I always love finding Q's and Z's in the puzzle so what a delight this one was! I had the first Q and LOOK but I kept trying QUESTIONINGLOOK and other variations that wouldn't fit. When QUIZZICALLOOK dawned on me, what a satisfying moment it was.
Thank goodness for living in Japan and using TOKYOBAY to get me started. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the end of the puzzle without looking up a few things in the middle section: SCAGGS who? LESPAUL what? Oh well. What a fun solve. Next time put an X or two in too!
Ugh ... after a personal best on Friday I optimistically thought I’d surpassed some internal runner’s wall or writer’s block that had prevented me from finishing the weekend puzzles as smoothly as a Tuesday or a Wednesday.
Wow big NOPE there on that one fella.
Besides MCCAIN and HILDA I had the wordplay blog to thank for the entire SE corner.
DENOFEROTICISM, for starters; even getting QURAN to connect with QUIZZICALLOOK took more than half an hour.
Challenging puzzle, out of my wheelhouse today.
1
A pitch-perfect Saturday, IMO. Challenging but doable.
Loved the LES PAUL two-fer and the old-timey decadence of DEN OF INIQUITY.
2
Started out slowly from mistakes koRAN, tsARINA and piON. Was sure IOMOTH was wrong, but persisted. Finished, but no happy music. Problem? TiPSY instead of TOPSY. 🥴
Today's puzzles are perfect examples of the oft used "in/out of my wheelhouse." I completed the main puzzle in less time than I do most Wednesdays, which, of course, makes Trenton Charlson my favorite Saturday contributor [wink]. I love the mini stacks of Qs and the fact that trying to slot in "V for Victory" and then "Nixons Parting Shot" at 14A. Per his comment I wonder what his original clues were. Speaking of the Mini: today's time was just plain embarrassing.
1
I thought of those same gestures for 14A! And despite being initially convinced 1A would be ROMNEY, misreading 3D as "Bygone souvenirs," and misspelling DAIQUIRI, I managed to set a new personal best for Saturday.
1
My ¢2 re. CZARINA:
The English transliteration ‘czar’ of the Russian ‘царь’ dates back to a 16th c. bestseller of sorts by one Baron von Herberstein: “Notes on Muscovite Affairs.” The good baron wrote in Latin, was a native German speaker, but was also fluent in Slovene, which got him by in Russia without speaking Russian or reading its Cyrillic alphabet.
Slovene uses the Latin alphabet. The Russian ‘царь’ is ‘car’ in Slovene (as in most other Slavonic languages) but, writing in Latin as von Herberstein did, rendering it as ‘car’ would have led to the pronunciation of /kar/ and not the intended /tsar/.
I think that the Russian Ц looked to him a lot like the Latin script Ç (pronounced as /ts/), which perhaps reminded him of the Slovene Č (NOT pronounced as /ts/, but what the heck), which in turn had but recently been a Czech digraph CZ but was now a single grapheme Č, thanks to Hus’ “De orthographica bohemica,” which definitely was a big enough bestseller for von Herberstein to have read. So CZAR looked pretty good and he could have his book printed without those pesky diacritics.
He could have gone with TZAR. Or TSAR. But he didn’t. Why? Probably the same reason he referred to Dmitri Shemyaka, the bad boy of the Muscovite Civil War, as Demetrius Schemecka. The original Latin edition reads like a free-for-all: there’s no consistency to how old von H transcribes Slavic names. But who wants to let orthographic punctiliousness get in the way of a good story?
5
What was the impact of the term’s origin in Latin “Caesar”?
1
Therefore, when in doubt it’s always TSAR or CZAR, but usually TSAR and sometimes CZARINA.
@John
‘Tsar’ is derived directly from ‘caesar,’ which dates back specifically to Julius Caesar. The origin of his cognomen of ‘Caesar’ is disputed (it may have related to his eyes, hair, or hunting exploits — all of which can be etymologically validated — but it only came to mean ‘ruler’ in the course of his reign, as his person became synonymous with wielding power).
‘Caesar’ pronounced with a hard /k/ sound entered Germanic languages from Classical Latin, hence the German ‘kaiser’ (‘keiser,’ ‘keizer,’ etc. elsewhere in Northern Europe), probably as early as the 1st c. BCE during the Gallic Wars when Julius Caesar crossed the Rhine. The word didn’t make its way east until the 10th c., however, with the expansion of what was by then the Byzantine Empire, as well as Christianity in its tow.. The /k/ sound in ‘caesar’ would have given way to the soft /s/ of Vulgar Latin by then. Classical Latin was no longer the language of the imperial court, but what was spreading was Ecclesiastical Latin as Christianity was adopted by rulers in modern-day Bulgaria, Poland, etc. As Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation derives from Vulgar Latin, ‘caesar’ became ‘car’ in Slavonic languages (‘царь’ in Cyrillic), with the ‘c’ pronounced as /ts/). Latin script has a grapheme for that sound — Ç. You can still find it today in French, for example: ‘façade.’
