Arrivals and Departures

Jonelle McAllister (Cayucos, CA)

Fun puzzle.

Not to be too picky, but Cuesta College is 12 miles from me. It is a community college, with AA degrees and a nursing program. No 4 year program.

Deborah (Santa Cruz, CA)

What was the fourth theme entry?

Viv (Jerusalem, Israel)

He said he had to settle for three.

Deborah (Santa Cruz, CA)

I know. And I'm curious what he had created and then took out.

Rich in Atlanta (Decatur, Georgia)

Deborah, he just said that it was something with AMERICAN, but never gave any more information than that.

..

Cathy P (Ellicott City ,MD)

IROC , YOU ROCK, we all ROCK :) Absolutely never heard of that , but I climbed the CUESTA and got to the end of the puzzle !

Liz B (Durham, NC)

The name Inigo CUESTA kept tickling the fringes of my brain, so I finally had to look him up. He's a former professional cyclist from Spain who raced in the 1990s and 2000s for a Basque cycling team. Possibly a little too obscure for a Tuesday??

Mean Old Lady (Conway, Arkansas)

I thought of CUESTA Benberry.....qquilt expert of some sort....

spenyc (Manhattan)

I liked this theme! I think it very clever of Jason Flinn to have found three airline names at the end of 15-letter phrases.

I did have trouble' for one thing, I opted for the SAKI spelling. (Which I looked up later, thus discovering that the two spellings are both dictionary-accepted; I just chose the wrong one. QUERY: Is this like czar and tsar, either of which may appear in a NYT puzzle?)

Regarding APPLESAUCE, what came up when I read it was some unfortunate child star using it in what was supposedly an adorable, perky way. Maybe in a movie of the '40s or '50s? I cannot find any mention of same anywhere.

But the Urban Dictionary cites it as slang: 1. An early 90s slang word for "ridiculous" and 3. a 1920's slang word meaning nonsense. [Warning: definition 2 is quite vulgar!]

Hasta manana...

Martin (Californai)

I always cringe at "saki." "English" spellings of Japanese words are really precise renderings in an alphabet the Japanese call romaji. They have exact pronunciations that, when interpreted correctly, allow Japanese words to be said quite accurately by an English speaker.

"E" is always a short-e sound, as in "fell." "I" is the long-e sound, as in "key." The Japanese word is "sah-keh" and "sake" is the romaji spelling. So where did "saki" come from? I assume that Americans wanted their mispronunciations ("sah-kee," "ka-ra-tee," "kar-ee-oh-ki") to be codified. But why they insist on these pronunciations is beyond me. It seems a little racist, like "no tickee no laundry." But I don't really know why we can't say "kah-rah-teh" or "kah-rah-oh-keh" or "sah-keh."

I would hope that the drink (more politely called "nihon-shu") would be SAKE, with SAKI reserved for the author. But American usage (and the dictionary) would allow SAKI for the drink in a puzzle.

polymath (British Columbia)

Saki is the pen name of H.H. Munro.

spenyc (Manhattan)

Thanks, Martin. I cannot claim I will remember this distinction, but I do believe I will now remember to try them both when the occasion arises!

maestro (southern jersey)

The turkey vultures appeared two days ago, at least a half-dozen roosting high in the trees at the edge of our yard. Yesterday we discovered the reason: a rotting deer carcass in the woods. Our landscaper hauled it away this morning, but the PUTRID smell lingers as I sit on my deck solving today's puzzle. It's a rare day that there's no clue that resonates in my life.

The carcass is gone but the vultures are still in the trees. I think they're looking at me, and I'm starting to get a bit worried...

Gary Partenheimer (Shelburne Falls, MA)

wow, Austin sure has a lot of festivals . . . it was hard to give up "Sound on Sound Fest" which fit a lot of the crosses except "achoo" - substituting "South by Southwest" (better know as SXSW?!) made the rest go quickly

Mike Ramee (Denver)

Nice photo Deb. That's about as happy and carefree as commercial travel gets these days.

