrrrr! And your mother wears combat boots! With no socks! So there.
Good Morning:
I started out so smoothly with some of the longer fill just dropping into place, I thought I was really on CC's wave length. Then I hit a brick wall in the NE corner. After staring at a lot of white space, I checked one letter and that broke it wide open. So, a finish with help.
Thanks, CC, for a Saturday stumper and thanks, Splynter, for 'splainin' it all.
The Emmy's are on tomorrow night but I don't even remember who was nominated. I do know Viola Davis is up for How To Get Away With Murder and Jon Hamm for Mad Men. Jim Parsons (Sheldon) was not nominated this year but he has won 3 times before, I believe. Should be fine to watch, anyway.
Have a great day.
Fun, not fine! 👿
Well maybe it will be fine fun. I am surprised we have no mention of Talk Like Pirate Day (free doughnut at Krispy Keene)
It is such a strong indicator of how C.C. has progressed as a master constructor that she knocks out themeless puzzles as well. Awesome and Splynter was born to blog Saturdays thanks
Buffalo and New England
Dallas and Philadelphia
There go my Sundays
Not surprised Lemon doesn't read before he posts.
No matter the day, C.C. delivers the goods. I tiptoed around and suddenly the right side was done and I finished working CW in the NW.
Musings
-IMELDA was a -shoe-in. Sorry.
-I wonder if Cassandra will lay the points in the Nebraska/Miami game today
-I’m on the sub A-LIST but don’t know if I want to continue
-A MIXERS tool box
-JOSE is called “the other guy” of the three tenors on Seinfeld
-My friend was a 130 lb RA on a floor with Husker FB players
-Here’s a fabulous flash mob doing Beethoven’s Ninth in D MINOR (5:28)
-TWIST – Oh, so he’s Luke’s and Leia’s father…
-If you play MADLIBS with 6th graders, be prepared for biological functions
-Yeah, those OATHS really eliminate lying
-Using that beam on stainless steel
-“Walk me” is a MEOW at our house. She’s out with Joann right now
Opened the paper: said ACK!
Finished the puzzle: said Ouch!
Read the Blog: said AAAAARG!
I am so glad I did not have to take this puzzle on a long flight,
I would have pulled my hair out...
Luckily I was at home (so I could cheat.) & the first thing was
44A 1994 Ben Stiller comedy : REALITY BITES
Hmm, couldn't hurt to do one little cheat, & look it up on IMDB,
Except it wasn't listed!
Dang it CC! Did you get them to pull it from the listings for one day just to thwart me!
CED. It IS listed. Under the credits list for his ACTOR roles. The link you posted showed his credits under the "producer" heading.
I slogged through this puzzle, and got the NW and other bits, but finally gave up and turned on red letters because there were just too many names I didn’t know.
I got SANTA ANA with the many As because I remembered this argument between ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his dummy Peanut about how to pronounce Santa Ana.
[Bit begins about 1.5 minutes into it.]
SANTA_ANA
VS
Very nicely done, C.C. Thought it was going to be a huge DNF, but worked from the bottom up, and things fell into place. Thanks for the nice work-out.
Thanks, Splynter, for your usual Saturday briefing which keeps us well informed.
Couldn't put it all together. I'll ACCEPT the loss. Wonderful puzzle CC. I put it down and came back to it multiple times this morning due to the east half. Thank you too Splynter. Lemonade, my mea culpa for not thanking you yesterday. As Nirvana sang, All Apologies.
I completed the left half, top to bottom in record time for me for a Saturday, albeit with a couple of minor erros. IMELDA and IMAM went in without much thought. EXIT VISAS came quickly. And that side just filled in.
The NE was my failing area for multiple reasons. Couldn't come up with a good 5 letter answer for "Pot thickener." Ruled out cornstarch, okra, and others. Then tried flour, but MINT nixed that. (Also repeatedly misread tornado at Toronado.) Didn't have an idea on either the author or the tenor or "fist bump." Finally got IWO JIMA and PREDICTS and CANNON. Finally read pLot, and got TWIST and JOSE, but failed at intersection of the author, fist bump and "late order."
Elsewhere...
"Add to the db, redundantly" was wonderful. I first read reluctantly. "Nerve condition" = COLD FEET cracked me up. I thought of that "Runaway Bride" movie. Not magma for "Hot stuff" but I have had some SALSA that felt like it was on fire.
"Reserved" was not saved. Anyone else recall using a questioning "little help ?" with their outside voice to ask someone to throw the baseball,football,volleyball,Frisbee, or whatever back into the field of play ? Finally realized the clue was "abbreviated help" so saved evolved to TAKEN.
"Kyrgyzstan province" ? Not a chance. But after getting "REALITY BITES" and having ORL and DALI, OATHS was easy. Speaking of ...STAN, w/o looking, how many countries can you name that end in STAN ?
Kept thinking that since "Mucho" implied Spanish that the answer would have to be in Spanish. But got to LOTS-, and determined the association was that they were both slang for gobs.
