The liner notes of Songs by Tom Lehrer state that he used the name Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky in his song about mathematical plagiarism for purely PROSODIC purposes.
and Elke
Finally back on-line, so that mr.google could be consulted.
For those that are not into HOT OATMEAL , Jeff C. provided the start for a cold OATMEAL meal : the Swiss BIRCHer Muesli (which some people will liken to eating tree-bark ) ,but is as delicious to some as MARINARA sauce to others:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli
Give it a try.
Finally a puzzle that I knew some of the entertainers (AEROSMITH, MCHAMMER, ASHTON, STACY, ORSON). I guess they've all been around long enough!
2
I think I may need to seek counseling. My internet was down last night and it didn't come back up until today. I stayed up almost as late waiting for it to come back on as I usually do working the puzzle. But, on a positive note, I had so much to do today that I did learn a valuable lesson about just walking away when I'm stuck. I didn't stress out nearly as much working this one and I didn't give in to the temptation to look up answers except twice.
3
You sit right down here next to me, Cheryl. We know just how you feel.
2
I worked this one late last evening evening in Across Lite and the result was OK, FINE. I probably should have waited it out and fetched the hard copy from the driveway this morning. Whenever I opt to take the Cyberview Expressway to solvation, I find the experience not unlike playing baseball on ARTIFICIAL GRASS. Across Lite leaves me unable to ZERO IN ON the prize with the same intensity as, say, when I USE pen and paper as a medium. A L tends to render a run down feeling post solve. However, if a puzzle is well built, as this one was, a satisfying aura will prevail no matter which solving method utilized. After all, it AIN'T the road taken; rather the destination..."Uncle REMUS" concurs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBanVZJ4QcY
All SECURE,
Bru
3
Brown sugar and a teaspoon of BBQ sauce are my special additives when making sauce.
Good, fun puzzle that flowed from clue to clue. I even got all the music /modern references. PROSODIC I well remember, and note it almost every day when listening to people talking or to recordings.
I really hope Ken Jennings will be announced as Alex Trebec's replacement, if someone hasn't been selected already.
For my oatmeal I cheat with a dash of flavored coffee creamer.
2
Two of my favorite things: spaghetti with any variety of sauces, Zork and similar computer adventure games.
I saw several commenters' references to McHAMMER. I feel so smart that I know is name is M.C. HAMMER. (Thus endeth my knowledge of that particular artist.) I've heard of AEROSMITH, but "Mr. ROBOTO" or Styx.
I have heard of KRIS Jenner I think, if she's connected with the Kreatures Kardashian.
Knew PROSODy but not PROSODIC. Thanks, D.C.
Loved seeing BARBER SHOP, LEOPARDS, and ARGONAUTS.
Very, very hungry, but I think I'll investigate Deb's link and see if I can locate some Zorks or their kin that I can play. Ah, the Golden Age of Computer Games!
4
Should read *not* "Mr. ROBOT" or Styx.
Yes, I use jar sauce but it's what I add that makes it my special recipe! This is for folks who don't have a lot of time but want flavorful sauce.
Right now, I am enjoying Paul Newman marinara sauce as my base. It tastes good and all profits go to charity! I add the amount per my preferred taste: chopped garlic (from a jar), parsley, oregano and basil. The ingredient that makes it special in our home is from my mother-in-law's recipe: fennel seeds! Again, the amount is per your preferred taste. Sometimes I add fresh basil leaves, onions and/or mushrooms.
It's simple, quick and flavorful.
2
No shame in starting with a pre-made sauce! When my kids were little and I had less time, that was what we used and we goosed it up a bit with all sorts of stuff.
In fact, when my son was in camp, the head of the camp held a spaghetti dinner night each summer, and my son raved about the sauce. He had never tasted anything like it, he said, and the camp director spent all day stirring the sauce so it would be ready for dinner. I was so curious and impressed that they had enticed my picky eater that I asked her how she made her sauce, just so I could get him to eat.
"Make?!" she replied, "You want to know how I make it? I open a jar of Ragu!"
5
Confess to using chopped garlic from a jar for everyday cooking.