Deb Amlen (Wordplay, the Road Tour)

Thanks, Mike. I'm glad you appreciated my angst.

Jimbo57 (Oceanside NY)

"How do you spell MISSISSIPPI?"
"The river or the state?"

I'm in the minority today--I didn't find this to be a typical Tuesday pushover. Not really hard, but few gimmes to start, and some obscure (to me, anyway) fill--IROC, TEMAS, CUESTA, TWPS. Not a complaint, love learning new words and terms. Once I got a couple of themers, things fell into place in a more timely manner. I'd heard of this use of applesauce at some point, because HOKUM went in without much trouble.

Charley Pride was the first bona fide African-American country music superstar, with a long string of hits through the 60s and 70s. He even crossed over to the pop chart once in a while, as with his autobiographical 1974 single, the laid-back "MISSISSIPPI Cotton Pickin' DELTA Town":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjX8p1h3b0Q

K Barrett (Calif.)

This links to a NYT oped piece in which a pilot tells us air travel was never fun. Easy for him to think. The rest of us were having fun.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opinion/sunday/there-was-no-golden-ag...
As to CUESTA, turn about is fair play. Payback for all those east coast neighborhoods "everyone" is "supposed to know".
Happy to see AJA. Reminded me of drinking beers at an old stagecoach inn, off of (now) Hwy 152 east of Santa Barbara. Not quite the Cuesta grade, but dang close, and you can bet the horses pulling the coaches weren't Arabians. The geography is gorgeous, showing dramatic uptilts. Quite the place for plein aire painting. IMHO. Now plenty o' wineries in the valley. And I understand Cachuma is refilling, providing the water the coast is known for. (yes that's sarcasm)

brutus (berkeley)

Here's an extra twofer in celebratory anticipation of the summer solstice. The first is DELTA blues inspired, the second an inspirational Motown ballad; same title, "PRIDE AND JOY," different TEMAS. Here are Stevie Ray Vaughn and Marvin Gaye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3p_awc0WKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczljwhNGHI

Lewis (Asheville, NC)

This gave me more of a fight than the usual Tuesday. Didn't know CUESTA or TEMAS. And some tougher clues were thrown in with the Tuesday-easy ones. But I'm not complaining; I love to be put through the paces, if the cluing/answers are fair, and here they are, IMO.

There's a high RISK, a RIM out, and LOW exactly where it should be. I like the sippy cross of SAKE and ICE_T. Very nice answer in PRIDE_AND_JOY. For those lobbying for AIRLINE TERMINALS as the reveal, for what it's worth, Jeff Chen says that "airline terminals" is not a legitimate phrase.

In any case, a very nice solving experience -- thank you Jason!

Johanna (Ohio)

I was visually fascinated by SHIISM and ASSISI both crossing MISSISS(IPPIDELTA). All those I's and S's.

Liked DIRE next to HIGHWINDS, too.

Clever theme with 4 16's on a Tuesday was very IMPRESSive. Thanks, Jason Flinn!

Mean Old Lady (Conway, Arkansas)

CUESTA is my new word.
Got tripped up by the ugly little tangle of car, sashimi go-with, religious sect (IST? ITE?) and such, and finally tired of the whole mess and used Clear Errors-- something that doesn't happen when I solve on paper instead of PuzzAzz.
Applesauce as a slang term for another slang term (HOKUM), eh? Never heard it, will never use it, think it's not a Tuesday level clue.
At least it's a beautiful day outside!

John (NJ)

Pet peeve: TILL is its own word. It's not an abbreviation for until, and it's not spelled TIL.

And, yes, I know that people write " 'til ", but they're wrong. :-)

Deb Amlen (Wordplay, the Road Tour)

Hi John,

Are you talking about something in the puzzle, or my abbreviation #TIL? If it's the latter, it stands for Today I Learned.

John (NJ)

58D, but thanks for TIL! Today I learned THAT!

