Theme: "Why Wait?" — Theme answers are common phrases that might be preceded by the word wait (49D: Bide one's time, and a word that may precede the answers to starred clues (WAIT)).Theme answers:
- 17A: *"We aren't finished here" ("IT ISN'T OVER").
- 53A: *"Give me another sec!" ("I'M NOT READY!").
- 11D: *"It's on the tip of my tongue" ("DON'T TELL ME").
- 28D: *"I haven't told you everything yet!" ("THERE'S MORE!").
I'm still in Costa Rica and it's been a long day of hanging at the beach, reading in the hammock, eating excellent food, and swimming in the pool. As you can tell, the schedule we keep down here is super exhausting. Yesterday was actually really cool because we surprised PuzzleSon by inviting the family of one of his best friends from Virginia down here to join us. They recently moved to Mexico City, so PuzzleSon hasn't seen him since March. In fact, I've only met the kid's dad a couple of times briefly and only know his mom through Facebook. Which is pretty weird. When we met each other we were like, "Wait, what? We haven't met? But I know you!" Gotta love Facebook.What? The puzzle? Oh, okay, we'll talk about the puzzle. I liked this one. Kinda blew right through it without really catching onto the theme until I was just about done. Nothing super sparkly, but nothing really bad either. Pretty much exactly what you want on a Tuesday.
Misc:
- 26A: Acela Express operator (AMTRAK). This is the express train that runs from Washington, D.C. to Boston. You may have heard of it.
- 29A: Mottled T-shirt (TIE-DYE). I just now realized I don't know what mottled means. Let's see ... "having colored spots or blotches." Well okay then.
- 30A: Broadway's George M. (COHAN). The Father of American Comedy.
- 49A: The LPGA's Michelle (WIE). She gave up her amateur status one week before her 16th B-DAY (10A: Kids' party occasion, briefly) and anything you read about her life as a golfer will include the word youngest many, many times.
- 58A: Author Zola (ÉMILE). Something written in Émile Zola's style might be referred to as Zolaesque. (If you don't understand that reference, you'll need to watch "Wordplay" again.)
- 10D: Sounding like marching bands (BRASSY). Hmmmm. I guess I think of brassy as more of a personality trait and not a ... sound. Not arguing with its legitimacy here, just making an observation.
- 29D: Silky-voiced Mel (TORMÉ). The Velvet Fog.
- 33D: Woodstock singer Joan (BAEZ). I threw several acrosses in here and when I saw the down answer was –AEZ, I thought, "I hope this is Joan Baez."
Pura Vida, PuzzleGirl
[Follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter.]
Everything Else — 1A: Potato holders (SACKS); 6A: Wide-eyed (AGOG); (B-DAY); 14A: Andean beast (LLAMA); 15A: Actress Gershon (GINA); 16A: Tug-of-war gear (ROPE); 19A: Tolstoy's Karenina (ANNA); 20A: Sun. follower (MON.); 21A: Solstice month (JUNE); 22A: Encourage (FOSTER); 24A: In use, as a phone line (BUSY); 25A: Cinco de Mayo celebrations (FIESTAS); 31A: Barbie and Ken (DOLLS); 32A: Wall St. takeover (LBO); 35A: __ & Chandon champagne (MOET); 36A: Fully exposed (BARED); 37A: National symbol (FLAG); 38A: Goof (ERR); 39A: Wavy dos (PERMS); 40A: Bugs's pursuer (ELMER); 41A: Noble's home (ESTATE); 43A: Hay fever symptom (SNEEZE); 44A: Deteriorate, slangily (GO SOUTH); 46A: Chopped liver spread (PATÉ); 47A: Group together (LUMP IN); 48A: Dover fish dish (SOLE); 52A: At the apex of (ATOP); 56A: Filly's father (SIRE); 57A: Menthol cigarette (KOOL); 59A: Garden planting (SEED); 60A: Cries out loud (SOBS); 61A: Indulged, with "on" (DOTED); 1D: __ to none: poor odds (SLIM); 2D: Choir voice (ALTO); 3D: Eve's oldest (CAIN); 4D: Canada hwy. distances (KMS.); 5D: Puerto Rico's capital (SAN JUAN); 6D: Extreme pain (AGONY); 7D: Telethon catchword (GIVE); 8D: Washington's bill (ONE); 9D: President after Hayes (GARFIELD); 12D: Nighttime breathing disorder (APNEA); 13D: Many months (YEARS); 18D: Walrus's weapon (TUSK); 23D: Multivolume Brit. references (OEDS); 24D: Spoiled kid (BRAT); 25D: "The X-__" (FILES); 26D: Very top (ACME); 27D: Drop anchor (MOOR); 31D: Vader in "Star Wars" (DARTH); 34D: Fairy tale meany (OGRE); 36D: Bongo-playing '50s-'60s stereotypes (BEATNIKS); 37D: Get out of Dodge (FLEE); 39D: Spitter's sound (PTUI); 40D: Stepped inside (ENTERED); 42D: __ up (absorbed, as gravy) (SOPPED); 43D: Pretzel topper (SALT); 44D: Cinderella's slipper material (GLASS); 45D: Protruding navel (OUTIE); 46D: They often have deep ends (POOLS); 48D: Nose-in-the-air sort (SNOB); 50D: Just sitting around (IDLE); 51D: Watched warily (EYED); 54D: Bovine bellow (MOO).
