When I was a waiter at an Italian restaurant in Seattle in the 90s, the chef frequently had a special that required us to say "shaved pecorino" with a straight face.
9
I SKIRTED DISASTER for a long while, which made that section difficult to figure out. Once I got COURTED, things fell into place. Enjoyed it - LATEBLOOMERS, PURPLEPROSE and all.
2
Very nicely balanced for a Tuesday. A little more challenging than usual for this day of the week, but I thought it was perfect.
A lot of clever clues that drew out the fun just enough to prolong the enjoyment without feeling like a Friday.
1
It was a feat of concentration trying to solve this very pleasant puzzle, with its flowers, and fruits; and its words of that seemed written for us here in the UK: GOT NASTY, SLUR, AMORAL, REGRET....because right now our prime minister is trying to subvert democracy, antecipate the closure of parliament to achive a no deal Brexit - that only 27% of the people support now. Its going to be decided in the next few hours.
This truly is COURTING DISASTER!
Please send no BLOOMS but positive vibes highly appreciated!
13
Laura,
I gather Commons held firm!
Now if we could only get our Houses in order.
4
Amelia BLOOMER*
It will not do to say that it is out of woman's sphere to assist in making laws, for if that were so, then it should be also out of her sphere to submit to them.
[ASTERisk] The LATE Amelia BLOOMER
5
How a friend came out to Elaine and me in a cheese shop in Berkeley.
It was the early '80s and the three of us went to the newly opened Chez Panisse Café for lunch. After, we did a little shopping. We stopped in at the Cheese Board Collective and our friend asked the guy behind the counter if he had a "nice pecorino." They both giggled.
It turned out we were the first straight people he'd felt comfortable enough to act normally around, including his family. It was a touching moment for all. It's hard to imagine what life was like for gay people in those days, when closeted was normal.
7
@Martin I'm obviously not a foodie but did remember watching Rachel Ray (yup!) talk about Pecorino as a Sheep's Milk! (Oh and PS: My brother and his partner have been together for almost 30 years. It just never occurs to me to find anything strange about that, nor do they!)
Sheep’s milk: for some reason i got in my head that pecorino was pig’s milk cheese , maybe because of “ porco”” , pork? One of these things. Decades later I asked myself, others- but how do you milk a pig? Ah! Sheep’s milk.
1
@Laura rodrigues In london
The answer is: Very carefully. Pigs will bite.
4
19 Across - summer setting in KC comes out CDT.
I'm lost on this one! What is KC (Kansas City)? What is CDT?
@RM
I think the clue was referencing Central Daylight Time. I got it only on the crosses myself.
1
RM (in NY),
Yes, K.C. is Kansas City.
(You can have that MO or KS).
Now, what would "Summer setting in NY" be?
1 of 2
I feel that I owe an explanation as to my earlier reference to PECORINO as a mushroom. There’s a story behind it.
On the 4th of Quintilis, 752 B.C.E., young Caelius Vibenna came back to his tent after fending off yet another Sabine sortie, tired and hungry.
“Pugnamus et pugnamus,” he muttered to himself dejectedly. Contrary to how legend would portray him later, CeeVee, as his friends called him, wasn’t a bellicose man; he liked his wine and his food. In fact, when Romulus ordered the men to take Caenina after all that unpleasantness with the Sabines, CeeVee had gone mushroom picking in the area instead. He was a lactovegetarian, which didn’t sit well with his macho Roman pals, so he was usually left to his own devices when it came to getting some eats.
He set down his clipeus and took out his fondue dish. He couldn’t wait to try the sheep cheese and mushroom recipe his Sabine captive had called Amanita muscaria alla Samanta Leonis. He’d got about a hemina of sheep cheese from a Caenina farmer nearby and then had picked the mushrooms himself right from the pasture. As the Sabine had said, they were easy to find, what with their big, red, white-dotted caps. He called them PECORINOs — amusingly so, he thought, as the sheep were clearly too dumb to appreciate such a treat and had walked wide circles around them.
6
Well, Samanta Leonis, I thought them thar shrooms were A. phalloidea, but then .... I don't even know what a hemina hemina is, so maybe I should just lay my Pan pipes down.
btw, the didn't call him CeeVee; they called him Old 105
btow, did that unpleasantness also involve the Sabine men?
btw#3, this may be a place to admit my first 8D was ACDC. Just a thought.
