Theme: Lunchtime! — Theme answers are familiar phrases the first word of which can be paired with lunch to create another familiar phrase.Theme answers:
- 17A: Wasp-waisted shape (HOURGLASS FIGURE). "Wasp-waisted" is totally new to me. Never heard of it.
- 29A: What a big spender has plenty of (MONEY TO BURN).
- 46A: Boardinghouse sign (ROOM FOR RENT).
- 62A: Godiva gift (BOX OF CHOCOLATES).
- 67A: Meal that can precede the start of 17-, 29-, 46- or 62-Across (LUNCH).
Sorry but this is going to have to be a super quick write-up today. I went to bed early last night thinking it was Tuesday and it was Orange's turn to blog today. D'oh! So I just got my kids out the door and am getting ready to take the van into the shop as soon as I get the house completely clean because it's on the market and someone's coming to look at it in about an hour. Not that you care about all that stuff, but there it is.
Lots of foreign words in the puzzle today, mostly French:- 42A: Dix plus un (ONZE). Dix = ten, un = one, ONZE = eleven.
- 51A: Thé, basically (EAU). THÉ = tea, eau = water.
- 68A: Head of France? (TÊTE). TÊte = head.
- 38A: Raps with barbs (ZINGS). I don't know what this means.
- 41A: Harry Potter's Potions teacher (SNAPE). I thought, "Oh great. How am I supposed to remember all the teachers' names in Harry Potter?" And then realized it was SNAPE, probably the only one I could name off the top of my head.
- 53A: Snapple product (ICE TEA). "Ice tea" or "iceD tea"? Discuss.
- 59D: 8, for oxygen: Abbr. (AT. NO.). Close second for your CW101 lesson today. Atomic Number.
- 61D: Queens tennis stadium (ASHE). When I think of a stadium in Queens, I think of Shea. Which is weird because I've never been to Shea and I have been to ASHE, although I don't believe it was named ASHE yet. Oh, and they're anagrams. In case you didn't notice.
Everything Else — 1A: Italian ball game (BOCCE); 6A: Neatnik's bane (SLOB); 10A: Sgt. Friday's force (LAPD); 14A: "What __!": "B-o-o-o-ring!" (A DRAG); 15A: Forbidden perfume brand? (TABU); 20A: Palm phone (TREO); 21A: Tolkien's Treebeard, for one (ENT); 22A: Accept reality (FACE IT); 23A: Emeril catchword (BAM); 25A: Prefix with hertz (MEGA-); 26A: Cleaning item (RAG); 35A: Ovid's "I love" (AMO); 36A: How the euphoric walk? (ON AIR); 37A: "Look here, old chap!" ("I SAY!"); 40A: EPA-banned pesticide (DDT); 43A: Moray hunter (EELER); 45A: "Vamoose!" (GIT); 49A: Wynn and Sullivan (EDS); 50A: Knight titles (SIRS); 56A: Hollywood VIP (DIR.); 58A: "If I Only __ Brain" (HAD A); 65A: The Auld Sod (ERIN); 66A: Wait in hiding (LURK); 69A: Online auction site (EBAY); 70A: Chap (BLOKE); 1D: Bangkok currency (BAHT); 2D: Glade target (ODOR); 3D: Rock's Mötley __ (CRÜE); 4D: Poor substitute for 62-Across (CAROB); 5D: Quiche base (EGG); 6D: Baseball's Musial (STAN); 7D: At the end of the line (LAST); 8D: Delivery docs (OBS); 9D: Self-serve meal (BUFFET); 10D: Lincoln's birthplace (LOG CABIN); 11D: Flulike symptom (AGUE); 12D: Gilpin of "Frasier" (PERI); 13D: Insect repellent compound (DEET); 18D: 53-Across flavor (LEMON); 19D: "Othello" conniver (IAGO); 24D: "Famous" cookie man (AMOS); 25D: South Carolina's __ Beach (MYRTLE); 26D: Stubble remover (RAZOR); 27D: Kind of protein-building acid (AMINO); 28D: Bonkers (GONZO); 30D: __ Raiders: consumer advocates (NADERS); 31D: Down-yielding duck (EIDER); 32D: Utilities bill datum (USAGE); 33D: Speedy (RAPID); 34D: Dmitri's dissents (NYETS); 39D: Emerald or ruby (GEMSTONE); 41D: Span. miss (SRTA.); 44D: Año Nuevo month (ENERO); 47D: Lord's holding (FIEF); 48D: Prophet at Delphi (ORACLE); 52D: Ryder rival (U-HAUL); 53D: "Fat chance" ("I BET"); 54D: Pear discard (CORE); 55D: Sign over a door (EXIT); 56D: Cartoon explorer (DORA); 57D: Eliciting an "Ugh!" (ICKY); 60D: Pack of cards (DECK); 63D: Atlanta, for Delta Airlines (HUB); 64D: Barrister's deg. (LLB).
23 comments:
Nice Tuesday.
Here's a bit from Byron's poem "Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos"
'Twere hard to say who fared the best:
Sad mortals! Thus the gods still plague you!
He lost his labor, I my jest;
For he was drown'd and I've the ague.
For years, until encountering this poem, I assumed that AGUE was a one-syllable word pronounced roughly "og". Who would ever have thought that it rhymed with "plague you"? I love words!
ATNO: I've learned something from crossworld, and now that's a gimmee rather than a WTF. I'm sure that's thanks to you guys.
This seemed very solidly Tuesday for me.
Enjoy the cleaning. Maybe you should play that Potter video over and over so you get a rythym going.
Is there some way to know whether the answer is EIRE or ERIN when referring to Ireland other than the crosses?