Living alone and cooking for one, a clove of garlic goes all empty and flavorless long before I can use it all.
2
Just reread my reply.
Please excuse the dangler. (Hanging head.)
2
I found this an easier-than-usual Wednesday, too, and I'm still baffled that Monday's puzzle was a Monday. (COZEN???) But I'm embarrassed to see that I'm the only one who couldn't figure out what on earth BERSH unscrambles to. I came to Wordplay to find out, and no help from the peanut gallery. So I used the anagram solver link someone included below (thank you!) to reveal HERBS--clearly my brain wouldn't let me consider anything beyond a single ingredient.
5
I am loving the variations on all the sauces. Keep 'em coming!
3
So I'm looking at 5D and it bothers me because the clue appears feminine but the fill is evidently masculine .... so I look it up and get this:
"Mon Chéri is an internationally known brand name of the Italian Ferrero company for a chocolate confectionery."
My last French class was in 1954.
First, it is entirely appropriate that this puzzle is on a Wednesday -- the food theme day of the NYT. I would not believe that to be an accident.
That said, Jeff Chen's grid arrangements are most provocative. For instance, I normally like blueberries or pieces of banana in my hot oatmeal, but Jeff suggests I try tomatos. Cherry tomatos perhaps?
And then a fellow commentator extols the aphrodisiac properties of garlic ...
And for a bit of deja vu from a few days ago: Leapy, did you catch 26A just above 38D?
Did anybody else think "rubato" before filling in 59A?
On a more serious and sad (and eerie) note, catch Stephen Hawking's obit in today's online NYT. Today is Pi day. Also (as I found out from obit comments) Einstein's birth day and Galileo's passing day. Brrr.
3
Wednesday is Prince spaghetti day.
1
Anthony! Anthony!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlNAYCcxgUw
2
I certainly did, Dr W, though I first thought you were drawing my attention to extremes in bra sizes.
I should never doubt you.
Mooed indigo
Ugh to anagrams. My brain just isn't wired for them (too literal?). So if you're like me try this cheat: http://anagram-solver.net
2
That's a great resource, tensace. Thanks for the contribution!
Zork, the classic game. Who else thinks that we have Dimwit Flathead as President, and he wants to build a wall instead of Flood Control Dam #3?
Anyway, it is pitch dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
2
Don't forget that Dimwit Flathead's nickname was Lord Dimwit the Excessive and some of his problems stemmed from wanting a statue of himself that was, uh, uuge!
And that the whole Flathead family got involved in adventures in the Great Underground Empire.
Oops, I think I hear a grue.
Cover the bottom of an 8 qt. saucepan with olive oil, add 1 or 2 peeled cloves of garlic and 1 onion peeled and cut in half. Brown the garlic and onion and discard OR if you like a stronger flavor, leave in the pan. Pass a 28 oz. can of plum tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins. Add to the saucepan. Add a few basil leaves. Add a small amount of salt and pepper, on the order of 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Taste and correct for salt and pepper.
7
As far as I'm concerned Jeff Chen always has the recipe for making a great crossword puzzle ... this one just tastes better!
Plus today's theme is giving me an idea on what to make for dinner tonight which is a another gift in itself. Thanks, Jeff!
2
Marinara sauce is like "Alfredo sauce" -- a term that makes Italians shudder. Don't get me wrong -- they make such a sauce but would call it salsa di pomodoro. They make it for recipes like "spaghetti alla marina," or mariner's spaghetti. They don't, however, refer to the sauce by the name of the dish.
Anyway, why "mariner"? That's really a mystery. One theory is that the ships bearing those first cargoes of tomato from America were the origin: that some innovative ship-board chef discovered how tasty tomato sauce was. This is very unlikely since tomatoes were first used as ornamentals and thought to be poisonous for decades after their introduction.
Another theory is that the sailors' wives used tomatoes upon their return from sea. Uh, okay. Why not?
The theory that makes some sense is that tomato concentrate was used in galleys because it was not perishable. In fact, modern food science tells us that both tomato and veal are very high producers of umami, and if you can't use fresh meat, tomato will help keep things interesting for the crew.