Another round of kudos for 'Samanta Leonis'. Similar thinking is what resulted in Khalpernia for me, as I am clearly sposed to be 'above suspicion'
3
Its funny but also quite serious. Killing men and raping/kidnapping women was established attitude in war from early history and is still a fact of war...
@Leapfinger
Despite its lesser potency, I believe A. muscaria was chosen ‘cause it’s like pretty and stuff.
If we’re talking soft cheese, a hemina would’ve been roughly 1/2 of an Old Etruscan as. That’s a pretty small can of as by our US standards and no, I’m not misspelling it and no, there’s no whoop involved.
Btw#1: Only the numerically literate did. CV reportedly responded to either nickname.
Btw#2: Ah so it did. Vehemently so. But reasonable folks that the Romans and the Sabines were, all that nonsense only lasted about 320 years. They made (mostly) nice after that, minus a mutual decimation here and there.
Btw#3: Only if you suspect that the CDC has A rap and there’s only one.
2
2 of 2
The fondue smelled wonderful. He fished out the tasty pecorinos first and ate them greedily. He didn’t offer any to the Sabine; treats weren’t for captives.
No one seemed sure later what had happened next. All Livy writes is that when Caelius Vibenna’s body was found the following morning, his brothers at arms remembered seeing the word PECORINO scribbled across the congealed fondue next to him. Since the smell of sheep cheese was unmistakable, they naturally drew the conclusion that this batch must have come from spoilt ewe’s milk. These things happened. The least they could do, though, was to honor poor CeeVee’s dying wish by henceforth calling the cheese PECORINO.
The story was lost to obscurity over the ages, and with it disappeared the prudent Roman practice of always but always using a taster before consuming any sheep cheese. It is only when the descendants of the escaped Sabine captive get together for family reunions that they pull out the stools fashioned after the fly agaric. “Here, take a PECORINO,” we say, and wink.
4
@Sam Lyons
A Tour de Force. I predict that it will be inluded in future editions of Tacitus.
Complete with the pop culture reference to Samanta L.
3
@Al in Pittsburgh - A tour de farce, rather?
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
Nah, Tacitus enjoys such limited readership these days. I was thinking maybe a short novel? With the first sentence of, say, “Dom. Caelius Vibenna said he would pick the pecorinos himself?”
I just keep thinking how much the movie rights to “The Hours” must have brought in...
2
I thought (for long enough to ruin my solve time) that “Took the gloves off” had to be GOT NAKED. And 30A (from the initial letter pattern) just had to be CANADIAN somethingorother. AND 11D came out BUNKHAND - - - so I COURTED DISASTER in the northeast corner.
This one goes in the “Completed” column.
Time to get on with “real life”.
2
For some god awful purple prose, I recommend the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest.
https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
3
@Fritz
He's apparently a popular author, but I read a few pages of some David Baldacci novel years ago, and thought the exact same.
Actually, what I thought was 'pools of purple prose'.
REINCARNATION would definitely have been an equestrian feat.
As it was, this puzzle was still very exPANSYve.
9
Nice, and surprisingly chewy for Tuesday.
I have a major quibble with cluing 1A: it's actually two words.
Also a head-scratcher: where is the late bloom in 30A?
41A and 41D are a perennial bane I deal with: my support socks wear out that way.
@Dr W
30A ends with IRIS.
2
@Jordan
Ah, thank you!! I misspelled 23D too.
"I have a major quibble with cluing 1A: it's actually two words."
Dr W,
Isn't.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43171/a-visit-from-st-nicholas
3
Speaking of PURPLEPROSE
I believe it was a dark and stormy night several years ago when a couple of co-workers recommended the Harry Potter books to me. I've since heard that they're actually pretty good, but these were the same co-workers who had previously recommended 'The Da Vinci Code.' I actually picked that one up from the library but never got far beyond the now notorious opening:
"Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas."
Nothing to say beyond that. I just thought it was possible that there might be a commenter or two who had never encountered that before.
9
@Rich in Atlanta
That could have been the best of times, or the worst of times ..... or the NY Times.
7
@Rich in Atlanta, I read about 60 pages of Angels and Demons thinking, "everyone LOVES The DaVinci Code, surely this must get better." After 60 pages I realized it didn't have to get better and never picked up anything by Dan Brown again.