3
Well, our erasers got a real workout on this challenging but very enjoyable Saturday puzzle. At 12D we had toRAh initially which soon became koRAN then kURAN and finally QURAN...PHEW! Linda had the hot hand/mind today getting 3 of the 4 long answers. Had the same issue as others with the Russian ROYALtY. And then there was 18A DIPOLEd...DIPOLEr...before finally the actors name coalesced and we ended up with DIPOLES. In spite of those and others it was a pretty smooth solve until we ended up in the SE with too many blank squares staring up at us. Finally saw SERB at 41A but had no idea what the school was called, the name of the bread nor the entirely baffling creature nor the extinct birdy. I mistakenly thought butterfly when I first read the creature clue but of course that wouldn’t fit the space allotted. Linda finally came up with ROTI which when combined with BAH I saw MOTH and we filled in the rest with our best guesses. Surprisingly we got happy music right away when we entered the printed puzzle into the app! Best to all!
2
I was sure for the longest time that Yokohama was on a TIREWALL.
4
First, I'll say I also thought Hedy Lamarr for 21D, and why not? as likely the most gorgeous inventor ever. In lieu of showing her intelligent brain, here is a picture of its housing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr#/media/File:Hedy_Lamarr_Publicity_Photo_for_The_Heavenly_Body_1944.jpg
Short shrift [Has anyone ever come across a long shrift? or even a medium-length shrift?] till the ground-breaking LES PAUL took over. About whom a few notes:
1. Are you out there, Lawrence of Bessarabia?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8l1BGRSKw
2. The man was an innovative genius, considering what he did when computers and general electronics were just in gestation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx1YW8SEygo
3. LES PAUL had some of his best luck in partnering with Mary Ford.
4. Contrary to claims by dedicated Francophones, LES PAUL is not a partial plural.
Still, just to see if I can PARLEY-vous: Ce mots-croisee ci, c'etait tres bien APPLIQUE!! S'il vous plait, M. Charlton, can we have some MOA?
Noice.
5
@Leapfinger - no one asks for moa
@DavidC
Ils faites dodo?
“Has anyone ever come across a long shrift?”
Not yet. But if I everyone go to shrift, I’ll definitely be shriving away long enough for the poor soul behind the confessional screen to rethink his ordainment decision.
2
Gotta give it up to the constructors using all those q words
2
@David Belz
Indeed. They were all right on cue.
6
Leapy,
Thank you.
1
Middle was a mess. Gas up before hop up (?). ESA (European Space Agency) before EPA. Regally before royally. Pageboy was new. Too frustrating to be fun.
2
First guess was FLAP for "tent feature," which suggested OFFTO for "bound for." Then with TOKYOBAY, the NE was finished.
Not so easy for the rest of the puzzle. REEDS would be too easy for "marsh flora," and the question mark on "Takes the high way?" meant the answer could not be the FLIES it would have been without the "?," so the bottom took a looong time and research.
In Caitlin's notes: 'overcompletely'?
Dave,
Sure. "I confess to reading overcompletely missing..." You can pick "reading over" or "completely missing;" Caitlin has offered you a choice.
2
CZARINA really needs to be banned. There is no such word in Russian, and it’s a horrible western transliteration. The wife of the TSAR was the TSARITSA. One can maybe justify CZAR clued as an American bureaucrat, but the emperor of all the Russians was a TSAR and his empress was a TSARITSA.
2
@David Goodhand Okay, so what was the proper title of Catherine the Great I know Russian history, but not the language, apart from a few swear words. For those in the peanut gallery, Catherine married Tsar Peter III, but later had him killed and assumed the throne in his place, never to re-marry.
@David Goodhand
But CZAR reflects the original Caesar better than TSAR, and I like it for that reason.
YES!
Phew, that was crunchy. Lots of Q clues, always makes for a fun time, but I own a Gibson LES PAUL model guitar, so that was a helpful gimme.
2
Lots of fun and several TILs. I think the IO MOTH was somewhere in the back of my memory, but I couldn’t reach it without help. I had never come across Arsene Lupin before. The long phrases were fairly easy to get once the Qs and Zs began to appear. I really enjoyed Caitlin’s column, especially the video clip from a 1937 film where air quotes were used. A delightful surprise to see that used such a long time ago. Great puzzle!😊
2
Maybe being born in a city sharing the same name as the constructor (Trenton) put me totally on his wavelength ---- I breezed through this crossword which I found to be exceptionally easy for a Saturday.
1
@Tony S
I commuted for years out of Trenton and I thought this puzzle was kind of tough. But then, I was born in Camden.
1
@Linda Kirwan Easy or tough doesn't matter because we know what's important --- the best cheesesteaks, pork roll sandwiches, and tomato pies in the country.
I love a good Saturday, and this one was both elegant and fun. Knowing Prince Valiant's hairdo really helped get the solve on. How many people are instantly recognizable just by their hair alone?
4
@Petaltown - am I the only one to have put "bowl cut" in there first?
(^_^)
8
David,
Prince Valiant, not Moe Howard.
7
@Petaltown Back in the 70s, it was actually called a Prince Valiant haircut. I had a Shaun Cassidy haircut myself: parted in the middle and feathered out to the sides.
2
I continue to find it easier to drink a DAIQUIRI than to spell it! Please make mine a straight lime one and hold the strawberries.