I love clam sauce, with or without other seafood, based on marinara. My secret is a lot of saffron, about 1/2 teaspoon in a batch, added to the sauce. There's something about clams and saffron that is heavenly. Other than that, my recipe is a lot like the one Deb links, which is a lot like Lidia's.
1
I keep a jar of filleto di pomodoro handy for vegetarian guests who don't like pesto. My own pasta sauces tend to use fresh meat or seafood and skip the tomatoes.
2
I don't really care about the shuddering Italians. I order from Italian restaurants in NYC, and pretty much make up my homemade sauces as I go along.
Yum.
Same here. I always have a batch of marinara sauce on hand. Just noting that it's purely an Italian-American term.
Saucy little puzzle from Jeff Chen this Wednesday. Noticed OINON in the circles @16A, which didn't make immediate sense, so plowed ahead and then put the theme together after finishing. Grateful for pop music gimmes like AEROSMITH, ROBOTO, and MCHAMMER (and to Deb for posting links). My brains insists on associating MAKESBANK with basketball, but clearly I'm conflating it with making a bank shot.
How does one serve a yummy MARINARA sauce? "On Top Of Spaghetti," of course! Sing along with Tom Glazer and the Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus, a novelty hit from 1963, and a summer camp classic ever since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSbSjRJ9xz4
2
I don't remember all of the steps to my mother's sauce, but it was very mild in flavor, without too many spices. The best was when she used stew meat as the base. I'm not even sure she used onions at all - just a pinch or so of the "Italian seasoning" that comes in jars, the meat, maybe an extra pinch of oregano, and cans of tomato paste and tomato sauce (unflavored.) Poured sparingly over rigatoni, so that the pasta was coated but not drowned.
2
It is not possible to cook without onions.
Done and done.
7
There's always this recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh13Xd2loto
2
Re marinara: if you put in garlic twice, both with the onions and after the tomatoes, you get lovely layered flavor -- mellow and subtle from the earlier addition, zing from the later.
Re puzzle: far too many references to pop culture for my taste. But I appreciate the effort.
4
I can tackle Wednesday puzzles, but usually takes a while for me to get there. This one, though, was much easier than the earlier puzzles this week. Had CREed instead of CREDO, and SuS instead of SES, which tripped me up with ROSS and SECURE (I really can't believe how long it took to get the Friends clue :facepalm:). Also, did anyone else read the clue for KRONA as "Icelandic monkey"? Still pretty fun!
1
Fun theme but too easy... Faster than my Monday time this week. It's too bad you couldn't make a spaghetti picture with the squares.... would have to be a big puzzle!
This one solved far more like a Monday for me than our actual Monday did. Perhaps the ingredients weren't the only things that got mixed up this week!
7
Fun fact: Infocomm, the company that published Zork, had a short-lived newsletter called The New Zork Times. The legal folks at a certain unnamed newspaper forced them to change the nsme.
5
That sounds ...uhh ... zorky?
Agreed. I found today’s was much easier than Monday’s (Bloody “Taro” chips!!!)
ZORK, huh. OK, live and learn.
2
I agree that getting a KNOT in a garden hose is almost impossible, but a KINK is a common occurrence. A better clue for KNOT would relate to the numerous wires attached to charging devices that are now ever-present in our lives. No matter how carefully they are put away they always have a KNOT in them when we go to use them. Gremlins?
CRETIN is one of those non-PC terms that I cringe at. Maybe a clue regarding the hormonal cause of the true condition might be in order.
6
Not gremlins, Ken.
The wires of which you speak learned the trick from the Xmas tree lights.
Loved all those great K words! KNOT KNIT KRIS KEN KEY KRONA.
Sincerely,
KEVIN
11
At long last -- ADORE that is not AJAR.
Soy MARINARA (Bamba, bamba)
Stephen Hawking, R.I.P.
13
Marinero no es Capitan!
MARINARA no es marinero.
1
Claro, Leapy runs an equal-opportunity ship.
So sorry, MOL! I didn't intend for my Soy Marinara recipe to create a tempeh in a teapot.
Appreciate that you took the time, Elaine. I need all the instruction I can get.