36 comments:
Thanks for the disturbing pic of grampa in tiedye pajamas. That didn't unsettle my stomach at all.
I spell Michelle WIE's name like the gaming system, WII. Why did they both have to come into my consciousness at roughly the same time???
rp
I am a new puzzler and I loved this--it was fun to solve. I flew through it faster than a Monday puzzle but was proud to have figured out the theme--that's two days in a row for me!
Love this blog--so helpful and love the comments too.
Great puzzle, and I did it in record time--for me!
Thanks for the write-up PG. Seemed like an easy day with no real hangups anywhere. Enjoy your day. From your post time it seems as if there is plenty of it left.
Loved seeing 30a George M COHAN clued! A big star in vaudville, he was a great dancer, actor, and all-around performer. He wrote plays and was a major producer in New York. "Give My Regatds to Broadway" and the WWI classic "Over There" were only a few of his compositions. He earned serious actor respect by appearing in Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!". James Cagney won an Oscar for portraying him in a movie. Fun, easy puzzle
Loved the pic of the ageing hippie in tie dyed long johns. What a hoot.
Easy puzzle and fast for me!
Your vacation sounds wonderful. Have a great time and thanks for keeping up the blog.
This one was easier than yesterday's for me, and is the second time, since i started playing 2 or 3 months ago, that my favorite comedian, Emo Philips, has been clued. That made me smile.
His name pops up more in the crossword puzzles than it does anywhere else these days.
*Paraphrased* "I love to go down to the playground, and see all the little children running and screaming..they don't know I'm only using blanks!"
Smooth puzzle and a nice start to the day. Saw the Cohan bio-pic YANKEE DOODLE DANDY on the big screen at the beautifully restored Stanford Theater in Palo Alto earlier this summer. We don't usually think of James Cagney as a hoofer, but man can he dance! Cohan's real life wasn't quite as apple-pie as the movie but his legacy of song is an American treasure.
Great to see 29a TIEDYE clued! Just last week participated in a neighborhood tie-dye party with eight kids 5 through 16, 8 buckets of Rit dye, rubber bands, and about 50 white t-shirts (some old, some new}. The results were amazing and we all had fun. Maybe not as much as you Puzzle Girl. I LOVE the ocean!
I too am new to this site and boy does it help when you get stuck
We got our TIE-DYE on our BEATNIKS reading their ANNA Karenina as ELMER chases Bugs on the screen.
I got GINA and it was a good day.
I'm not sure if I'm proud (under 4 minutes - good time for me) or insulted. This puzzle way waaaay too easy. Were there ANY difficult clues?? I *did* like GO SOUTH and LUMP IN. But who doesn't know that Barbie and Ken are DOLLS? Who doesn't know that there's a FIESTA on Cinco de Mayo? I could go on... Maybe it's the norm for Tuesday, but seemed really boring today.
Thanks PG! Wish I were in Costa Rica! I'm impressed that you're keeping up with the puzzle and blog - I'd be laying on the beach all day with a good book and some sort of rum drink.
I recently learned (the hard way) how to pronounce MOET. It is not mo-way or mow-ee but moe-et. In conversation it runs together and sounds to me like mwet. Perhaps all you sophisticated readers know this already....
MOET is a Dutch name, not French.
@mac: please feel free to correct or add to this.
Sorry, I can't figure out how to get an umlaut over the E.
Tried one more thing!!
ë
Ë
Yippee...it was in the Accented Latin character palette.
Agree w @gjelizabeth, @danielle, @*david* and most of all w Costa Rican visitor PG--this was quite nice and exactly what one wants on Tuesday
But don't know anything about Emo Phillips--sounds like I should
Fortunately caught onto the theme and kept hearing music from NPR's terrific program "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" in my mind
Liked FOSTER, COHAN (and for the Cagney memories expressed by another poster), GOSOUTH, BRASSY
Enjoyable enough that even some of the too-usual fill didn't bother me
Guess it's not unintentional that puzzle having Looney Tune's Bugs and ELMER would also have ACME?
Fortunately my nine year old just finished big school project on President James A. GARFIELD (an alum of Williams College, my alma mater; just a few years earlier)
Garfield was incredibly bright; who knows what he might have done if he hadn't been killed so early and succeeded by the feckless Chester A. Arthur
Garfield wrote ambidextrously; spoke Greek and Latin often at the same time; read at least one book a day, was a Civil War hero
Good puzzle!
Also loved reference to Garfield. Just 1/2 mile from my house is an old one room school house (in NY State} where he taught school. It later for many years was the Garfield Library and soon will be home to a historical society. Great continued preservation of this historic building.
