Barry C. Silk
Theme: None
Oh man, I flew through this puzzle. I was dropping in answers that were just fleeting glimpses in my brain. But they just seemed right and it turns out they were. It really is fun to have a puzzle like this once in a while that's not, ya know, a Monday. It's kinda giving my confidence a boost which is awesome with the big tournament just a little more than a month away.
Bullets:
- 1A: Breakfast-on-the-run choice for some (COLD PIZZA). This was actually the last section I filled in. And even with the C and the Zs in place, I still couldn't come up with this one. I don't know. I guess I don't think of COLD PIZZA as breakfast "on-the-run" necessarily. More like breakfast "for-the-lazy."
- 22A: Four-time Daytona 500 champ Yarborough (CALE). Learned of his existence from crosswords.
- 23A: Resident on the Arno (PISAN). European rivers have never been my strong suit but it apparently has finally sunk into my hard head that the Arno is in Italy.
- 33A: Parades (SASHAYS). I think I'm going to start SASHAYing around the PuzzleHouse more frequently.
- 39A: Designer of Dulles Airport's main terminal (SAARINEN). This is really the only place I got stuck. I was all, "It's a really, really famous architect. He's in the puzzle all the time! What the f*** is his name?? It's not Frank Lloyd Wright. It's not I.M. Pei." And from I.M. Pei, I actually took a tangent over to Ang Lee. For some reason, they inhabit the same part of my brain. So then I got disgusted with myself, "No, no, no, Ang Lee is the director, not the architect, what is wrong with you?!" I needed see the two As right next to each other before I had my D'OH moment.
- 58A: Colorado's __ Park (ESTES). You might recall that the PuzzleFamily spent their summer vacation in ESTES Park this past summer, so this one came easy.
- 1D: Will supplements (CODICILS). Is this one of those words that everybody knows, or is it just something I've picked up from working around lawyers pretty much my whole life?
- 4D: Titled rapper (DR. DRE). We don't usually see his whole name in the grid, and it looks pretty cool!
- 5D: "El Condor __": Simon & Garfunkel song (PASA).
- 11D: Album before "Help!" (BEATLES VI). It wouldn't be a Barry Silk puzzle without an oldies reference.
- 23D: Clipped style (PONYTAIL). I'm not crazy about this clue. I don't think you need clips for a PONYTAIL. The letters kept filling themselves in and I resisted the whole way.
- 39D: It means "traveling companion" in Russian (SPUTNIK). I did not know that.
Everything Else — 10A: Put to shame (ABASH); 15A: Work on a table (OPERATION); 16A: Martinique volcano (PELEE); 17A: Driven to have (DEAD SET ON); 18A: Not as bright (PALER); 19A: Structural opening? (INFRA-); 20A: When parents may need to call their kids (MEAL TIME); 25A: Sediment (LEES); 26A: Hot feeling (IRE); 27A: Corporeal (BODILY); 28A: Fluid dynamics phenomenon (EDDY); 29A: Makes privy to (LETS IN ON); 31A: Arcade game nos. (PTS.); 34A: Croat's neighbor (SLOVENE); 38A: München-to-Wien heading (OST); 40A: Service expert (ACER); 43A: Meat garnishes (ASPICS); 45A: GPS determination (LAT.); 46A: Encircled (GIRT); 47A: Busy (IN USE); 48A: Entangle (MIRE); 49A: Knighted son of King Ban (LANCELOT); 51A: Speleologist (CAVER); 52A: Words after follow or blow (A LEAD); 53A: Sitcom array (ONE-LINERS); 56A: Like some investments (RISKY); 57A: Boarded en masse (PILED INTO); 59A: Up-and-down time? (SKI SEASON); 2D: Place to set up camp (OPEN AREA); 3D: Ads, perhaps (LEAFLETS); 6D: Mineral suffix (-ITE); 7D: ZENMED target (ZIT); 8D: Enhances the details (ZOOMS IN); 9D: Temper (ANNEAL); 10D: Range, e.g.: Abbr. (APPL.); 12D: Teamed up (ALLIED); 13D: Looked (SEEMED); 14D: Joan of Arc's crime (HERESY); 21D: Wherever (ANYPLACE); 24D: Lifetime exchange for many (I DO'S); 27D: Fairness obstacle (BIAS); 30D: Strawberry dessert (SHORTCAKE); 32D: Rocky crests (TORS); 34D: Je ne __ quoi (SAIS); 35D: Invigorates (ENLIVENS); 36D: Having a better chance of recognizing (NEARER TO); 37D: Begins (ENTERS ON); 40D: Blazing (AGLARE); 41D: Tadalafil brand (CIALIS); 42D: __ Evans, Chubby Checker's birth name (ERNEST); 44D: Peepers (SNOOPS); 48D: Crosswords in the 1920s, e.g. (MANIA); 50D: Slow Churned ice cream (EDY'S); 51D: Fungi ending (-CIDE); 54D: "The Book of __": 2010 Denzel Washington film (ELI); 55D: "__ Troyens": Berlioz opera (LES).