13
@SamT - I’m a big music fan as well, and what you describe sounds fantastic! There seems to have been a lot of music-themed clues recently - I’m more in the Iggy Pop/Christie Hynde camp, but who doesn’t love “Lido Shuffle”?😊 - and collecting and organizing that for later enjoyment is just wonderful!
I can never access the links in the comment section, but I typed in the playlist link (really!), and it looks great. I’ll check out the spreadsheet later today when I’m at my desk - can’t wait! What a great idea - thanks for all the work you’ve put in!
3
Super hard at 33 minutes, 10 over average. More than 10 spent visiting and revisiting the nine square block with ERB at the top (in SERB). I thought SERB was right, I had EMERY for EMORY so I was close, and eventually I remembered ROTI. Still, BAH and IOMOTH threw me. I don’t mind IOMOTH, it was just something I never heard of that I would have to solve by crosses only. Fine. But BAH bothers me. Even if you think of “Bah, humbug” (the only usage I can think of), “Poppycock” as a clue for it is just silly. “Poppycock, humbug” just doesn’t ring true as what “bah, humbug” is supposed to mean. At least to me.
2
SE was hardest for me, but EMORY snd Henry came along to help me out. A few years ago I served as an external evaluator for one of their academic departments; that is a fine school in a beautiful place.
2
I would like to hear 53 down’s clue shouted around the country. Great puzzle for a rainy day!! Lots of twists and turns and head scratching. Thanks
15
Challenging but fun puzzle for me. Lido shuffle is one of my favorite songs ever especially before a good workout. IO MOTH was toughest fill for me because I kept thinking of mythical creatures instead of real ones and I also initially spelled EMORY incorrectly.
2
Loved this puzzle. My gimmes were MCCAIN and HAFIZ. I had no idea what a HAFIZ was until yesterday morning, on my daily walk, listening to my favorite podcast ‘The Moth’.
Extremely enjoyable roller coaster ride with this puzzle! So many things I didn't know, but many lucky guesses saved the day. Also many unlucky guesses that clashed pretty soon so had to be changed: rover to nomad, Skaggs to Scaggs, Koran to Quran, tsarina to czarina, Linda to Hilda, pole to flap, parlors to parleys. Lovely mix of unrelated words with eight cueësque entries and five zeeish ones. Was suprised this didn't end up being a pangram. (The one thing I didn't love is the appearance of the brand "Energizer" — from the same company that brought us the 1984 Bhopal disaster.) I liked many clues including "No. brain" for CPA (though it's a bit weird to see the abbreviation "No." not for a specific number but for the word in general (or was it the plural, which might have made more sense?) ... "Expression of one at sea, perhaps" for quizzical look, and others. Loved the movie "Stand and Deliver" when it came out; don't know how the name Olmos could be dredged up as if by magic 32 years later. (Is that what the word "humblebrag" means?)
6
@polymath, with you on SKAGGS (later recurring with SKA), and with tent FLAP being 2nd choice, following TARP in my case. Biggest agreement regarding "Stand and Deliver", which I could probably love to see over as many times as I already have in years past. Special seating in my personal HoF for Edward James OLMOS awa Lou Diamond Phillips with special laurels for Jaime Escalante. In this arena also, we need some MOA.
3
I was pleased and surprised to find that my alma mater, Emory & Henry College, is in the NY Times crossword! How did you happen to choose it? Inquiring minds want to know.
9
In the spirit of enjoying the cultural references in the NYTXW, I've started a to build a playlist on Spotify of songs referenced in the daily puzzle. The Playlist is https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vxpMh06oxbZz1YCwGfiic?si=ZV1yMHw6SRawTMJGujeasw
Today "Lido Shuffle" by Boz SKAGGS
I've also set up a spreadsheet that anyone can comment to add a new song, following the template I've set up. I think it'd be fun to see what kind of list each year puts together. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13Ld8gVTHnIOMN0ePvgmPue7lyYi054TSPnkgd2e275A/edit?usp=sharing
7
@Sam T I love this! Thank you!
1
@SamT - I meant to reply to you but my comment went in as a separate comment, and I didn’t want you to miss my thanks!! Wonderful effort - much appreciated!
@Sam T It's Boz SCAGGS, not SKAGGS. I made that mistake in the puzzle, and didn't get the happy music until I figured out that "No. brain" was CPA. Ricky SKAGGS is a mandolin player.
2
Nice when you get 1A and 1D the first second you see the puzzle. A quick solve for a Saturday.
1
Indeed! It almost zoomed by, but managed to feel highly rewarding nonetheless.
@Paladin I thought I might beat my best time, but got slowed down at a few spots. No matter. Really fun and the easy solves were very rewarding, as were the struggles.
1
Good one! I thought I’d have to give in and google a few times, but LES PAUL saved me and the rest of the puzzle filled in quickly. I think QURAN is the standard spelling these days, BTW.
Good, good Saturday.