If the idea of the story appeals to you, I would suggest you give Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco, a try. I absolutely love that book, and tore through it in a couple of days.
10
@Chris I've read Foucault's Pendulum. I remember enjoying it, though I can't recall many details about it (it was kind of complicated).
Also 'The Name of the Rose,' which remains a favorite. The film is one of the best adaptations of a novel and you've reminded me that I should see if I can find that on demand and watch it again.
2
Fun, lively puzzle, with or without the theme. I solved it without even noticing the theme.
Though it's Tuesday, it tripped me up in places.
I had BREWery before BREW PUB -- which made it really, really hard to spell DAIQUIRIS because I had an R where the Q should have been. And spelling DAIQUIRIS is already hard enough -- right?
I also wanted PULP something-or-other at 17A, before coming up with PURPLE PROSE.
Then there was the "dire appraisal of a situation". IT'S BAD didn't come to me immediately because it didn't seem nearly dire enough. I wanted answers for which I didn't have enough letters. IT'S OVER. I'M DOOMED. WE'RE TOAST. Think I might be a bit of a pessimist?
After the Sunday and Monday puzzles this week, both of which I disliked for entirely different reasons, this one was a rare Tuesday treat. Nice job, Evan.
6
@Nancy
I did the same with BREWery.
For me, the theme helped a lot. Once I got it, the rest fell into place, pretty much. My upper right corner was a little sticky, and the last answer I filled in was PLANA.
Very nice puzzle!
3
@Nancy
I suppose that context has much to do with the intention of IT'S BAD. If describing the latest Hollywood movie, IT'S BAD is not so dire. If the NASA Mission Control guy leans over to his colleague and whispers IT'S BAD, chances are things might be dire indeed!
3
Is (Tommy) Lasorda a Yoda or a Rambo or a Buckaroo?
3
@msk
Check him out on Google images.
1
Loved that the photo of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden was taken by Linda Rosier.
Also loved this puzzle by Evan Kalish. I thought the reveal fit the theme perfectly. I especially liked that Evan hid the LATE BLOOMERS in other words rather than planting them alone at the end of the themer.
Thanks, Evan!
4
@Johanna,
Leave it to ab-STEM-ious you to notice the photographer's name and where the BLOOMERS are 'planted'! That said, who else could better tread the Crossword CarPet all blossom-strewn*, when no-one's Rosier than you?
*[PURPLE PROSE, trying my hand at]
1
@Leapfinger, LOL, abstemious isn't probably the best word to describe me 😁
(But I'll take Rosier!)
1
I have a quibble with 14A. If the creator wishes to reference a film character, then I believe they should choose a quote that actually occurs in the film series - not in the novelization or elsewhere in the extended universe.
@E.W. Swan
Thinking I am that anything like this phrased attributed to Yoda-speak could be.
9
@E.W. Swan
Wow!! That IS a quibble - - of the highest order.
Tougher than the usual Tuesday for me, especially the crossing of ENOKI and KINK.
And here's a famous scene involving BANANA DAIQUIRIS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jlyZPZ2-rg
1
During the solve, I noticed that Plan A joined with Super B to give Type AB.
Buckaroo will always summon memories of a special and strange flick, The Adventres of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
At xwordinfo, Jeff Chen chose a photo of a Siberian Iris for his image today. His photos are always hyperlinks, btw. Iris is my favorite flower and I grow three varieties of Siberian, at least seven of Bearded. My golden Bearded are double bloomers; they start opening again this time of year and stay in bloom through early December!
4
@David Connell
I do love that fil-im.
Your garden sounds like a beautiful spot.
1
@David Connell
BUCKAROO can only remind me of this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-2VLIO14dns
finished ON CUE -- SUPERB! more of a challenge since the flower names were shorter than the second word in the theme.
2
A fun romp of a puzzle. Clueing for 60A is off, though: having presided at dozens of weddings in my pastoral career, I haven’t yet seen the “I do” followed closely by the kiss - usually there’s at least an exchange of rings and a declaration of marriage in between those, if not a song or a prayer.
2
@Housatonic
"Eventually followed by a kiss?"
1
@Housatonic
Well, "followed" in the same sense that death follows birth? Not necessarily immediately, but inevitably.
2
Housatonic,
"*Declaration* just before..." would seem to make a song or a prayer, and also possibly the exchange of rings, irrelevant to the objection, but a *declaration* of marriage is clearly a declaration, and in my more limited experience it always follows IDO.