Two Ponies (another nowhere)

This was fun and easy. Cuesta was new to me, always a plus esp. on a Tues.
Welcome back @dk.
The phrasing of the riddle seems almost elegant.
Applesauce and hokum bring to mind so many synonyms for vulgar terms that
are suitable for all occasions. See? Fun!

dk (Saint Croix Falls, WI)

HIGHWINDS or straight line winds have been the norm here over the past few days.

Coulees, Drumlins and Glacial Moraines are what we see in Wisconsin. The former are rounded with Moraines looking more like ridges.

Some obscure fill today. But a doable puzzle.

SOUTHWEST is my new favorite airline. No outrageous charges for changing tickets, baggage fees, water or waiting to board for the seemingly endless "classes" of travelers.

Thanks Jason

Meg H (Salt Point, NY)

Another enjoyable start to my day. Enjoyed the riddle that defined A KEY and also HOKUM which I haven't heard in a long time. CUESTA was new to me and useful: one word instead of an eleven-word definition. I hesitated for awhile over AUDREY for Hepburn. Even though she and Katherine are the two that came to mind, for some reason I initially thought there must be a new Hepburn I didn't know. Like so many others, I finally finished with IROC - was that a Camaro car model?

dbsmith (New York)

Not to be overly picky, but the caption in the Heathrow photo uses "several" incorrectly.
The woman is clearly occupying TWO seats. "Two" is not "several".

CS (Providence)

I know that earlier commenters have already mentioned the Jeopardy connection, but I wanted to add that now I know that DELTA is literally named for the MISSISSIPPI DELTA. I hadn't given it any thought before. Does that make that themer a little different than the others?

spenyc (Manhattan)

CS, I never thought about it either, but your post makes me realize I had unconsciously assumed it made a reference to the Greek letter delta, which is vaguely wing-shaped.

dbsmith (New York)

Pretty sure that "Arabs" is not a correct word for Arabian horses.

dbsmith (New York)

(Unless you think Wikipedia is a credible authority).

Martin (Californai)

Or the dictionary.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Arab

Brutus (<br/>)

Crossed the finish line with CUESTA. I had to write TRASH BIN over trash can and tunes/TEMAS. SAKE gave me HOKUM. I had ho hum originally. This was a plethora of new answers in the puzzle, eight in all according to x-wordinfo. I'm of the camp that freshness KICKS BUTT every time...Hey, I'd say the stranded traveler doing the puzzle in the blog pic knows how to travel...This is a silly love song from Wings, "Jet."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyqeepAgm-E

This is a 1969 duet from Tom Jones & and Tony Bennett, "Fly Me To The Moon."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYFoK4Hm8Ls

Gotta Jet,

Bru

Leapfinger (Durham, NC)

Looks like a Sunday-sized puzzle, don't it? Good eye, btw; I missed that, what with being another who was hung up on counting the number of seats that front-row lady had commandeered, deciding it's just 'a couple'.

William Innes (<br/>)

Rather tepid puzzle. CUESTA seems a bit desperate.

Rich in Atlanta (Decatur, Georgia)

I think this is the first time I ever filled in all of the theme answers and the reveal before I'd even finished reading all the clues. I 'knew' MAN-U (well, it was the obvious first guess), but it escaped me for a moment. Came back to me by the time I finished typing in MISSISSIPPIDELTA. And it took just a few seconds to recall SXSW, though I did have a couple of down crosses by then. And of course by then the reveal was obvious.

Then almost everything filled in really quickly. Went briefly dim-witted on everything below 21 on the west side. I just do an automatic blank on anything food related and ended up taking a break before MAHI and then ARABS finally dawned on me and got most of the rest of that.

That left me with two blank squares. Never heard of an IROC (1980's is classic?) and if they'd just clued 34a as a rapper it would have been obvious, but it took a (brief) alphabet run before that C became likely.

And then there's the crossing 54a and 52d. Yeah, DEBI seemed like the likely answer, but with a totally unknown actress and in this day and age - who knows? Finally went and filled in the E. I will henceforth think of TEMAS as the 'DEBI-downer.'