Gotta go make hay while the sun shines. See all y'all later today.
On my first pass I almost gave up and then I saw C.C.'s name on the bottom and told myself I had to finish this thing. So Many false starts, misread clues, and WAGS.
55A MIOR, DALI, SERT- unknown by perps
23A THOR, ODIN, SVEN - " " " """
48A- YENTA then YENTL
28d MAGMA then SALSA
61A- ?SHARP, ?MAJOR, ?MINOR
Continuing George's comment as Big Easy
12D- RICOH before CANON
56A-County seat of Orange county- ORLANDO, FL (already taken) before SANTA ANA, CA.
63A- ACCEDE before ACCEPT
UNKNOWNS- PBS KIDS, REALITY BITES, EBEN, ALEC, DR. T, MAD LIBS, CHINESE DREAM- DREAM was filled by perps and Chinese came from our beautiful Chinese hostess.
C.C., you really mixed it up today. Phillipines, China, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Norway-Sweden, Canada, Peru, Russia (Yentl), Egypt, France, and gave everybody an EXIT VISA from those places.
Favorite Clue- "Show unwelcome interest"- EAVESDROP. I need to STEP ON IT for a granddaughter's wedding.
"Puzzling Thoughts":
WEES, when I saw this was a CC and not a BS, I knew I would be rewarded if I stayed patient and just used my noggin
My first pass yielded little, and I thought maybe there was a mistake by the paper, and this was really a Silkie. But slowly I got a foothold and solved from bottom to top.
I did have a couple of write-overs; had TASE before LASE; AMELIA ( as in Earhart ) in 1a; was trying to get some kind of "ADE" in 2d; had all the networks except PBS in 7d. But the good news is that I did NOT have to resort to Google for any answers; as opposed to yesterday when I googled nearly 50%
Thanks CC and Splynter for an enjoyable Sat puzzle/recap. Only one that I still can't figure out is DAP where TAP made more sense ...
Hello, friends!
Wow! A Saturday C.C. puzzle. Intriguing. I had very little fill on first pass then IWO JIMA, JOSE, ADAGES. That gave me a toehold and finished the entire eastern front.
SW fell next with ASEC, LOONIE, LLANO, YENTL. I had a hard time accepting LOTSA as a fill for mucho since it's a perfectly correct adjective in Spanish and not slang.
MADLIBS brought on nostalgia recalling that the kids played it during our cross country trips.
ORL/OATHS just failed to appear so left them blank. DIW
Thank you, C.C. for a worthy challenge and Splynter for a fine expo.
Have a super Saturday, everyone!
Man oh man, did I ever despair of getting even a single answer at first! Finally I came to JOSE and ADELE, which *sigh of relief* I knew. Another sigh of relief to see ALEC Templeton and SANTA ANA (which made me think of Bill G.) After that it was chip away little by little, experiencing surprising flashes of memory of knowledge long forgotten. Then, of course, there were those satisfying *aha* moments when the devilish connection between a clue and an answer suddenly made sense to me. An altogether pleasurable puzzle for me. Beautiful job, C.C.
Hard but doable except for the NE corner. Didn't know the network and tried NICKIDS and FOXKIDS which gave me FORESEES. All wrong. Finally got PBS &PREDICTS. I have heard of the book but never considered EBEN for the author's name. I don't like too many names. Words you can usually figure out, but if you don't know the name, you are out of luck. Had to resort to looking that one up, & then I could finish.
In every tough puzzle there is usually a "D'oh ... should a gotten that!" Today's was BABAWAWA. Most obsure word of the week award goes to DAP. Has ANYONE ever heard of that or heard that used? Boo!
HARD in Northeast corner only. The rest went well.
NE was my hardest corner. Eventually guessed at JOSE, which led to IWO JIMA, which unlocked BABAWAWA. [I was convinced one (or more) of 13D & 14D were wrong; what ends with WA?] I was surprised when the tada! came that it was in average time (for a Saturday) -- it seemed much harder. Probably due to several unfamiliar names such as OSH, EBEN, ALEC, SVEN, and DR.T. [Note Oxford comma ;-) ] And DAP -- pretty much guaranteed to be an ESP word. Overall, I enjoyed the challenge, thanks CC!
Splynter, great links as always. The "MAD LIBS" article led to a new word for me -- snowclone. Familiar with several examples, but had never heard the word before.
My favorite difficult puzzle type - you get just enough to parse out an answer that helps you get another. Nice clueing in order to do that.
Really a bit gritty but again, just enough to move on. I finished but it was no lark. C.C. did quite the job!
Freond@121 -- I was also surprised by DAP, but that was a couple of years ago. Until then, like Splynter, I was only familiar with it as a brand name for caulks and sealants. I'm pretty sure it was a cw in the LAT that introduced me to that term for a fist bump. Maybe Argyle can verify (or disprove) that.
d-o: If you search the blog you'll see that "DAP" was clued as "fist bump" in 2013. It's also been clued as relating to fishing and skipping stones.