Ha! You thought you'd get me, didn't you, Jeff. But even this non-lover of rap music was not hampered by not knowing 8D. Otherwise, "Kapow!" would have produced a Natick.
ROBOTO? ZORK? McHAMMER? And not much of a recipe.
ASTROTURF had to be removed in order for me to proceed.
My hat is off to ANYone who can KNOT up a garden hose. KINKs, yes; the bane of my existence. if you can KNOT up a hose, you have gone seriously wrong on several different levels and need to seek professional help.
This one just didn't do it for me, Dawg.
2
KNOT v KINK: Jeff said he doesn't know his way around a kitchen; is it so surprising that he's not a gardener either?
(Ragu?)
4
As a gardener and a sound engineer (both in the loosest senses) I can guarantee that ANY line, cable, hose, thread, or wire can and will form both kinks AND knots by dint of simple existence. Q E and D.
The trick is to handle it thereafter with the utmost delicacy of touch...
6
Sounds like you need to tighten up, David. Here's a little tune to accompany you in that endeavor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wro3bqi4Eb8
2
Ah..marinara . Missing ingredients : really good cheese - I use Logatelle when I make mine but Romano would suffice ; also some Red Wine in the sauce makes it delicioso !
Never played or heard of Zork - too busy perfecting my sauce :)
Fun puzzle
2
Grate a carrot into the sauce instead of using sugar, and of course start with EVOO. As I said, not much of a recipe there.
2
Thumbs up for the carrots. Always use them in spaghetti sauce and even meatloaf when I’m not in a rush to get it in the oven.
1
Hi Cathy,
Yes! I put a rind of leftover Parmesan in when I make my own sauce.
I'm headed for a restaurant called "The Italian Connection" in a few minutes, so that's appropriate. Got the theme, or at least the general idea, after the first two stirred ingredients. However I didn't find this as easy as some because of an even longer list of unknown names than usual: Ashton, Ross, Kris, Roboto, Uzi, McHammer and Ken (as clued). Probably more. I couldn't get all of them from the crosses I'm afraid. That didn't spoil my enjoyment of a fun puzzle, but now I'm getting hungry so must go.
Maybe by the time I'm back the avatars will have reappeared.
2
No picture of Deb. I really miss them the avatars and photos.
No Marinara sauce at The Italian Connection today, but great panini.
1
Lotso' random reactions to this enjoyable offering:
* Loved the seldom seen ROBOTO and the debuts ZORK and PROSODIC.
* The puzzle evoked the image and glorious aroma of a great marinara -- yum!
* Shout out to March Madness with IBET (American Gaming Assn. says, i.e., 9 billion was bet in 2014).
* Shout out with TIE to last night's Pennsylvania special election.
* HOT OATMEAL seems redundant; HOT seems unnecessary.
* PERSE is what we call on another site a DOOK, that is, a word that in a puzzle looks like a different-sounding word from what it actually is -- PERSE looks like a homonym of "purse", (and DOOK, for DO OK, looks like a homonym of "duke").
* The cluing is straightforward; a few zippy clues would have added pizazz.
* I had "kink" before KNOT (Hi Robert and Elke). Does KNOT mean "kink" with regard to hoses?
* I had LENTL before YENTL!
* When I was a kid I had a fantasy of one day being the leader of a world famous kazoo ensemble! (Remember childhood?)
So today's MARINARA puzzle was food for thought -- thanks, Jeff!
3
In needlework there is a technique call Broderie PERSE.....Will, please note.
We quilters make use of this, although the prevalence of fusing has lessened the need.
2
LENTL--cross-dressing tennis star who wants to attend yeshiva.
3
ORSON BEAN twice in five days! Cool beans.
Sign me up for the Jeff Chen Culinary Institute.
2
What about Maltomeal?
Last game I played was Dungeons and Dragons on a Dec10: You have been teleported into solid rock! Wait, I have played Geoguesser.
Greetings from Atlanta.
Thanks Jeff
MARINARA sauce without oil, salt or sugar! Just what I need for my low fat, low salt, low sugar diet, but it doesn’t sound much more tempting than HOT OATMEAL.