2
If only I had a memory like everyone else. Two slam-dunk answers in this (for me, but maybe not for you) bear of a puzzle where I struggled, like almost forever, to find a toehold. MCCAIN's memoir was somewhere in the depths of my unconscious -- too deep to reach. So was TOPSY. I wanted a "T" girl, because I was pretty sure it was ANTED at 13D, but all I could think of were "E" girls -- as in Little EVA and ELIZA. With the two answers that wouldn't come to me, who knows, maybe I would have whizzed through this puzzle instead of being as slow as a too-thick and over-FROZEN DAIQUIRI.
And this puzzle also explains in a nutshell why I'm not a speed solver. So, I'm looking for a toehold, I'm desperate for a toehold and, yes, I know to tell myself: Go down!!!!!! Go right!!!!! Go somewhere else, anywhere other than where you are right now!!!!!!! And still I miss it. There was the slam-dunk HOSNI and my eyes kept missing him for at least 15 minutes. Likewise, the slam-dunk PAGEBOY. My eyes are almost commanded to follow the route that the crosses dictate. They refuse to find a wholly different pattern. And that's why I'm not, nor will ever be, a speed solver.
I found this close to unsolvable -- much of it my own fault -- but I did solve it with no cheating. So there's that. I enjoyed the challenge in a masochistic sort of way.
4
@Nancy,
I've never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but somewhere (perhaps in Little Women) I read a line at some impressionable age about someone who 'like TOPSY, "just growed"'. And that's why I now "knew" TOPSY.
otoh, with ___QUI__ near the end of 53A, I figured the end would be TEQUILA, despite having had some first rate FROZEN DAIQUIRIS at Brennan's NOLA Sunday brunch.
It seems we're all our own best masochists.
3
I have nary a quibble, quarrel nor query about Trenton's unquestionable, unqualified and unquenchable quest for the quirky Q.
Well done and tons of fun ... thank you, Quenton!
9
@Johanna
What I liked about the Qs was each one provided two Us.
1
What a blast! Scrabbalicious!
And I had no problem spelling DAIQUIRI; is that so wrong?;-)
4
Saturday Lesson: Seek not consistency. "Quran" anyone? "Czarina" then? Troublesome without being hateful. Took a while, but never not fun.
3
Oooookay! I know some of you (DC, in particular) are breathlessly awaiting my take on 35D.
Sigh.
Do quilters employ the technique of APPLIQUE? Why, yes, we do--by hand or by machine.
Have I ever used APPLIQUE to 'apply' (get it?) a patch? Yes, indeed--on many a worn-out knee (since our daughter crawled for much longer than most youngsters.) No, the iron-on patches beloved of constructors don't hold up well enough unless augmented by added stitching. If I APPLIQUE a patch, I call it MENDING, not quilting. A MENDER applies patches.
We quilters speak of APPLIQUEing leaves, petals, stems, swags, ruched flowers, berries, bunnies, cats, trees, elephants... (I could go on and on.) If one of us were to APPLIQUE a PATCH onto a quilt, it would be because someone (a Philistine, no doubt) had damaged the quilt by, say, using it for a picnic or the dog's bed.
Thank you for listening.
12
When I think of quilting and mending together, I think of the Indian Kantha technique. Alas it would not fit. My grandmother made exquisite appliquéd quilts, all by hand. I cannot call any of her intricate appliqué cutouts a mere ‘patch’.
2
@Mean Old Lady - I still haven't gotten over your failure to appear in defense of the indefensible okra the other day!
Slime is as slime does.
@David Connell
MOL has had other things on her plate.
1
How nice to see Hilda Doolittle in the puzzle!
4
At the very end I could not find my errant letter, which turned out to be an I at the cross of QUAY and MYNA instead of the Y. Oh well. I don't worry about streaks so it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the puzzle.
Went down the rabbit hole for Boz SCAGGS videos for quite a while. Came back with this of Daryl Hall and Chromeo (they're Canadian!) Live from Daryl's House performing Lowdown.
https://youtu.be/Xjbp_3CUPGE
3
That was my downfall as well! I blame all those years of French for “QUAI”, and I just assumed “MINA” was a bird of which I was unaware - I didn’t make the leap from “MINA” to “MYNA”, probably because my internal dictionary has “MYNAH”.
But I’m still absolutely delighted with the puzzle! I started out with very few answers, but “DEN OF INIQUITY” and “ARSENE” gave me a toehold in the lower section, and the thought that there might be a few “Q”’s in there led to things quickly falling into place. The clueing was such fun, and I loved the many phrases as answers - that often catches me up, but as I’m getting better at deciphering those clues, they’re quickly becoming my favorites. It’s like a little bit of Sunday working its way into the rest of the week! Still riding the high of “QUOTATION MARKS” and “TRAIPSE” - a big thank you to Trenton Charleston for a terrific puzzle!
4
That should be “Trenton Charlson” - dang autocorrect!😊
Fun grid! There was just enough crunch to make it a challenge, but everything was ultimately gettable. I tried so hard to figure out how "Luna Moth" would fit into 51A (IO MOTH) since it also has eye-like markings on it's back. I think the Luna is one of the most beautiful creatures that nature has every given us. If you haven't seen one, here's a link:
https://g.co/kgs/ifxQkY
There was one on the outside of my garage about a year ago, and I think I must have snapped hundreds of shots of it!