19 comments:
I'm back on the road again, so its hard to keep up with all my puzzles and blogs.
IMO today's crossword was pretty darn swift.
I sure like Barry Silk puzzles, especially this 4-star one... it has some great fill words and I couldn't even find one CW101 word in it. I think the LAT has heard me grousing about too much crosswordese lately.
Not sure that I liked all the IN/ON/TO prepositions though: DEAD SET ON, LETS IN ON, IN USE, PILED INTO, ENTERS ON, NEARER TO, ZOOMS IN (is this a theme??)
I don't think I've ever had COLD PIZZA in the morning (yech!), but I have had CIALIS... 'nuff said.
Can someone tell me why 48D "crosswords of the 1920s" is MANIA ?
I'm sure you'd be surprised, but I wasn't doing CWs in the 20s.
WOTD: SPUTNIK (for its etym.)
Also liked: "speleologist" (CAVER)
Favorite word: SHORT CAKE (because soon we'll be seeing strawberries on this again). I'll be very glad when this long SKI SEASON ends.
This will ENLIVEN your Friday, a clip of ERNEST Evans.
MEAL TIME! It's oatmeal with fruit and cardamom coffeecake today.
Have a fun weekend y'all !
A nice love duet for Valentines Day---
From the opera LES Troyens by Berlioz ... this is from Acte 4 "Nuit d'Ivresse". This was performed by Susan Graham and Gregory Kundehe. Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducted the Monteverdi Choir, Choeur du Théâtre du Châtelet and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Paris (2004).
c'est très magnifique !!!!
To borrow from the sanitized version of C. Lo Green's hit: forget all you motherforgetters. This was easy? Codicils? I suppose this is one more reason to stop putting off doing my will, but as opposed to PG, I actually spend as little time around lawyers as possible. Also, as for Beatles VI: this was one of many U.S. releases cobbled together and sold in the states (as when they split Rubber Soul and Revolver into 3 albums to create Yesterday...and Today). The album before Help! was Beatles for Sale. Sorry, but I hated this puzzle. About a dozen multi-word answers and fuzzy clues. I used to enjoy cold pizza in the morning, but as for this puzzle, yech.
Well, I never thought of cold pizza and I LOVE cold pizza for breakfast. The test of a truly good pizza is if it tastes good cold in the morning with a glass of milk. Yummeee.
em jay
John, during the affluent Jazz Age, fads like flag pole sitting, goldfish swallowing, bobbed hair and crossword puzzles were all the rage. In 1924, both the New York World and the New York Harold-Tribune were publishing puzzles, and it was the Margaret Farrar (then Petherbridge) edited Simon and Schuster crossword book that prompted the MANIA.
According to Marc Romano, author of "Crossword - One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession", "----and six months after Messers. Simon and Schuster published their first ware, the country fell into the grips of a crossword fever."
Romano writes that to accomodate riders on trains from the suburbs into New York City, dictionaries were places in each car to keep passengers from having to carry them with them.
Will Shorts, according to Romano, has a hugh collection of memoribelia from the craze of 1924 and 1925 that includes, postcards, drink coasters, board games, sheet music, jewelry, and crossword mystery novels.
@Parsan, Will Shortz actually has a massive archive of puzzle books and memorabilia dating back centuries, covering more than just crosswords. I'd love to see it sometime.
Author Marc Romano strikes me as a twit. Who forgets to eat for an entire weekend? Who ogles teenage girls? Blech.
@Orange, I agree. While his book was worth reading, he does come off as a dork.
I didn't know about the crossword mania of the 20's nor what Sputnik meant. 'Course I didn't know Chubby Checker's first name either, but I'll immediately forget that.