Should the clue be annulled?
2
Today's puzzle seemed slightly tougher than the past few Tuesdays, though not in a bad way. Are we going back to school, too?
And today I had my most favorite miscue on a clue ever. gArBO instead of RAMBO, very briefly.
7
Yesterday was tougher than today for me. Guess I’m a LATEBLOOMER! It was great seeing that feisty cobra ALI Wong as a clue! She’s amazing.
We live in a beach town so we get lots of visitors. Unfortunately, we party too hard then and pay a price later. Our house becomes a mini BREWPUB, with STELLAS and IPAs galore (but no BANANADAIQUIRIS because they are ...NASTY!). Soon someone’s speech begins to SLUR and we know it’s time to close the home bar. Fortunately, our last visitor left yesterday. We’re hoping Dorian doesn’t come calling, though!
Look, I’ve DRONEDON but this was a SUPERB puzzle.
9
[I gather from the earliest "ago" times here and the brief conversation in yesterday's comments that today's Column finally showed up about two hours after the Crossword. Too many BANANADAIQUIRIS or a SNUB of the readership?]
2
AB (Just showing that I can follow instructions).
Nice puzzle and a typically stiff workout for me. Several things weren't dawning on me from the clues but I managed to chip away and get them from the crosses. There were a couple of crossings that I was doubtful about and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were correct.
Not surprised that I'm not the first to notice the STELLA! and ADRIAN! similarity.
My two day streak remains alive.
9
@Rich in Atlanta
First line - a slow LOL... maybe because I was still asl.
1
@Rich in Atlanta,
Me too for the streak, maybe I can get to three tomorrow.
1
@Puzzlemucker
I didn't get it until I read it the second time, after coffee. Good one, Rich!
1
BANANADAIQUIRIS? Ewwww, I'll have an IPA.
Nary an ERRor, but it took a while to suss out all these clever clues. Enjoyable!
1
@Ann
I know. I can't believe I ever drank those things.
@vaer
Consider Bananas Foster.
1
@vaer
Lots of regrets from the '80's
1
Just give me a plain daiquiri, droned Tom demonstrably.
Another rainy day here at Grand Lake Stream. Looking longingly at the weather in Mississippi where it is a balmy 91. Riding south in about 10 days, BUCKAROOs.
Agree with the praise for this x-word.
Laugh quietly to myself moment (LQMM) was recalling the names given to various cocktails. Slippery slope was the term for a Banana Daiquiri.
Thanks Evan.
2
I spelled DAIQUIRIS as "dacquiris" and wondered what unusual sexual practice KCNK stood for, for a while. Lovely to see UNO and ONE in the same grid. KINK could have been clued in conjunction with HOSE. It would have been cool if, in the grid, the FRUCTOSE was high.
Pitched perfectly for a Tuesday puzzle. The theme itself was okay, utilitarian, but the theme answers were lively, and the cluing just the right level more difficult than Monday Direct. Touches of spark spread throughout made my solve most enjoyable, not just a get-through, and thank you for this, Evan!
6
@Lewis
I also spelled DAIQUIRIS with a C for a while.
1
@Lewis and vaer
Must be because these drinks are a dacquired taste.
7
Andrew,
D'accord.
4
Themes like this show clever construction, but really don’t impact/challenge/assist me as a solver. Meh!
A clever but not too obvious theme although I wouldn't have considered ROSEs to be LATE BLOOMERs. The mind kind of boggles at seeing BREWPUB crossing BANANA DAIQUIRI and sharing a puzzle with STELLA.
Can anyone explain the clue for HOSE? Is there something clever I'm missing?
3
@Doug
To “hose” someone is an old term for shafting someone big time. Haven’t heard it used much. Deb would have said “hi kids.”
4
"...I wouldn't have considered ROSEs to be LATE BLOOMERs."
Doug,
IRIS isn't a late bloomer either, but that isn't the point; the theme is that the three BLOOMERS (flowers) appear LATE in (at the end of) the theme answers.
11
@Barry Ancona
Iris blooms first, then rose, and aster, in late summer. So aster is a late bloomer.
Challenging but delightful puzzle today. I just read that ROSA Parks is the new "Barbie" doll, nice idea and a new way to cluing her.
The memory indeed works in strange ways. How did I get LASORDA right away, but couldn't remember the Central time zone.