9
@Steve Faiella - Amen! I spent a long time with one on a tree trunk and never got to the bottom of the surprising play of colors - golds, creams, maroons, black and red and brown all harmonizing with that glowing green. I've never seen a photograph that really captured it.
6
@Steve Faiella They are absolutely amazing!
3
Had the same luna moth experience, including garage, at our place in ME. Many, many pics.
3
One of my best Saturday puzzles. I Googled up HILDA, had a K in SCAGGS (sorry Boz), forgot that Nicola was a Serb by birth, and had to go through the multiple possible spellings of CZARINAS. Otherwise, a very enjoyable challenge. Remarkably for me, at least, I was able to get all of the lengthy across entries, but did struggle with the spelling of DAIQUIRI.
Nice job Trenton. A fun Saturday morning with coffee and not having to think of the stories in the first section of the paper for a while.
5
I also got snagged by SkAGGS until the very end. I thought I was done, but no. I thought. maybe HILDi not HILDA? No. Maybe I had misremembered TOPSY? Was it TaPSY? No. And how the heck did KPA relate to the clue? Aha moment, and it was over.
A very nice Saturday puzzle fun all the way through. Thank you!
5
Fun puzzle. I also love that the picture heading the column is of a man making a proper daiquiri.
1
Pisco sours on Magazine while parade watching. Not sure what the lighted thigh bones mean but my sister got one tossed to her.
Speedy solve this morning. Gimme was the antenna clue as part of my childhood was spent with crystal radio kits.
MOA was a guess as I know it as museum of art. Otherwise a solid solve.
Thank you Trenton
4
dk,
Pisco sours tonight on First Avenue; no parade expected.
4
@dk I had a crystal radio when I was a kid. Though I never really understood why it worked, it was lovely lying awake at night listening to the faint sound of faraway stations, barely audible through the earpiece tucked into my pillowcase. The antenna wasn't a DIPOLE, though. It was a wire that ran all around the room up by the ceiling.
1
I agree with everthing the 55 people below me said. Really enjoyed all those 10-pt Scrabble letters!
6
@Ann
TIL a lot of people, including me, can't spell DAIQUIRI right off the bat.
17
@vaer
Good thing spelling isn't required at the bar!
5
@Ann
It's that first I.
4
LETTER BOXED
Best I can manage so far is G-S(8)S-E(8).
Yesterday, UNDRAMATIC COBS
@enilorac
D - L (8), L - M (7)
surprised the 2nd word was accepted - it's political jargon.
And just sos ya know, I even had to hit 'reveal puzzle' on the mini today.
Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.
17
Bracing start to the day. Thank you. Had a MOTE of struggle with 52D. Keep it coming.
6
Not a MITEy one? :)
Another one to fall at the bar.
I arrived at Yokohama by ship in 1959, but temporarily forgot that it was on TOKYO BAY until I got the Y from TOPSY.
You have to love a puzzle with 8 words having Q’s, all fun entries. The Zeds were fun as well.
Not surprisingly I didn’t find this as easy as most, but have no complaints.
10
@suejean
I was worried that it was the name of the island Yokohama was on that the puzzle was looking for.
1
@suejean I arrived at Yokohama by ship in 1962, but had to squeeze TOKYO BAY out of my rather fuzzy mental image of a map of Japan.
3
FUN!
4
As an avid football fan (5d) who loves Japan (10d), classic rock (28a) and cocktails (53a) I got off to a flying start. Then I slowed down ... a lot. Great puzzle and a ton of fun over Saturday morning coffees. Thank you!
5
Couldn’t get my toehold until sleeping on it gave me the SW corner... then I found it to fall but by bit. Thanks for the challenge.
1
End of streak for me. Thought I had pretty good toeholds everywhere, but some wrong guesses and a number of things that just weren't dawning on me and I just couldn't work it out.
Often I'll look at a failed puzzle and think "if only..." but not today. I can see a couple of things I should have thought of, but a lot of others that I was never going to tumble to. Some of the clues seemed more than a bit of a stretch to me, but it seems like most everyone else had no problem with them. Oh well.
6
@Rich in Atlanta I ended up googling my fool head off, so epic fail for me too. I cant believe I misspelled Scaggs. Oh the shame!
As another person said, quite a challenge.
Tomorrow's another day.
4
Breezy but ROYALLY pleasing Friday night solve. My only slowdown was remembering how to spell D-A-I-Q-U-I-R-I; perhaps it was the martini.
8
@Barry Ancona
I first had DAIQU-O-RI. It didn't look quite right, but MOTE seemed to fit the clue as well as MITE. No martinis for me to blame!
2
Ditto on the O. Finished in a bit over half my average then spent the other half searching for my mistake. Had never heard of ARSENE so I focused way too long on that word. DAIQUIRI is now emblazoned in my xword vocabulary.
2
It also crossed my mind, but not the requisite words, to make it a BANANA...
2
This turned out to be a pleasurable no-nonsense get-down-to-earth solve, with weekend bite yet no hair tearing, a most worthwhile journey, and thank you for your efforts, Trenton. Knowing your Scrabbly penchant helped, by the way.
