THEME: "Help! I'm Trapped in This Chalet!"—Four long two-word answers have the word ICED embedded withIN them, spanning the two words
PuzzleGirl has been called away on short notice this morning (Is it because she was an alternate for the Women's Masters Wrestling Tournament all-star team and her Wrestling Boyfriend™ was going to be there to cheer her on? I'll never tell) and needed a substitute. I only have 20 minutes to get ready to leave the house and blog, so you're getting a copy-and-paste of my Diary of a Crossword Fiend post.
You know how constructors fall back on ICE IN no matter what season it is, just because the letters come in handy? Mike has promoted ICED IN to a starring role: There is an ICED that’s IN each of the four longest entries. Like so:
- 16a. [What b.i.d. means, in prescriptions] is TWICE A DAY, but that doesn’t fit. TWICE DAILY does, however. You may think this is a horribly dry clue and answer, but your friendly neighborhood medical editor appreciates it.
- 26a. [Some rear entrances] are SERVICE DOORS. Arbitrary plural for the purpose of achieving symmetry.
- 44a. [The first official one was November 11, 1919] refers to ARMISTICE DAY. My grandpa may or may not have been in the Navy then; he didn’t serve in WWI, but I think he was sailing to China and the Philippines prior to 1919. But not much prior, as he was only born in 1901 (lied about his age to get in the service early). Anyway, he had awesome tattoos from Shanghai and once tried opium.
- 59a. [Many are German shepherds] clues POLICE DOGS. Another plural.
- 48a. ICED IN is clued [Stranded at the ski lodge, perhaps, and a hint to this puzzle's hidden theme].
- 45d. ICARUS is your [Wax-winged flier of myth]. I like to think his last words were “Da-a-ad! Why didn’t you tell me this would happen?”
- 8d. [San Francisco and environs] clues the BAY AREA. To really make the locals happy, call the area “Frisco” or “San Fran.” They love that.
Gotta run!
Thank you for filling in Orange - we all appreciate it!! Liked the puzzle today quick and easy with only a couple of bumps. The theme was OK - but really liked seeing ABBA (one of my favs), BAYAREA (Beautiful part of the US), BOWIE (Brushing up on my history - Remember the Alamo) and CANDY (Yum). INGLE was new as was OPEL
ReplyDeleteWell I have mixed feelings about this puzzle. When I started out (going top down), I thought this was just a ho-hum puzzle… lots of hackneyed words and a weak theme.
ReplyDeleteBut then as I got to the bottom, I had some challenges and saw some cool words, like: K.T. OSLIN, ICARUS, INGLE, Eye CANDY, Charlie CHAN, and RITA from the Beatles song. It’s funny how (often) you change your opinion as you proceed.
ABBA is one of my fave groups, but seeing it right off as the first word sort of turns you off.
But in the end, I have to say that Mike Peluso did a fine job.
The best part was being reminded of Jack Benny and his VIOLIN playing… not that great but oh so nostalgic.
Had that artichoke last night with the AIOLI… yums!
See y’all… John
@Orange - He did tell him, but you know kids.
ReplyDeleteDidn't notice the theme. Puzzle easy enough to solve without it.
Never heard of EOLA, OSLIN or RL/TL. Someone explain the last one?
Wanted k.d.laing, of course.
Almost put in cOLliEDOG until I looked at the clue.
Wanted Yeti for "Fur giant." Should it be "Furrier"? but not Furrier."
Was wondering how to fit a horn in for Benny Goodman.
IOTAS add up.
DEWY, DEWier, DEWiest, this A.M.
Japanese automaker Honda's premium brand is Acura with RL and TL models.
ReplyDeleteOrange, thanks for the fill-in.
ReplyDeleteHad the 1st and 3rd theme's TWICE DAILY, ARMISTICE DAY and thought the theme was a play on DAY/DAILY until I found the theme reveal ICED IN.
Good job Mike.
IOLA, Kansas, est. population 5,966 in 2006. Yup, that's common knowledge. Plus it's crossing INGLE an archaic fireplace reference. Oy veh.
The cars, ACURA & OPEL saved the day since Michigan and the SE were my trouble spots.
EAU de vie, the "water of life" was Avatar's fave today.
sfingi, for future reference:
ReplyDeletek.d. lang
K.T. Oslin
see what i did there? i capitalized the right letters, as a special favor to you. anyway, there are, i guess, three important ways you can tell which one is the answer to a crossword clue: 1) answer length; 2) d is not t; 3) capitalization, although that one is dicey because not everybody respects k.d. lang's wish to be lowercase.
And for mc chris it's not only lowercase, but no dots either. Not that I expect nerdcore hiphop artists to show up in the LAT Xword anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteToday's was a breeze until I hit the lower right. INGLE, RNA and IOLA just wouldn't come to me.