Well, I've begun skipping a lot of Saturday puzzles to save myself the embarrassment and frustration, but I could never skip a C.C.--even on a Saturday! So I gave it a shot and slowly, one little bit at a time, it started to fill in. Felt like an idiot when I saw the Orange County clue (I live here) but wasn't sure which city was the seat until a few letters filled in and of course it was SANTA ANA. Kept thinking the PARLOR COOLER would be some sort of fan until I was sure that had to be K after MIL, and then I got it. And that's how it went until I had about 3/4 of the puzzle done before I had to start cheating. That made it a great Saturday for me--many thanks, C.C. And you too, Splynter, for your always fun expo.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
I'm not a fan of themeless puzzles but CC's version was a more pleasant slog than usual. Thanks CC and Splynter.
Jayce wrote: SANTA ANA (which made me think of Bill G.)
Why exactly? Is it because I don't like the Santa Ana winds? As Raymond Chandler beautifully wrote, “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”
Or did you remember I live in the general area? Actually, about 20 miles WNW; farther from Disneyland and closer to the coast where it's usually about 10 degrees cooler.
I reread the above quote of Raymond Chandler and I realize I'm having the same reaction right now to a completely different stimulus. The neighboring school is getting their eucalyptus trees trimmed and the incessant whine of chain saws and wood chippers is driving me crazy!!!
I've been sleepy all day, cat-napping on and off, so that didn't help my concentration for CC's great puzzle.
I finally got most of it, but flunked out on 30A. I left it with TAS instead of RAS, which admittedly didn't make much sense out CTAB for the 30D perp. I might have tried RAS if the clue had been different, maybe "Dorm. supervisors" instead of "Coll. supervisors." As a professor myself, I am always dealing with TAS, rarely RAS.
Bill G. --
Thanks for the Chandler quotation. It's been many years since I read his stories, good to get another taste of his mood and rhythm.
Greetings!
Thanks, CC and Splynter!
Got hung up and cheated in one spot, but don't remember where (it was a long time ago).
Enjoyed CHINESE DREAM (wagged in from a few letters).
Lucina: rabbit story was from the feed story 25 or so years ago. Different from Snopes version.
Going to hide my head as I am "feeling poorly", more so that usual. Notice that I wrote "there" for "their" yesterday. Egad.
Cheers!
Hi All!
A normal crash & burn Sat for me. I kept at it only 'cuz it was a C.C., but the names kept me from getting toe-holds. Thanks C.C. and especially to Splynter for learnin' me. (GMC made Safari? - I would swear it was Apple).
Errs of my ways - gafers (lacking the extra f) at 15a; lasS@31... You know what? It's easier to tell you what I DID. PBSKIDS, ENTERS IN, ARF, A LISTS (listers? no?) etc.
Oh well, a fun diversion as I tried to learn how to cut brick. Good thing I picked up some extras (I'VE got plenty of broken pieces if you need to fill a bottom of a flower pot). Joe across the way gave me a tiny shed so I had to build a patio to put it on. DID. We'll see if it lasts.
MAD LIBS was my first introduction to copyright law. My buddy & I wrote a computerized MAD LIB game in 8th grade (I played it in Boy Scout camp and loved it) on an Apple ][e. We sent (most) our code to the publisher and, instead of a big check, we received a cease-and-desist with instructions to destroy our code; they were "working on their own version." BS! and F! them (we didn't delete it, time did). They didn't make a computer game for years.
Ave Joe - "Where you goin' w/ that gun in your hand?"
"Gonna kill an OC, 'cuz he's messin' around w/ another and..."
Cheers, -T
AnonT, does OC stand for Offensive Coordinator? I'm only asking because the Cornhuskers seem to have no plan right now in their eventual loss down in Miami. I can count about 4 more losses on their upcoming schedule. More if their offense doesn't find an identity.
"There's a tear in my beer and I'm crying for ya dear..."
Bo @5:59 - OC == Oxford Comma - the joy of the back & forth re: usage has gone on for weeks (and, thus, language evolves) so I thought Jimi on his left-handed STRAT* would be humourous, esp. for "Hey, (Ave) Joe."
Keep up the good fight Joe!
C, -T
*see Thurs LAT
um....yeah i know....hard to miss all the carping lately.
If anybody cares, the Nebraska /Miami game is tied going into O\T. Unbelievable comeback.
Bill G, that Raymond Chandler quote is eloquent, a sure indication of terrific writing. Actually, I thought of you because you live in Orange County.
Jayce, I love that quote too.
Actually, I live in LA County, adjacent to Orange County, about four miles south of LAX.
MUCHO can be American slang. You are in MUCHO trouble, young man!
I have MUCHO homework tonight.
anonymous@12;35
Yes, I'm aware of that usage for mucho and I hate it. Can't help it.
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