Four double letters in the first two rows put me, your resident alphadoppeltotter, on alert, but the puzzle ends up with a medium-high but not unusually high count. Points for the pair of triple-vowels.
On a side note, seeing those four Qs showing up in the longs made me think of Ma Nishtana.
8
@Lewis - I am guessing you've heard this one before...
A prominent Jewish man is slated to be among those knighted in the ceremony at the palace. He learns that candidates are to present themselves with the recitation of a Latin phrase - and struggles to memorize the phrase and be prepared for the ceremony.
When he kneels before the queen, he is flummoxed, can't remember his line, and blurts out the only ritual phrase that comes to mind: "Ma nishtana ha layla..."
Confused, the queen turns to her attendant to ask:
"Why is this knight different from every other knight?"
6
@David Connell for those of us unfamiliar:
"Ma Nishtana, are the first two words in a phrase meaning "Why is tonight different from all other nights?" The phrase appears at the beginning of each line of The Four Questions, traditionally asked via song by the youngest capable child attending Passover Seder."
Unfamiliar = not of the family?
2
@Dave - at a traditional seder, the questions would be asked by children of the family...but there is a lot of flexibility built in, based on who is actually present at that particular seder!
No kids? no problem! But somebody has to ask the questions.
2
Good to be reminded of Super Bowl III with the ever-debonair Joe Namath!
8
My thoughts as well, Judy.
@judy d
Super Bowl III was the first to OFFICIALLY be called the Super Bowl, but people were calling it that from the start.
Coined by Lamar Hunt, the Kansas City Chiefs owner, in 1966, the Super Bowl was named after the Super Ball a bouncy ball which was one of the most popular toys in America in the mid-1960s.
Hunt first used the term at a meeting in the summer of 1966, during which he and other football bigwigs were planning the first championship game.“First AFL-NFL World Championship Game,” “final game,” “championship game,” and other names never caught on.
Finally, Hunt blurted out that it should be called the “Super Bowl.” He later admitted that the inspiration for the term probably came from the Super Ball.
Although “Super Bowl” was used unofficially by fans and the media alike, the term was not officially adopted until the fourth annual championship in 1970. In prior years the championship game was officially called the AFL-NFL Championships or World Football Championships.
Over the years, people challenged the name, and others have questioned the legitimacy of Hunt’s role in coining the term.
In 1969, there was a contest to rebrand the game under a more sophisticated name. “Ultimate Bowl” and “Premier Bowl” were the most well received of the many suggestions, but neither stuck and the championship game has been officially called the Super Bowl ever since.
csmonitor.com/USA/Sports/2015/0129/How-the-Super-Bowl-got-its-name
3
@Steve L
The Super Ball was a favorite in our house. Not my mom's favorite, though. "Not in the house!"
4
Lessons from today’s near-completion.
* The apparently random McXXXX senator might be someone you’ve actually heard of.
* Try all the beginnings of “tsar” (after giving up on pharaohs)
* Your “hot up” may be “hop up”.
12
My last fill was “beapal,” which I had to stare at for a while to get the meaning.
7
@Kevin Davis
Bea Pal? Like Andy or Opie Taylor?
4
Have to say, I was worried about not being able to finish. After two passes, I only managed to get mostly the last three rows. AAA was the first thing I got. Then it was HOSNI and REEFS and BOLLS and then MOA.
For 51A, I was thinking peacock (eye spot on tail feather), but that didn't fit then peahen (yeah, it's the males with the nice plumage and tail feather is not part of a wing). So the thought turned to MOTH. I didn't know a moth with such a short name.
I had MOTE for 52D and thought looked at FROZEN DAIQUoRI and thought - I know that's wrong, I'll come back and fix it.
Getting FROZEN DAIQUIRI (even with the wrong spelling) and DEN OF INIQUITY filled me with sense of accomplishment. The top two long entries when I got them even more so. For 12D...being unfamiliar with both religions, I tried variously TORAH, KORAN and then finally QURAN. That was thanks to the breakthrough of QUAY, then QUOTATION MARKS, leaving me with _URA_.
I too, thought it was SkAGGS. But then I had CPu (instead of CPA, I realized the mistake after seeing HILDu).
Last area to fall was lower center - PAGE BOY and ROYALLY came begrudgingly. But looking back, none of it was unfairly obscure or difficult. Loved the Q's and Z's. Great puzzle.
13
@Wen cpu was my first thought as well.
3
@Wen
There are caterpillars that sport a 'big eye' look for protection
https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcwathieu/4976962893/in/photostream/
as does the Io moth, pretending that big teeth lurk nearby
https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=io%20moth
SPELLING BEE THREAD
02/22/20
Center Letter: A
6 Letters: C I P T V Y
28 WORDS, 137 POINTS, 1 PANGRAM
First Letters:
A x 4, C x 6, P x 10, T x 5, V x 2, Y x 1
Word Lengths:
L4 x 8, L5 x 9, L6 x 5, L7 x 2, L8 x 3, L9 x 1
Grid
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
A 1 1 1 - 1 - 4
C 1 2 1 - 1 1 6
P 4 2 2 2 - - 10
T 2 2 1 - - - 5
V - 1 - - 1 - 2
Y - 1 - - - - 1
Tot 8 9 5 2 3 1 28
50
My clues are in the thread below.