Incidentally, I enjoyed solving this puzzle. It had more pop-cultural names than I like, but I remembered a few from earlier puzzles, and the rest came easily out of the crosses.
PROSODIC moved the puzzle up from Tuesday to Wednesday.
3
I was going to put in PROSODY but the extra space modified the entry.
I misplaced my advice re your diet restrictions and MARINARA sauce: grating a carrot into the sauce will replace the sugar nicely. I'm pretty sure that a TBSP of EVOO is allowable on most diets, as one needs *some* 'good fats' ....esp if we want to sweat the ONIONs. Which we do.
3
I find Hot Oatmeal quite tasty if made with steel cut oats, cooked a while with raisins and topped with banana slices & milk.
I also thought this was easy. No lookups for me and hardest stuff was PROSODIC, a word not in my vocabulary, And the cross of PERSE and NSC where I was stuck on that middle letter for a while. So obvious in retrospect. But even after what seemed like a long time staring at these, I finished way under average.
Weird week. I did the Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles in exactly the same time - a new record for a Wednesday - and did them both (slightly) faster than Monday.
7
Actually, the youngsters may have some idea of who MC HAMMER is, because of the "NOT hammer time" commercials for a certain brand of stick-up hooks that ran during the last holiday season.
I was somewhat surprised how easily this one fell into place. 39 seconds off my best Wed. and 14 minutes below my average. No lookups and PROSODIC was my last fill, as CSINY was my last cross.
and Elke
So today we get the MARINARA sauce- last week, Thursday's 'MOOinwalker' puzzle , had both PENNE and PASTA but no sauce.
While not in the grid, Jeff C. mentions 'JAR' in his comments- so, that could have been 4 days in a row.
You GOT ME- was sure that 63A had to be 'moron' (given today's news)
- glad I did not BET the -BANK on that.
Thought that a 'kink' was more likely than a KNOT in my hose (i.e. garden hose).
TIL- the word and meaning of PROSODIC, thanks to David C.
Our HOT OATMEAL has the cinnamon sugar , some blueberries and ground walnuts sprinkled on, and either MOOmilk or almond milk poured over it.
For those not wishing to stand over a hot pot, stirring , Trader Giotto's Marinara sauce is pretty good (and has an O-U).
Finally, there's the WHAM. Would Jeff award himself the POW ?
He's GOT my vote.
2
Hand up for the kinky garden hose. And I tried URI before UZI, because I never heard of ZORK and didn't think a person would be actually named UZI... My Italian mother made the best MARINARA but she used pork, which I now refuse to eat, my favorite movie being "Babe" ("the Citizen Kane of talking pig pictures").
5
That Citizen Kane comment just cracked me up. Thanks for a good laugh to start the day.
1
My garden hose was LEAKy at first.
1
Does one really say MAKES BANK? Never heard the expression.
Anyway, regarding MARINARA, I prefer my bolognese sauce, which is in fact Marcella Hazan's recipe. You can't beat Marcella.
3
Her classic Italian cookbook is right next to the stove in my house!
Yep, and when you do it really well, you make fat bank. Or at least you did back when Pluto was still a planet; it’s a bit dated now.
1
Only needed to look up one clue: 20A CBS series that started Gary Sinese. Other than that, pretty smooth sailing.Nice midweek puzzle. Thanks.
I hope this one isn't going to be like one of those easier Sunday puzzles with a trick and a clear revealer where people comment that they solved the puzzle but had to read Wordplay to understand the theme...
1
That would be me. I flew through it in Wed. personal best time and never noticed the revealer. I knew all the mixed ingredients, but didn’t know how they fit together — I was thinking some weird salad since I had sliced or chopped tomatoes in mind. That and my method is identical to the list in the constructor’s notes; the last two jars I bought, I don’t think I ever actually put it on anything!
1
Help me understand, Stu. When you were flying through the clues, did 61A strike you as a bit different from the others, or had you filled MARINARA from crosses and didn't even look at the clue? I didn't need the theme to solve the puzzle either -- and I suspect that was the case for most who will comment here -- but since Wednesday puzzles *have* themes, I'm curious to know why you didn't choose to look for one post-solve.