The only theme answer I had by the time I got to the reveal was the daiquIRIS, and it definitely helped me get the others.
The clue for DRONED ON was perfection.
The great week continues.
5
@suejean
I had Tommy Lasorta for a sec, kinda dumb of me.
@Ann,
Not dumb at all, I'd have been pleased to get that close.
1
SPELLING BEE
41 words, 136 points, 1 pangram
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
A - 3 4 - - 1 8
C 4 2 1 - - - 7
J 3 - 1 - - - 4
K 1 1 - - - - 2
L 5 1 - - - - 6
P 9 3 2 - - - 14
49
@x Nice easy one today - although the Panagram is not a word used outside the US for that particular consumable.
An obvious omission is ACKEE, as CALLALOO, from the same region, was allowed in another Bee a few days ago. Also missing is APPELLEE (defendant in an appeal case), as the use of 'EE' to create object-words is a much-used trick of the Bee-keeper e.g. 'MENTEE'.
5 Food/Drink words included today.
10
@Mari I did it today without hints. All are common words except the pangram, which I barely remembered. It’s a fruit based alcoholic drink that was popular a hundred or more years ago. It’s a composite of 2 common words.
There are also 2 animals.
I still haven’t finished today’s crossword, but I have to sleep sometime :)
2
@Kevin Davis The way I remembered the pangram was that it sounds similar to a breakfast cereal.
3
LETTER BOXED THREAD
C-P (5) P-L (9).
Interesting turn of phrase. Now, hopefully back to sleep!
3
@Liane
I have the same.
Also:
P-H(5), H-L(10)
... a not-so-attractive phrase.
1
@Mari
I had your solution but found it too disturbing to post. That’s a first for me.
Oh, and @JamesHamje, I’m not Belgian but will take a Fat Tire over that tourist brew STELLA any day! Or an Orval if I wanna keep it real!
1
@Jason, Leffe!! LOVE that stuff!
1
“The things, you say
Your PURPLE PROSE just gives you away
The things, you say
You're unbelievable”
- EMF
Junior year of HS. Ahh, back when things were so much simpler...
10
@Jason
And now, for the first time ever, the Artie Shaw band (featuring Ms. Helen Forrest) and the EMF band (featuring samples of comedian Andrew Dice Clay), performing together on the same stage, separated only by 41 years:
1939: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VwtFcr7E0O8
1990: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K5kr2OBhh4c
2
51 years.
"When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to flicker in the sky
Through the mist of a memory you wander back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh…"
"Deep PURPLE" PURPLE PROSE. by ARTIE SHAW
5
Flowers? What flowers? All you needed to solve this puzzle was a lot of liquid courage. I couldn’t even see the flowers for the beer.
Let’s see, if you weren’t SLURring after your initial rounds of STELLAS, in SEEPed the IPAs, and if those weren’t your speed, the BANANA DAQUIRIS were served up as if on ON CUE — admittedly, a combination one might REGRET. And that’s just while you were still at the BREWPUB. There was more DISASTER to be COURTED with LSD and SPEED, and who knows what KINK some folks WOULDA got up to with ENOKI and PECORINO; those are, after all, mushrooms...
As for TYPE AB, I hope no one went that far. I don’t care if I sound judgmental here, but if your mind went *there*, that’s just AMORAL, BUCKAROO. Trust me, if you don’t think IT’S BAD, you’re simply IN DENIAL.
Yes, I know I shouldn’t watch horror flicks on Netflix before bed. Lesson learned.
10
@Sam Lyons
PECORINO is a mushroom?
2
I'm cursed with a good memory at the most inconvenient time.. this reminded me of the worst lyric in history 'The Piccolno', but Fred and Ginger still dance well. Imho.
https://youtu.be/6wpXJgPfhW8
vaer,
I'm not sure what Sam had in mind, but PECORINO is a way of *preparing* mushrooms.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/stuffed-mushrooms-with-pecorino-and-herbs-recipe-1945698
Probably an age thing but I now only associate KINK with something I get in my neck
13
@ColoradoZ
Start a trend: kinky necks.
1
@Dr W
I think our kids (or grandkids) have probably got that one figured out pretty good.
1
I thought I was going to beat my Tuesday time, but then the NE corner GOT NASTY. (WAR? What is it good for? Not answering 16A.)