1
Copying @Dave’s 2-Letter List:
AC x 3 AT x 1
CA x 6
PA x 6 PI x 4
TA x 5
VA x 1 VI x 1
YA x 1
Thanks Greg and Dave!
16
@Greg
There is quite a few chewy words today. I enjoyed the V5. I don’t remember seeing it here before. I still have the two P6s. Hints anyone?
SPELLING BEE
28 words, 137 points, 1 pangram
1
Wow, I only left out 3 this time (father & bread)!
Thorny tree we had recently
Healthy berry
Something you do
Room or storage below roof
Desert plant, plural
The maximum that fits
Being imprisoned, pangram
Spiteful, feline
Spanish sparkling wine or large vein
What a dentist fills
Formal agreement
Office of John Paul II
Tropical fruit
Marcy’s friend in Peanuts
Type size
Cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley & butter
Excited heart sound
Silent in music or agreements
Diplomacy
Strategy
Spanish small plate, singular
Shabby
Holiday trip, slang
Lively & animated, noun
Noisy small dog, adj.
33
@Kevin Davis
Pretty standard set of obscurity today - common obscurity? We need a 'freshness' factor like on xwordinfo. Makes me wonder if the beekeeper has a figure of merit like that already.
First 2 frequency:
AC x 3 AT x 1
CA x 6
PA x 6 PI x 4
TA x 5
VA x 1 VI x 1
YA x 1
8
How do non-US people get some of the slang, like a recent slang word for time off? I’m reminded of PHAT a few weeks back.
Still wondering about the source ....
There once was a fellow NAMED Zachary,
His favorite drink was a DAIQUIRI,
When he wanted some MOA,
He was OFF TO Samoa
To meet with his closest pal EMORY.
He briefly was stationed on TOKYO BAY,
But navy commanders he couldn't obey:
"No more Boz SCAGGS,
Pack up your bags
And take a long walk off a short QUAY!"
With QUIZZICAL LOOK on his APPLIQUE face,
They escorted Zachary right off the base,
And having no equity
In DEN OF INIQUITY,
He withered away in a state of disgrace.
58
@Laci baci, I tried to add another well-deserved reco but it wouldn't take.
Nonetheless, I ask you:
FirST IS TV ANd radAR PADlocked together in a puzzle yet to be named?
All I know is that, in my family, EMORY is English for IMRE.
1
I got the bottom pair (53A and 57A) first and clued into the double Qs. So I looked at 12A and thought "Queasy...something". Different meaning of "at sea."
6
Nice puzzle, smooth solve ... this week was weird with solve time for Thu exceeding Friday Saturday combined.
Did others think so?
1
@XWordsolver I had a terrible time with this puzzle because I only knew OLMOS for the anchors. I found it way harder than Thursday-Thursday and Friday were both about average solve times for me. Was happy when I finished it!
3
I am the CPA with No(.) brain referred to in this puzzle (and not limited to just this puzzle). I couldn't even come up with CPA because Boz was SkAGGS to me.
13
Loved it! Great fun.
2
I had SKAGGS for a long time (sorry Boz) and TSARINAS - well yesterday we had TSARS in almost the exact same slot - which slowed me down.
In the end a decent Saturday time for me.
5
@Andrew very same two entries cost me several minutes, too.
2
@Andrew Russian linguist here... Correct transliteration for the Russian word is 'TSAR', not 'CZAR'. The 'CZ' combo for the sound comes via Polish for hoe one makes the 'TS' sound in Polish. The Russian alphabet has 32 symbols and letters, and the letter 'tsaplya' is correctly transliterated into English as 'TS.' BTW, the word 'tsar' comes from the Russian transliteration of 'Caesar'. Similar to all the muddle about how to spell Chaikovskiy - the Germans and Poles really hacked it up due to how those folks produce a 'v' sound. End of rant.
2
Love the shout-out in 42-Down to EMORY & Henry College, named for the same Methodist bishop, John Emory, for which Emory University was named, and the college where my dad taught for over 50 years.
10
TIL that PARLEY and PARLaY are not the same word! Almost made me late to the re-par-tay.
I'm not bothered one bit by the relative ease of TRAIPSing through today's grid. The most important aspect of a puzzle is its overall entertainment value. All those Qs and Zs in the long horizontal entries; the triplets III and AAA; so many fresh entries throughout. Nothing but good old straight ahead Xword fun.
And a notable cross with LES PAUL, who did indeed HOP UP the guitar. He imagined a sound that he thought possible and made it a reality, forever changing the course of pop music. What would the sixties have been like without him?
16
@Mike R
I too the second A out right after entering it--which did save me some trouble. I don't think I had noticed the difference before.
LES PAUL was a delightful gimme (off the P in PARLEYS)
....Easy puzzle, but tons of Fun!
Other than that clue for 35D (see above.)
@Mike R Thank you for parley. I was sure Yokohama was on some sea, so even when I got Tokyo the rest of the side was a disaster! But with your help I fought my out!