Almost headed to Seven President's Beach today (formerly "America's Summer Capital") where Garfield went to recuperate after being shot--he didn't recuperate and I didn't get to go, as my beach buds canceled! Puzzle was breezy as a summer day, altho'couldn't match @Ohio's 4 minutes! Loved EWF's "Wait" with Tower of Power "brassy" behind them! Couldn't remember "leveraged" for the buy out-shame, as Irma La Dad was a broker! Jerry Lewis' "Give-a-thon" about a month away. With all the rain (ptui!) in the NE, guess I'll have to "wait" for n' other good beach day! Tie dye and Joan Baez-40 years since Woodstock!May have to go listen to Santana, Hendrix, CSN&Y, Country Joe, Janis....And it rained then, too! Anyone see Arlo Guthrie in the NYT mag this past weekend? Happy Anniversary! As for the puzzles, "keep on keepin' on!"
garfield spoke latin and greek at the same time? wow. was he the first politician to talk out of both sides of his mouth simultaneously? *rim shot*
i have this dim recollection of when i learned geometry for the first time... one of the elementary proofs of pythagoras's theorem is attributed to garfield. is that right?
@Joon: I thought something very similar when I read that.
Ptui again! That's three times in 10 days, and in my lifetime.
I couldn't get "Over There" out of my head after seeing that movie, in a good way! The other Musical that did that was "Camelot", several of the songs.
@shrub5: I don't know about a Dutch Moet, will try to look it up. About the Umlaut, good for you, I don't know yet where it lives in my laptop....
I'm loving this week so far. Two easy/breazy puzzles that didn't require me calling on Prof. Google.
Boy! This site is really helping me develop my puzzle soving skills. Thanks Rex, Orange and PG (enjoy a marguerita today!)
GARFIELD came easily because my very long manta for going to sleep is naming the Presidents i.e. "Washinton, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, etc." I often don't get as far as Garfield. Too bad this wouldn't have worked for Michael Jackson.
@Anon 11:58: Wow, I don't know the list of presidents well enough to list them at bedtime. Me, I count backwards by threes from 100. Usually works pretty well.
To @ddbmc-I did see the piece on Arlo Guthrie; noted he was registered Republican in effort to add moderation to the party, as he put it
@anonymous9:53am-where in NY state is that Garfield school house? Thanks
Good puzzle.
I went PTUI after the LUMPIN the gravy was SOPPED.
If you spit in a needle-case, would ...aw never mind.
@CB 1:14 On Route 2 (Eagle Mills)in the Brunswick section of Troy, NY. The library has purchased a larger building up the road and will be moving in the fall. The Brunswick Historical Society has has also been using the building and my understanding is that they will take it over.
@Orange -- and on really tough nights I can name (first names only) all the wives (first-ladies or not) married to the Presidents. Also, state capitols in alphabetical order -- Albany, Annapolis, Atlanta, Agusta, Austin, etc.) I know, I know, thats NUTS! But it works and it's better than drugs!
Sorry, thats Augusta.
@Charles, I actually lived in Garfield House at Williams.
The Newport Folk Music Festival this weekend is celebrating it's 50th year, and is including Joan Baez and Arlo Guthrie. But I'm more interested in the Decemberists performance.
@Anonymous 1:32- I'm impressed, but I think I'll just stick with drugs! Yeah,I'm just a STONER HIPPIE SLACKER leftover from the 60's!!!!
@Gary Lowe- made me LOL ! PTUI in an ETUI ?
This blog is great. Always enjoy coming here for the comments and fellowship.
I like the shout out at 26d to our friend Andrea-
aka ACME.
Great writeup,Puzzle Girl. Glad the weather is good where you are. It's 115 here, so I'd love to be at the beach.
Yes I do have a pool in the backyard, but even it's in the 90's.More like bathwater.
Oh, the puzzle ?
Yes, I liked it. Easy-breezy.
@Gary Lowe - Fuunny, I too LOL
My father in law could have been Mel Torme's twin brother. Couldn't sing worth a damn though. Strangly, they both died in the same year, 1999. I know that the FIL was pissed bucause he was really into numbers and didn't make it to his 9/9/99 birthday. Man, he was an ornary old coot. My FIL that is, I'm sure that Mel was a sweatheart.
Easy puzzle, only write over was BARED over naked.
@GaryLowe- aahhhhh. Just now got it.
an ETUIPTUI !!!!!!!!
Must be because I'm not on anything right now ;)
@chefwen - that was my only writeover, also.
What a coincedence !
OK, three and out !
Bared over naked?
What's this blog coming to....
An easy, breezy puzzle, the kind we all need every so often to boost our morale. My only snag was 40D (misread it as "stepped aside" rather than "stepped inside").
My only write over was Garfield over Garrison. There was a president named Garrison???
PG, great write up as usual. Hope you're enjoying your vacation, and to answer your question from last week - yes a "stay at home mom can still call a family vaction a vacation"! I travel around the world for work on my own but, when I bring my family it turns into a "working vacation". You're still on a vacation because someone is cleaning up after the kids, doing the dishes, cooking the meals and your with the people that you love and want to be with!
I'm with the others though on the new uprising of "ptui" - three times in ten days?! I hadn't seen it before in a puzzle in my previous decades of solving (don't want to give away my age you know).
Thanks again to you Orange and Rex for the work you do on this blog, it is appreciated and in my case looked forward to after the solve!
Post a Comment