ABBA x BOWIE: yay 70s!
ReplyDelete@Joon: Then there's R. D. Laing...
The IOLA x INGLE natick IRKS me. So does 51D: I'd have thought a cold sufferer's voice was the exact opposite of NASAL (which means "pronounced with the voice issuing through the nose").
Liked seeing ICARUS in the puzzle. CACHE too -- anyone else here into geocaching?
A couple of years ago I was chatting at Woofstock with a couple of members of our police force's canine unit. They explained that the reason German shepherds are common as POLICE DOGS is that they're generalists -- not as excellent at any one task as are some more specialized breeds, but good at a lot of different tasks. They also said that, surprisingly (to me anyway), police have uses for small dogs as well: a GSD can tell you there's contraband in a car, but a little dog can more easily track it down, simply because it can get into the nooks and crannies to sniff around more precisely.
I knew right off that 11-Nov-1919 was the first ARMISTICE DAY, but had to wait for crosses to make sure it was called by that name in the States too, as it is in Canada. (Not so for the modern observance: Veterans Day there, but Remembrance Day here.)
On that note, as-SALAAM alaycum everyone (= "peace be upon you" in Arabic).
@Sfingi: What, you think Icarus listened when his dad talked? He was probably zoning out with his iotaPod when Daedalus was giving him the "wax melts" safety talk.
ReplyDelete@Eric, I haven't liked R.D. Laing's music ever since he went solo. Too New Agey.
I didn't like the clue for ICARUS.
ReplyDeleteI flew, that punk kid fell.
Did I ever tell you that I suspect that King Minos had something to do with.. ? Oh hell, it's been so long, what's the difference!
To sfingi; That would be Iola, not Eola. Must have got Dio wrong too(61D).
ReplyDelete@Orange: Great to hear from you. You are missed!!
ReplyDeleteMade one mistake -- put IONA/INGNE instead of IOLA/INGLE. This is even more annoying because I have an INGLEnook in my home.
I understand that German Shepherds are used as police dogs because the commands are given in German... ;-)
Nice enough puzzle except for the SE corner. I put DEO instead of DIO and earned my DNF. I have never heard of IOLA, such is cross word puzzles.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to cram TUNSTALL in for OSLIN but @Joon's rule #1 prevented me. Good rules ;^)
There will be a day when I will remember Martha RAYE off the bat and K.T. wil always be TUNSTALL to me. It would have been nice to have a little lesbian theme going with K.D. LANG and ELLEN in the LAT but oh well.
ReplyDeleteThe IOLA/INGLE cross was classic crosswordese. IOLA came first to mind for some reason, even though I've seen INGLE more often.
As @Dave inferred, IOLA has had 19 appearances in NYT puzzles since 1993, according to XWord Info, at about 2 a year for the last 4 years; eOLA has none. The NYT had INGLE a few weeks ago, and 13 appearances since '93. While at it, ORAN has 67 definitions, one of which was that it is the birthplace of Yves Saint Laurent. (Weird stuff on XWord Info.) Classic crosswordese.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that ABBA and ASEA both appeared in another puzz today. (ASEA, grrrr!)
I'm still getting ads for barbeques.
@xxpossum - Well, I guess I don't know too many counties or towns in KS. Population <6K. Still don't. You're right. Giovanni's God is DIO unless he's participating in the Latin Mass.
ReplyDeleteI always associate INGLEnooks with F.L. Wright.
@Joon. Still don't know who K.T. Oslin is. She's apparently country and looks like she put on weight about like I did.
k.d. lang is great. R.D. Laing is dated and blamed mothers for everything. It still hurts.
@Anon 609 - but what do they mean and what is the difference (Acuras)? For all I know RL means right lane (American), and TL means the left (Brit.).
@Eric Woofstock sounds great.
@Daedalus - don't blame yourself, but do allow yourself to grieve. Maybe R.D. Laing was right this time and it was something his mother said.
Nice, tidy puzzle, with plenty of fresh words. Ingle no problem, we too have an inglenook. I only know Oslin from crosswords.....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Orange!
Jetlag has bothered me all day, off to bed early with the latest Ruth Rendell.
@sfingi: RLs are high end & bigger, TLs are low end & smaller, e.g. my wife has an RL, ("Road Luxury") & my oldest daughter has a TL, ("Touring Luxury"). The RL replaced the Legend, in '96 I think.
ReplyDeleteAren't you glad you asked?
Yes! Thanx.
ReplyDeleteCaptcha: ramoneal
Ram O'Neal
Ramo Neal
Ramon Eal
i don't know who she is either, but i know that when i see K.T., i write OSLIN. it's almost pavlovian.
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