There is a major connection between PRIDEANDJOY, Austin in general and SXSW in particular. You could toss in some DELTA, too. I think I'll wait and let Jimbo clarify that if he's so inclined.

Like others, I noted the connection to last night's Final Jeopardy. I didn't know that that was the source of DELTA's name.

Rich in Atlanta (Decatur, Georgia)

OT. Today is a day of deliverance (of sorts) here in the Atlanta area. May the deity of your choice deliver you from ever having a special congressional election (and a run-off to boot). For the last few months I think 80 percent of all local ads have been for one candidate or the other, and I suspect that I speak for most local residents in saying that they would be quite happy if they never heard the name of either candidate again.

I'm not even in that district. If I were I would vote by party, but in all honesty neither candidate is particularly attractive and there have been some ludicrous attack ads from both sides, as well as some questionable claims.

Today is the election. The ads are still running (constantly), but that should all end at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

Michael Brothers (Boone, Iowa)

I feel your pain, sir. The period before the "first in the nation" caucuses here in Iowa is enough to make me turn off my TV and radio. But it doesn't stop there! Next year we will start seeing ads for the next election cycle. Keep your chin up and if you have a dog in the fight I hope you are satisfied with the outcome.

Jimbo57 (Oceanside NY)

Rich, it looks like Bru's got the whole PRIDEANDJOY angle covered, which doesn't surprise me.

suejean (Harrogate, UK)

Quite a few things I didn't know today in addition to the ones already mentioned by others. MAD MAX, MONICA ( I've never seen a single episode of Friends) and is TWPS an abbreviation for township? At least MANCHESTER UNITED was a gimme. The only days I try very hard not to use help are Mondays and Tuesdays, but did look up Monica.
A good Tuesday theme; I always like long entries, and like yesterday lots of lively fill.

David Connell (Weston CT)

I am originally from the suburbs of Philadelphia. In that area, townships are the usual political unit corresponding to what other places call towns (as in Connecticut) or villages (as in Ohio). As a child, I loved the Fourth of July parades where there would be a fire truck from each of a dozen or more neighboring TWPS, each truck a different color and shape. As a teenager, I was once in trouble with officers of four townships, since my rock band had parked at the center of an intersection where the townships met and was engaged in running around and shouting in the middle of the night. The police cars had quietly approached from four directions at once.
And every township was a TWP and all together they were TWPS. It's a real thing. It leads me to wonder whether our constructor is from Pennsylvania.

TPKE is a similar type of abbreviation, and we had plenty of those, too!

Michael Brothers (Boone, Iowa)

Likewise New Jersey, where political power seems to be concentrated at the township level. Counties in Iowa are divided into townships but they are vestigial in nature, no doubt once having a purpose but no longer so. I find the town concept charming and Old World.

Deadline (New York City)

Once upon a time I was doing some poverty (and other stuff) work in Indiana, where people were trying to get various types of benefits so they could eat and maybe even not be thrown out on the street. I had to deal with an assortment of government agencies in various jurisdictions. One of these was a thing called the Township Trustee.

I'm not sure I ever did figure out what that meant. Nor why this was a part-time job, when trying to feed children was pretty much all-day, all-the-time.

Lisa (NYC)

Second day in a row that I didn't have to look up any answers. Proud lady over here! I had fun with this one. Headline: Lisa KICKS BUTT

Rich in Atlanta (Decatur, Georgia)

And don't forget to take names.

(loved your comment)

Deadline (New York City)

Yes, Lisa.

Yes, RiA.

Susan K Gaffney (NYC)

Just figured out that "akey" is "a key."

Deb Amlen (Wordplay, the Road Tour)

Hi Susan,

Happens to me all the time. Parsing words in a grid can be really tough.

Bess (<br/>)

On Saturday's puzzle, I was sure I had something wrong because there was no way that "Vamoose!" could be BE A TIT.

Denn (NYC)

We've had lots of nice puzzles recently, but this one was a letdown in almost every way. Glue, glue, glue, and just to get three theme words and messed up revealer? And where's AMERICAN (or the perseverance to fit it in)? Finally, TWPS and TEMA? Sorry, but no.