Even so, a great puzzle. TWAS SUPERB.
8
@Mike WAR was my first answer until it conflicted with the down entries. I never use PLANA and don’t like HOSE either.
2
and Elke
Don't know which is worse: Cold war or Holy war- IT'S all BAD.
The last ROSE of the summer put me IN DENIAL (but there is still Indian Summer...)
Hope every one in Florida and north is not COURTing DISASTER and is ready to make a quick EGRESS to drier environs before things GET NASTY and be ready to dip only a little TOE.
Liked this floriferous puzzle.
4
@Robert and Elke,
I'm with you on the war question, but, (at the risk of being sacrilegious), I'll take cold water every time.
5
The pairing of DRONED ON and PURPLE PROSE may be, nay, I mean to say, is the best pairing of two clues and the corresponding two answers to those clues to ever appear in a New York Times crossword puzzle and probably in any crossword in any publication, although that may not be fair to other publications because I haven't seen every other publication that has crossword puzzles and maybe at some point some other publication had a crossword puzzle that had a better pairing of two ( Maybe more) clues and the corresponding two answers, so maybe I shouldn't have included other publications in my assessment of being the best pairing of two clues and the corresponding answers and maybe, in other people's opinions, this isn't even the best pairing to occur in a New York Times crossword puzzle. I hope I made it clear that this could possibly be the best pairing of two clues and the corresponding answers but it is also possibly not the best pairing.
34
@ColoradoZ,'
LOL half way through, still smiling.
3
@ColoradoZ
It is with my profoundest and most profound appreciation that I bestow upon you my breathless approbation, not only for your cruciverbal perspicacity but also for your unwillingness to bow to the warlords of brevity (i.e., those who would shorten the sentiment at the expense of the excrement) as well as for your willingness to embrace uncertainty with near-Hegelian density. In a word, brilliant, nay coruscating, nay brilliantly coruscating, as well as, of course, coruscatingly brilliant.
21
@ColoradoZ
OMG
1
Sly Tuesday puzzle 😉
4
I agree with Deb that this appeared to be a bit tougher than the usual Tuesday, but the cluing was fair and the puzzle eminently doable. Had a couple of guesses that delayed things momentarily, but the crossings got those changed quickly. The rest filled in fairly easily, and once I hit the revealer I got the "Aha!".
4
Liked the flower theme. The bluenose clue made me wonder if there is any connection between bluenose and blue laws?
I had COLD before HOLY which held me up for a bit. Last square was the cross of ALI and PLANA. I had to guess on that one. I had never heard of the game UNO before doing crosswords. Now I feel like a veteran. Guess I’m a LATE BLOOMER.
7
Same here with Ali and Plana... took me a while to get that one (D'oh!!!)
Likewise for cold; that corner was the last to fall, never heard HOSE used as clued.
@Andrew
For those of us who occasionally drank powdered milk growing up, UNO was “Crazy Eights”, which was basically* the same game but didn’t cost more than a deck of cards (which could be used for dozens of other games).
* I know there are some differences but I couldn’t tell you what they are, except that the “inventor” of UNO presumably got rich while the inventor of Crazy Eights presumably lived to RUE their failure to monetize their creativity.
4
Cute with the hidden BLOOMs. Some fun fill. Liked the clue for YODA.
2
SUPERB, if straightforwardly clued, Tuesday. Excellent long Down stacks in the NE and SW corners, an Aha! theme featuring two impressive grid-length themers, and some nice coherence throughout — a pair of “Great” clues, some beer tie-ins, and a lot of REGRET: RUE, UNPAID bills, LIENS, ILLS, WOULDA, IT’S BAD, IN DENIAL, COURTED DISASTER, maybe one too many BANANA DAIQUIRIS.
Liked that Evan got STELLAS in after the “Rocky” ADRIAN clue/entry. STELLA first came to my mind when I tried to recall the name that Rocky yelled out after he won the big match: “Yo ADRIAN”, not “Hey STELLA”. (It was also *sly* of Evan to work in RAMBO, even if it’s not my favorite movie series).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2VyzII09Hos
12
I live in Belgium and was momentarily tripped up by STELLA as a popular beer. The joke here is what do you call a Stella drinker? A tourist.
16
@James Hamje
Not sure if we have the similar joke up here, but I just created one:
What to do you call a Canadian bacon eater? An American.
2