April 2, 2011
Alan Olschwang
Theme: None
No time for a full write-up today, so talk amongst yourselves. If you have a chance, you should come on back tomorrow though. The Sunday puzzle this week was constructed by our own Doug Peterson, and we have a new guest blogger filling in to chat you up about his puzzle, which I'm sure will be fabulous (both the puzzle and the chat). See you tomorrow!
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Everything Else — 1A: Island where florins are spent (ARUBA); 6A: Unoccupied (IDLE); 10A: Mental keenness (WITS); 14A: Charged (RAN AT); 15A: Hold (DEEM); 16A: Minimally (A BIT); 17A: Where few people live (MIDDLE OF NOWHERE); 20A: "Is that __?" (A NO); 21A: Entertainer (ARTISTE); 22A: Rural pro (FER); 23A: Having no chapters? (NON-UNION); 25A: Prohibit (ENJOIN); 27A: Hardly handy (INEPT); 28A: Quiet, in a way (OIL); 30A: Mattingly's predecessor (TORRE); 31A: 20-20, e.g. (TIE); 33A: Persian for "crown" (TAJ); 35A: Summer arrivals (LEOS); 36A: Debugging aid? (INSECT REPELLENT); 41A: Bar patron who appears in every "Cheers" episode (NORM); 42A: Bordeaux bottom (CUL); 43A: Clavell's "__-Pan" (TAI); 44A: Marsh bird (SNIPE); 46A: Norse war god (TYR); 48A: Schism outcomes (SECTS); 52A: Jai alai ball (PELOTA); 54A: Float seller (MALT SHOP); 56A: Clark's "Mogambo" co-star (AVA); 57A: Huge (TITANIC); 59A: Solid-rock center? (AS A); 60A: Pick wielder (DENTAL HYGIENIST); 63A: Three-time '80s speed skating gold medalist Karin (ENKE); 64A: Kathryn of "Law & Order: C.I." (ERBE); 65A: Um preceder? (NOSEE-); 66A: Early Sam & Dave record label (STAX); 67A: Club income (DUES); 68A: Head lock (TRESS); 1D: Lawyer's suit? (ARMANI); 2D: Spoil, as a picnic (RAIN ON); 3D: How a knot may come (UNDONE); 4D: Like some judgment (BAD); 5D: Kennebec River outlet, with "the" (ATLANTIC); 6D: "Same here" ('I DO TOO'); 7D: 2008 Adam Brooks romantic comedy (DEFINITELY MAYBE); 8D: Contact, e.g. (LENS); 9D: Show anger, say (EMOTE); 10D: ''Do __ Diddy Diddy'': 1964 hit (WAH); 11D: Start of a rule with numerous exceptions (I BEFORE E); 12D: Trunk item (TIRE IRON); 13D: Most severe (STERNEST); 18D: "__ tu": Verdi aria (ERI); 19D: Sold (for) (WENT); 24D: Bouncy (UPTEMPO); 26D: Kicks (JOLLIES); 29D: Drink from a dish (LAP); 32D: What an ellipsis may mean: Abbr. (ETC.); 34D: Black shade (JET); 36D: Big-time (IN SPADES); 37D: Tempest in a teapot (NON-EVENT); 38D: Colombo's country (SRI LANKA); 39D: Same old same old (RUT); 40D: You'll be busted if you use it (LAST CENT); 45D: Blues singer James (ETTA); 47D: Extents (RANGES); 49D: One in a cruise ship line (CHAISE); 50D: Chucks (TOSSES); 51D: Floods (SPATES); 53D: Had something (AILED); 55D: Full deck in old Rome? (LII); 58D: Drive-__ (THRU); 61D: St. with a panhandle (TEX.); 62D: Easter opening? (NOR-).
21 comments:
This was real hair puller for me. Unlike yesterday's - and those backward clues - sheesh!
For some reason this was the easiest Saturday I've done in a long time - only one do-over (I had STERNEST before STEEPEST) and for some reason the long answers all jumped out at me when I had a couple of crosses.
Re my comment earlier in the week about cluing roman numerals, today's was an example IMHO of a good one "Full deck in old Rome).
Loved "Having no chapters" and "How a knot may come".
I knew "Bordeaux bottom" right away, but I didn't fill it in immediately because I'm not sure that "bottom" is an accurate translation of "cul" - it should be clued more crudely to be completely accurate, and I wasn't sure that "ARSE" would be an editorially-acceptable answer if it were in English.
Made me grin when I eventually filled it in though.
Odd couple of days. Friday's was much harder and the grid was more like a themeless than today's
What's FER?