If you're going to do AIRPORTTERMINALS, how about cluing four names such as Hobby, Midway, Kennedy, and Liberty that can be clued withOUT namesakes? Or do AIRLINETERMINALS and pick ones that are hubs run by each of the four major airlines?

BK (NJ)

HURRICANE before HIGHWINDS blew my timing away...

Leapfinger (Durham, NC)

I wasted no time writing in HAILSTORM (sigh).

Also started with ASHCAN and RICE in place of SAKE, and HOCUM seemed as reasonable as HOKUM for a while. I like a Tues puzzle that can lead you astray.

Deadline (New York City)

Hand up for ASHCAN.

suejean?

Leapfinger (Durham, NC)

ASHCAN School of Art, also.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashcan_School#Gallery

Wen (MA)

Knew of the word CUESTA because I looked it up once - because it was the last name of someone I worked with. Agreed with others it's obscure, as was TEMA.

I agree with Tyler and Alan Young re: Appleesauce = HOKUM, never heard of that one.

KIWI - in general usage I've heard, KIWI is slightly derogatory term for New Zealanders, native or otherwise (actually, does native in this context mean aboriginal/indigenous? or simply New Zealand national? I assumed the former). The natives are Maori. I work with lots of Australians and they convey a sense of slight condescension referring to their neighbors as KIWIs.

ARABS - I kind of take issue with this one - I've never heard of horses referred to as ARABS, only Arabians. First page of Google search results for ARAB(S) turns up nothing about horses, only about the people.

Wen (MA)

I forgot to say, nits aside, the puzzle was enjoyable, though maybe a little fast. IROC triggered some nostalgia or where I grew up. The long entries were definitely not expected for a Tuesday. I'm guessing the many 3-letter down entries crossing those long across theme entries helped push it toward early week, and clues were modified accordingly.

Jimbo57 (Oceanside NY)

"I will be your knight in shining armor
Riding across the desert on a fine ARAB charger..."

--Rolling Stones, "Emotional Rescue"

Well, that's my frame of reference, anyway.

Wen (MA)

lol, it figures, we can obviously count on you for a Rolling Stones reference!

Abby Koch (Chicago, IL)

I loved KICKS BUTT! I'm 46 (Gen X) and that's in my wheelhouse.

paulymath (Potomac, MD)

It's funny that the appearance of KICKS BUTT has caused such a stir, when the expression is nothing but a wimpy, cop-out, network-TV euphemism for a widely accepted phrase that begins with "kicks" and finishes with a three-letter word that ends in "SS." Now, if *that* phrase showed up in the Gray Lady, it would justify a bit of a reaction; maybe someday it will.

Mark Barrett (San Francisco)

The puzzle was timely with the 6/19 Final Jeopardy! category being AIRLINES and the correct response included in one of the puzzle's theme fills.

Paul (Virginia)

Maybe I would have gotten it right of the puzzle came a day earlier.

Lisa (NYC)

Yes! And when I filled DELTA I thought the same thing. It kind of helped to have DELTA on my mind!

Julie (Maine)

Enjoyable puzzle. Cuesta was a new one for me but it filled in nicely. My favorite clue was 29A as I'm always running late :)

Marcia Fidler (Indianapolis)

What is happening with the statistics?? Just "solved" another 100 puzzles today.

David A (Manhattan)

They've changed which puzzles count as "completed" to include ones that users used the help functions on! https://twitter.com/jprbnsn/status/876782507038920704

Larry (Nashville)

Makes no sense - this means you only fail to correctly complete a puzzle if you don't bother to use the help functions to finally give up and see what you can't figure out. Another example of the "trophies for all participants" effect?

Liz B (Durham, NC)

So the only puzzles that don't count toward the 'solved' rate (assuming you use Check or Reveal) are the ones where you leave squares blank?

Alex Luke (Valparaiso, IN)

"Tema" is pretty darn obscure for a tuesday puzzle.