Even with ominous looking triple 9s in the NW & SE, this puzzle went down with ease. About my only complaint is with the dreaded ACER. I didn't like it the first time I saw it and each time since I like it even less. Wanted Serbian before SLOVENE but when SAARINEN showed up, ANYwherE got replaced by ANYPLACE and the puzzle was done.
Other interesting new facts, to me, Mt PELEE on Martinique and Lancelot's father, King Ban.
I always heat up my leftover pizza in a toaster oven, but back in college - whatever worked - and COLDPIZZA worked.
Good puzzle. Now back to preparing some bass for smoking.
I was a little frightened by the look of this grid at first. However, it went down smoothly except for the NE where I had a problem with PELEE and APPL. My brain is not computing why 10D Range, e.g. is APPL. Anyone? Are we talking about a Mt. Range?
Not crazy about ABASH and AGLARE - my pet peeve. Never even saw CIALIS. Glad of that. I've had COLD PIZZA for breakfast before, but not on the run - just standing in a comatose state in front of the fridge (back in college days).
Nice Saturday puzzle.
WOTD - ANNEAL
@CCL, You're going to kick yourself, but think "stove".
Oh sheesh - a true d'oh moment! Thanks@Rube. I was thinking of every other kind of range.
I'm usually not a Saturday puzzler but had some extra time today and got through it with two errors. Mr. and Mrs. Yarbrough must have had a good reason to name their son CALE, but I can't think of one. Tried Dale and Hale first. (Not a clue about CODICILS. Codices is plural for codex, I'm guessing this is a diminutive.)
But mostly I wanted to ask, is it typical Saturday (long-answer) fare to have so many multiple-word fills? I count sixteen. (That doesn't include compound words like PONYTAIL and MEALTIME.) Kind of cheapens the thrill, I'd say.
I liked this puzzle a lot, but then I usually do Barry Silk ones. Somehow knew codicils. Had to stare at Slovene a bit, couldn't get Slovak out of my brain.
I don't like pizza because I don't like melted, warm cheese. Ergo, the only way I eat it is cold, for breakfast, when my son is home and bakes one for a midnight snack.
Learned some new words today. When I googled PELEE to see if it was right I got an island in lake Erie which is close to where I live. Never heard of it either. Another thing I found funny was the other day I was reading on a site for constructing crosswords, and this is one thing I found: Common expressions that may not necessarily appear in dictionaries—"dream on," e.g.—are perfectly okay, but don't get carried away. "Cold pizza" is clearly a stretch.
So I did end up with COLD PIZZA after considering DOUGHNUTS and MCDONALDS...
Can't say I loved this puzzle, unlike PG it was a slow grind for me. I think I'm in a slump.
Sweet puzzle took me longer then it should've but I had The A Team movie playing in the backgound. I haven't seen the movie but based on the noise I can tell you the entire plot. My problem was the SW where I put ABLAZE instead of AGLARE and pondered GIRT as a word way too long.
Is it really necessary to make reference to the "F" word? Even though you don't spell it out, when we see the reference the word pops into one's mind. You have such a wonderful vocabulary, surely you can find much more meaningful words that don't offend, not to mention that some puzzlers are children.
Thanks for considering my request.
A friend.
I agree with Anon8:55.
i think you're much too intelligent and dignified to be using that gutter language.
We know that, as a word-crafter, you can do a lot better than that.
@Anon8:55: Thanks for your comment. I must say that if you knew how much I cussed in real life, you'd probably be giving me an award for restraint. :-) I will definitely consider your opinion on this subject, but I'm not going to promise that I'll never drop an F-bomb again on the blog. That would just be setting myself up for failure. I also have to question (a) the entire premise of "children" reading this blog and (b) whether any "children" reading this blog would actually be harmed/offended/scarred for life from seeing a cuss word in a blog about words. That said, I am absolutely not trying to pick a fight with you. I totally understand your opinion on this issue and I appreciate your input.
@JNH: You on the other hand. Seriously? You are known for linking to soft-core porn pictures and videos and frequently make veiled references to your sex life (*wink wink* *nudge nudge*). I'd much rather see a cuss word now and then than the kind of creepiness we so often see from you.
I just had my 10-year-old son read the paragraph in question. He snickered. "I.M. Pee!"
Glossed right over the "f***" bit. I said someone thought that might be a bit much for any children who were doing the crossword and reading the blog, and he asked, "Why would children do crosswords??" Now, *I* was probably doing crosswords by his age, but I'mnot sure any child would be rattled by an expurgated "f***."
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