Also, I think the term is iced tea, as it is tea which has been iced. That's my opinion.
carol: sometimes, but not always. if the clue says "poetically" or something like that, it tends to be ERIN. also, "___ go bragh!" = ERIN. but generic clues like "the auld sod" and "limerick's land" could be either EIRE or ERIN.
i find ICE TEA and ICED TEA both acceptable, but i generally prefer ICE TEA (and similarly, ice coffee and ice water).
I typically give constructors plenty of leeway -- it's just not easy to make all those letters fall properly into all those little boxes. But I detest ICE TEA with a passion -- ICED is the proper adjective to describe the tea.
I was also thinking in Spanish this morning and put ONCE in for 42A. I did this one online and the puzzle didn't close out for me upon entering what I thought was my last letter. I had to give it the once-over twice before I realized that GONCO in 28D made no sense.
@Joon -- I never noticed my hypocrisy until just now, because I never ask for iced water. Hmm...
General solving question: If a constructor references another answer, say if DMITRI was in the puzzle, and NYET ws clued as "Negative response from 99-A", does anyone else find this annoying? I bet speed solvers do.
It's like the constructor said "Oh, look at that. IVAN up top, NYET on the bottom, perhaps I'll connect the dots like I planned it that way all along"
I found this easier then Monday's puzzle. Only one erase where I guessed MESS for SLOB.
I feel ICE(D) are both acceptable. I enjoy the cross-referencing of clues as a method of making the puzzles more difficult. It may be my favorite artifice used.
Wow, someone who admits to picking up on his own hypocrisy ... thoughtfulness and civility are alive and well on the internets. Cool.
Boring theme with solid fill, IMO. BOXED instead of BOX OF slowed me a bit, as did the process of turning CRAZY into GONZO. Why did I have to get the "Z" first!? Else, easy.
rp
An opinion: I dislike it when a clue points you to another clue, especially early in the puzzle (NW corner). I like to get going, and that stops me. Usually, there is no way to "get" either answer, or the clue just says "see other clue."
What does Snapple say on their bottles?
It seems fair if there's a decent context and order, say CZAR in the Northwest and NICHOLAS in the SE.
If alternatively it is FACE and SCAR, and that clues as "Capone movie", I find it gratuitous.
But, I solve from the bottom up anyway, so what do I care?
Over and out.
thanks @puzzlegirl for the OGEE and Atomic Number lessons. And I too have no idea where "wasp-waisted" comes from--perhaps a fauna expert can enlighten us
Liked TETE for head of France, a little mis-direction; same w ODOR for Glade target (thinking open woodlands
All else, though, struck me as rather hum-drum
Wonder if EBAY, SNAPPLE, UHAUL pay for product placements!
Wasps actually have a very narrow waist between the two sections of their bodies. Back in the days of corsets, women struggled to have waists as small as possible - think about Scarlett O'Hara! And of course an hour glass has a very small middle between the two rounded sections - considered the ideal womanly shape.
Snapple bottles only say things like "Green Tea" or "Peach Tea" or "Pineapple Peach Mango Oolong Tea." No "ice" to be found. I don't have a problem with "ice" or "iced." The ever-reliable Google count is 3.16 million for "ice tea" and 3.55 million for "iced tea." Let's call it a tie.
Perfectly fine Tuesday. I liked it.
For some reason I want to write a song. "The Gonzo Bocce Ogee Ebay Tabu Blues." I'll let you know when I'm done. (Maybe Motley Crue will record it.)
full disclosure: i'm not sure "ice water" is exactly analogous to "ice(d) tea." ice water is water with ice in it, whereas ice(d) tea does not actually have to contain ice. i drink two glasses of ice(d) tea a day with nary an ice cube to be found. it's just a chilled tea-based (well, loosely... mostly it's sugar-based) beverage.
still, i do want to encourage people to be less dogmatic about usage, so i applaud charlie for reconsidering.
All I have to say is, Thank Heaven Nobody mentioned Forest Gump!
Fun puzzle, Funnier Write Up.
Go PUZZLEGIRL!!
I love the Potter Puppet Pals, thanks for the link :)
@PuzzleGirl: all I want to know is, where are you moving to?
Ditto for me, Snape is the only one I know, oh wait, there's a Dumbledore somewhere, or is he a baddie?
Could OGEE be a "crossword shape?"
Gareth
Snape is a lot easier to remember if you did the Tuesday CrosSynergy puzzle right before this one. 8 down was "Harry Potter's potions professor".
Additionally, 32 across in Tuesday's Timothy Parker Universal puzzle was "'I love,' to Ovid". AMO appears in the exact same 3 squares there as 35 Across (Ovid's 'I love'") in this puzzle.
Fun coincidences for Tuesday.
-M
@Myron - please reference Spoiler Alert or something akin to that before you reveal answers from other puzzles of the same day. As it happens, CrosSynergy puzzle is underneath LAT puzzle on the Cruciverb site, I do them in that order, and no, I hadn't done CrosSynergy puzzle before I came here.
Thanks.
Sorry about that. I hadn't considered the posibility of spoilers, especially since I was discussing clues that were nearly identical to the clues in the puzzle we are discussing here. But I suppose knowing a word that's coming up in a recent puzzle you haven't done takes a bit of the challenge out of it.
Again, my apologies.
-M
I say, it's tea time.
My mother was from Texas and my father came from Illinois. Whenever I visited my mom's family it was iced tea. When visiting my dad's relations, it was called ice tea. Maybe it's a regional thing. At least it was in my case. I still prefer to call it iced tea probably because my mom raised me.
In fact, I still say y'all when I speak to more than one person and I live in California! You can imagine the looks I get from that.
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