2
Back in 70 or 71 a state senator called the school I attended 'a den of iniquity". I don't recall the particular reason; the student government disseminated some sort of booklet with basic sex ed info in it. Maybe that was the reason; I don't remember.
The ironic thing is that while certainly not intercourse-free, I'm pretty sure the place was relatively restrained sexually. The state senator had no problem, I believe, winning every election he entered.
3
@Barry Sounds like a regular HOUSE OF ILL REPUTE at your college.
1
Or a SINK OF VICE
1
@Barry I think the public university I attended in N.C. was also referred to as that, perhaps by then US senator Jesse Helms. Even so, I could not remember how to spell iniquity. Had it right to begin with and changed the first letter to an e. My only miss on today’s puzzle. Loved “traipse” when I only had __ipse a fairly rare string (eclipse came to mind, but that did not fit the clue).
2
I thank Caitlin for the nod to "visible mending," which brought me back to a visit to the home of an artist who has spent time with the Japanese art of Kintsugi - the mending of broken porcelain and pottery with visible seams of metals, especially gold:
http://www.wisdomstable.net/new-wp/kintsugi/
Here's a piece on kintsugi from the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
https://mymodernmet.com/kintsugi-kintsukuroi/
I wonder if puzzle constructors feel this way? After making and breaking a puzzle over and over, I wonder if they can still see the cracks and golden glue that hold the final piece together?
13
@David Connell
I actually have that book! and use the techniques because the DHUbby seems to get into scrapes and come out with rips, holes, and such in otherwise newish and wearable shirts, etc. When I am doing such duties, I call myself a MENDER; it's not quilting!
1
@David Connell
I only learned about kintsugi within the last year but it really speaks to me. The poem in your first link did also and I've added it to my folder of poetry along with photos of several of the beautiful Kintsugi pieces. Thank you.
2
@Mean Old Lady - I'm glad you chimed in on the "applique for quilters" business. What fools these mortals be!
2
It was so satisfying to put in all of those QUs and ZZZs in so many places. Very impressive construction! I was almost done in by BEAPAL ... I had parts of it and they failed to turn into anything like a word. Duh!
12
DEN OF INIQUITY was in Moby Dick. We had to study it in high school. 😊
8
A dad joke:
(A doctor goes into his favorite bar.)
Bartender: The usual, Doc?
Doctor: No, I'd like to try something new and different.
Bartender: How about a new drink I'm tyring out? It's a DAIQUIRI with a shot of hickory extract blended in.
Doctor (after tasting the drink): That's really good! What do you call it?
Bartender: I guess you could call it a hickory DAIQUIRI, Doc.
Tried SETH at 41A, before guessing Tesla was a SERB, which completed the puzzle. Total guess. QUIZZICAL LOOKs were in order throughout, but it fell without too much hassle. Good Saturday!
29
A perfect Saturday, just the right amount of struggle, but I have to admit there were some educated guesses in the SW (ROTI, MOA, EMORY, MITE, some kind of moth). I was happy when it fell into place there.
5
I also found this puzzle to be a fairly quick solve, for a Saturday.
Want to know which answers really had me stumped until the very end? HOW / WEDS. I just couldn't figure them out. I had HO_ / _EDS, and I just went through the alphabet until W jumped out at me.
5
Me too
2
Beyond the thrill of finishing this masterpiece in one piece (that SE corner, whew!), I loved seeing the poet HILDA Doolittle, better known as H.D. I was enamored with her in college and even wrote a poem featuring her: I know I’m no good/But I’m good as I can be/After giving up dope, anger and envy/Living mostly on poems written by H.D.:
Oread
(By H.D.)
Whirl up, sea—
whirl your pointed pines,
splash your great pines
on our rocks,
hurl your green over us,
cover us with your pools of fir.
23
Wow! Lots of run, but it was definitely in my wheelhouse and went by way too fast. Not a record Saturday time, but pretty close (and I don't go for speed after about Tuesday). I loved seeing the Qs in the long stacked phrases. And Box SCAGGS is one of my favorites, so it's always good to see (and hear) him.
9
Similar experience from the good time to the smile when I remembered that Boz has a c in his last name and Ricky has the k. Loved the Les Paul reference. I would never call a Saturday puzzle an easy solve, but I enjoyed this one as I didn’t have to wear my hair shirt for nearly as long as usual.
3
@James Brisbois
I was going to mention the S(C/K)AGGS dichotomy, but I just remember Ricky first, and remember that Boz goes the other way.
I'm always sure of Ricky, because I'm just a country boy at heart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_QheuTi8Q8
(For the uninitiated, the above is one of the best country videos of all time. The guy playing the uncle is Bill Monroe, the inventor of bluegrass, and at 1:44, there's a cameo by none other than Ed Koch.)
6
@Steve L, thanks! You could be right! Great lift on a Saturday.
2
My first thought for 21D was: Hedy Lamarr was in a rock band?
31
Hedley
13
Heh. And I was wondering what astrophysics-related invention we had Brian May to thank for!
14
Okay, I confess that I entered NESMITH, which fit and had two valid letters in it. As I entered it, I thought, but they were two different people: the son was the musician and the mother invented liquid paper.
5
In my wheelhouse. Looked imposing, fell quickly.
1