FER is FOR in "hillbilly talk." So the clue "Rural pro" references someone from the backwoods who is FER/FOR something.
"I'm all fer harder puzzles on Saturdays, y'all."
This puzzle was a test of endurance for me. It took forever to get a toe hold with the first fill being ETTA. But slow and steady did win the day, finishing correctly with no writeovers and no googles. The cluing was tricky enough that I never felt certain about many answers, but after lots of deliberation went with my instincts and was proven right. Prolly took over an hour.
Did not know ENKE or ERBE. Didn't know what TAJ actually meant. Liked seeing SRI LANKA in it's entirety, even though it took ages to remember that's where Colombo is. Agree with Steve about Roman numerals. I don't mind them as long as there is some rhyme, reason or way to figure them out.
All in all, a good brain teaser and fun workout. I'll close with a tune from Sam and Dave
Fun puzzle, even though the baseball reference was to the (hated) Dodgers. Don Mattingly has gotten my Giants off to a bad start, having won the first two games of the season. We'll be back.
Had several writeovers: ANO/All, NORM/NORa, ERI/ERe, and TOSSES/ThrowS. There was a lot of clever cluing such as Kicks for JOLLIES and Pick wielder for DENTAL HYGIENIST.
However, I didn't like SPATE for "Floods" and CHAISE for "One in a cruise ship line". Intentional obfuscation that last one. Should have been "One on a cruise ship liner", or some such. Otherwise, good stuff.
the chaise seats are lined up in a row
@Rube - Think about a group of chairs lined up on the deck of a cruise ship.
OK, OK. I rescind that last statement.
No problem, Rube. It took me a while to get that one too. :)
I'm not a Dodger fan, but it's great to see Mattingly getting off to a good start. I'm sure the Dodgers will finish around .500 for the year.
This was hard, but I feel good that I got the top half by myself! Seems like lots of puns - I would have added ? after 'one in a cruise ship line'. Why is 'what an ellipsis may mean' = 'etc'??
Took me a good hour. Had the same thought as SCS about CUL. That's a dirty word, unprintable in a French-language paper. I also liked the Roman numeral clue, one of several good ones this week.
"20-20" is good misdirection for TIE since you think of vision, and ditto "Summer arrivals" for LEOS. "You'll be busted if you use it" for LAST CENT was spiffy.
I just taught my 9-year old the I BEFORE E rule a few days ago.
Man, there sure are a lot of states with panhandles if you think about it.
The Rex Parker in me doesn't like seeing ELKE and ERBE next to each other. My only other quibbles: TIRE IRON should probably have been clued to indicate British usage, and I doubt an ARTISTE would think of themselves as an "entertainer."
On what planet does Prohibit mean Enjoin? Or is today Opposite Day?
getmeoutoheregetmeoutoheregetmeoutohere....
From thefreedictionary.com:
en·join
1. To direct or impose with authority and emphasis.
2. To prohibit or forbid. See Synonyms at forbid.
Easy puzzle for my tastes today. Nothing wrong with it, enjoyed solving but wanted a little more bite for a Saturday.
Thought this was fun for a Saturday. I had lots of stuff to do, so I'm glad it was a A BIT on the easy side. To me the puzzle seemed to lack a lot of the usual junky fill, so that was good. Thought the clueing for the most part was pretty clever. Loved DENTAL HYGIENIST (a good example of I BEFORE E) clued as Pick Wielder. Reminds me of a Dentist I used to go to who would say, "Oh are we here for a little gum gardening? " Creepy! I had IN SPATES before SPADES and then SPATES showed up on the other side of the grid. I knew the French bottom had to be derrière, but only three letters? Only know CUL from CUL de sac. That kind of sounds kind of dirty in itself. At one point I knew all the Jai Alai equipment. Today I forgot.
Nice Sam & Dave clip, AvgJoe. Here's another...
The Fabulous Thunderbirds version wasn't bad either.
Thanks John. I'd forgotten that Sam and Dave did that first. ZZ gets so most of the credit for Thank You, so that was the reason for my choice. Yer's was every bit as good for the same reason.
Thanks, Enjoiner!
According to Encarta, Enjoin has listed as a third definition "to Forbid something" only in the U.S. "to forbid or prohibit something forcefully"; legally it means to force someone to do something by legal injunction, as much prohibit an action as to compel one.
So yesterday I was on the U.S. Planet where anything goes! Typically to enjoin doing what's good and prohibit what is bad means to forbid doing good and prohibit doing bad, so basically that is reduced to doing nothing at all.
Sorry, the FER clue was lame. Otherwise, a good puzzle!
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