1
After I had the OINON and the OTOATM, I thought we were preparing a UGEBRR, and expected to find a FETABPETY on a EAMESS DESENUB (var)
4
Ah, Zork! Great memories of figuring out the twisty little passageways, all alike . . . And trying to stop the spinning room in Zork II . . . I still have the maps that I made as I solved them.
4
Another smooth Wednesday puzzle, to make me feel smarter than I actually am. Domo arigato!
6
Domo arigato!
For this puzzle, perhaps "Grazie?"
2
Mr. DeYoung might prefer Domo Arigato, but de gustibus non est disputandum
3
The pioneering adventure game I first played was called "adventure". I was working at a minicomputer company called Data General at the time. It was produced by the Stanford AI lab. It was phenomenal. I think Zork and it's sequels all derived from Adventure. Search for "colossal cave adventure" in Wikipedia to read about it. It was truly addictive.
2
Yup, Zork and its sequels all derived from Adventure. Which, I believe, is still embedded in emacs!
2
I went to the website Deb linked to - started a game and then found no way to save the game in progress.
Are there any Zork fans who might know how to save a game for the next session?
1
I started with the colossal cave adventure too. Remember how you could only use two words? You really had to be careful. It took a friend of mine and I approximately forever to solve the whole thing (on her Osborne). We got stuck so long on killing the snake and getting through the maze.
Then there were the Infocom games. What delights. Raising buried treasure, traveling to other planets, running away to the circus. I guess my favorite was "Leather Goddesses of Phobos."
And then the Zorks. What wonderful games. Just loved them.
And the voodoo ones (can't remember the names) based in New Orleans. And Myst. And the "Alice in Wonderland" one. And "Grim Fandango."
D'ya think I spent (I won't say wasted because I had so much fun) a lot of time on these.
I don't even remember when all those wonderful games changed from all-text to graphics-based, but they stayed great. I don't bother with the ones where you just point your mouse.
Crazy mixed up week... my times look like Tue Wed Mon, half my average today and a couple minutes off a best time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3
Me too - half my average. Today's was pretty easy.
1
Agree! I had to dig out the (abandoned) Saturday Stumper, and VOILA! I solved that sucker. Whew....I needed my Thursday fix!
Jeff's notes (at xwordinfo) indicate that he was thinking of "prosodic" in the narrower sense used in poetry analysis, where rhythm and the interplay of sounds are the primary consideration. The clue referred to speech rather than poetry - and in linguistic analysis "prosody" includes intonation (musical rise and fall) along with stress (meter and rhythm), corresponding to "melody plus rhythm," not "rhythm alone." Prosody is a very important part of understanding classical art songs like these -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA6MLjPvWRw
4
I had no reason to doubt PROSODIC, though it occurred to me at the time I couldn't think of ever having seen other than PROSODy.
Announce
1
Episodic
commodity
Speaking of Commoditty, it's interesting how good the acoustics always seem to be for singing in the loo.
Thankee, David.
1
quick quick quick! I eat HOT OATMEAL every morning with walnuts and milk! Good start to my day! OK FINE -- maybe I would ADORE something more exciting!
1
Try RBI's, coming soon to a field near you.
2
I assume it is quick oats.
Very easy puzzle one you realize the circles indicate ingredients. Solved it in under 13:00.
1
My recipe is simpler than Jeff's:
1. Go to Italian restaurant.
2. Order food.
3. When food comes, eat.
(My fellow Durhamites may know the name Pomodoro. That's my usual place for Italian.)
Here's the classic "spicy meatball" commercial for Alka-Seltzer
https://youtu.be/48TewJlc6BA
3
Taking the row of circles in the middle row in their given order and adding on the following A, you get CIALGRA. Which sounds like quite an erectile dysfunction medication.
7
I kept looking at those letters and thought the same thing. That's gotta be quite a potent combo.
Which, when combined with 7A, reminds me of Groucho Marx's "I love a good cigar but I take it out once in a while."
(I will not smoke ARTIFICIAL GRASS)
5
I don't think I want to pursue cigars in this context ....
1