I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in music, and have never heard the word "tema" used in a musical context before. Yes, musicians use italian terms frequently, but not this one, at least not in america. I would expect there to be some hint that it's a foreign word in the clue for something like this that's so obscure...

Wags (Colorado)

I'm with you Alex. I looked it up on my go-to list of Italian musical terms and as you can see, it's not there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_musical_terms_used_in_English

David Connell (Weston CT)

Tema con variazioni - Theme and variations - the word Tema is usually the heading in boldface lettering above the original statement of the theme to be varied, especially when there is a florid introduction before the presentation of the theme. I'm not defending the usage in this puzzle, especially not the English-plural on an Italian noun "temas" (shudder), but Tema is found all over Beethoven and Mozart. It isn't a "musical term" in the "glossary of musical terms" sense of the word (like legato or andante), because it is the Italian word for "theme" in any context.

Martin (Californai)

TEMAS is not multi-lingual in Spanish or Portuguese. I would have loved a clue like "Fado melodic subjects," but MAYBE for a Saturday. I'd also like to see Dorian and Ionian in that clue, but that's why I'd make a terrible editor.

judy d (livingston nj)

last clue for me was also Iroc with IceT as the crossing. otherwise, pretty easy. had not seen cuesta before.

Martin (Californai)

Deadline,

You still need to tell me what browser you're using. Edge? Chrome? Explorer?

Liz B (Durham, NC)

She said Firefox in a very late post on yesterday's thread.

Martin (Californai)

Thanks, Liz.

DL,

For Firefox, click the "hamburger" (three parallel lines on the top right) and then Options in the window that opens. Under Downloads, select "Always ask me where to save files."

Then, the first time you click on a PDF you should get the option to "Open with Acrobat" or something similar. Just click on the "Always" box or something similar.

Rich in Atlanta (Decatur, Georgia)

I would add to what Martin said, that if you happen to install updates to Firefox (which seems to happen automatically for me), that it appears that it will often reset that option (and probably others as well) to the default and you may have to change it again.

A Dobie.

Liz B (Durham, NC)

I found this to be easy and fast, but also a great deal of fun watching the long entries fill in. I wasn’t expecting 15s on a Tuesday! Or 16s, which I didn’t even notice. I skipped 17A to start with, but 21A and 50A were gimmes, and the DELTA and SOUTHWEST told me it was airlines, so I tried AIRLINE TERMINALS at 55A but somehow left a letter or two out, so it was too short. But then it filled in nicely (and correctly) from the crosses. I enjoyed the mid-length fill like AUDREY and PUTRID and HIGH WINDS (it’s being a little stormy here tonight, but not especially windy) and PRIDE AND JOY. I always wondered what IROC stood for, so I had to look it up tonight. CUESTA was the only complete unknown, and now I now what one is. Fun!

Wen (MA)

Never knew IROC stood for something. Grew up in the 80's in a very Italian neighborhood, so I saw plenty of IROCs, usually black with tinted windows, but sometimes white and yellow too, not that I'm stereotyping or anything...

Martin Pinkerton (Everett, WA)

It officially stands for International Race of Champhions, but when I was growing up in NJ in the 80's it was Italian Re:::ds Out Cruising

Tyler (NYC)

I've never heard the word "applesauce" used to refer to anything but the food, and I know nothing about cars, so 31A was a tough one for me, and ultimately the final clue I filled out.

Alan Young (California)

Same here, Tyler!

Wags (Colorado)

I suppose you'll tell us you've never heard of horse feathers, poppycock, balderdash or piffle either.

Kelsey McGee (Chico, CA)

I think recognizing APPLESAUCE has to do with (erm) maturity.

Latest

With Western Weapons, Ukraine Is Turning the Tables in an Artillery War

Teens Turn to TikTok in Search of a Mental Health Diagnosis

An ‘Army’ of Volunteer Sleuths Are Out Hunting for Your Stolen Car

Biden’s Agenda Hangs in the Balance if Republicans Take Congress

Twitter, Once a Threat to Titans, Now Belongs to One