August 13, 2011
Barry C. Silk
Theme: None
Tough Saturday, right? We've got interesting entries, tough cluing, not much crosswordese …what more could we ask for in a late-week puzzle? There weren't too many things today that I just flat-out didn't know:
- 65A: Goalie Dominik who won the Vezina Trophy six times (HASEK). I'm not much of a hockey fan (nothing against it, just never got into it). So if it's not ORR or ESPO it's pretty much beyond my knowledge base.
- 66A: He came out of retirement to play Winston Churchill in "Inglorious Basterds" (ROD TAYLOR). From the clue, I thought for sure this would be someone I've heard of. But no.
- 39D: Singer with the 1965 hit "1-2-3" (LEN BARRY). This entry has Barry Silk written all over it. He's a big fan of 1950s-60s music and LEN BARRY is from Philadelphia. (You can pretty much bet on something from Philly in Barry's puzzles.) The name didn't ring any bells for me at all, but I'm pretty sure I've heard this song before.
- 10A: Group whose name contains a deliberate misspelling inspired by the Beatles, whom they ardently admired (BYRDS). Awesome trivia.
- 16A: Web search option (YAHOO). Most of the time I forget that alternatives to Google even exist.
- 17A: Augustine St. Clare's daughter, in an 1852 novel (LITTLE EVA). Okay, this is funny. This clue refers to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. But the woman who sang "Locomotion" is also called LITTLE EVA. So when I was trying to think of a good guess for the "1-2-3" singer, with the L in place I thought it might be LITTLE EVA. It wasn't. But here she is! Andrea Carla Michael's calls that a "malapop." Love it when that happens.
- 22A: Strategic math game (NIM). I hope you were paying attention to Crosswordese 101 this week!!
- 53A: Windows icon (MY COMPUTER). This is a great entry, and I don't see it in the Cruciverb.com data base as having been used before. Awesome.
- 61A: Place for pitchers? (SALESROOM). Okay, I knew this clue couldn't be about baseball — that would be too obvious and wouldn't require a question mark. My first thought was that "pitchers" must mean, like, "ewers" (ha!), but when nothing came to me I did eventually figured it must be referring to a sales pitch.
- 29D: Keyboardist's support (PIANO STOOL). This entry caused my only real problem in the puzzle. I started with PIANO BENCH. Then when the ST became clear, I thought PIANO STAND(?) which, well, sure I've played piano since I was four and never heard of this but, hey, it's Saturday. It eventually worked itself out.
- 34D: High air? (YODEL). "Air" in this clue means "tune" or "melody."
- 43D: Beefy hybrid (CATTALO). Never heard of it but okay.
- 47D: __ Brothers, who sang "Black Water" (DOOBIE).
- 53D: Speed-of-sound name (MACH). Yep, the measure of speed known as the MACH is named for a person. Ernst Mach to be exact. I learned this fun fact from crossword puzzles.
- 22A: Strategic math game (NIM).
- 48A: "My Country" author (EBAN).
- 57A: "__ girl!" (ATTA).
- 12D: Three-toed bird (RHEA).
- 62D: Place to get a tkt. (STA.).
Everything — 1A: Way to measure brightness (I.Q. TESTING); 10A: Group whose name contains a deliberate misspelling inspired by the Beatles, whom they ardently admired (BYRDS); 15A: Pressing need (STEAM IRON); 16A: Web search option (YAHOO); 17A: Augustine St. Clare's daughter, in an 1852 novel (LITTLE EVA); 18A: Immune system component (T-CELL); 19A: Grand-scale poetry (EPOS); 20A: Largest living toothed animal (SPERM WHALE); 22A: Strategic math game (NIM); 24A: Nixon attorney general Richardson (ELLIOT); 25A: __ asada (CARNE); 27A: Black-and-tan tans (ALES); 28A: Tuber with eyes (SPUD); 32A: Schedule (SLATE); 33A: Tot's tea party guest (TEDDY); 35A: Like Brahms's Piano Trio No. 1 (IN B); 36A: Some reds (PINOTS); 38A: "Hubba hubba!" ("OO LA LA!"); 40A: Fielder's fig. (AVG.); 41A: Render speechless (SHOCK); 45A: Thinker Diderot (DENIS); 46A: Aid criterion (NEED); 48A: "My Country" author (EBAN); 49A: Cybermemo (-NOTE); 50A: "Swan Lake" princess (ODETTE); 52A: Abbr. for dumbbells (LBS.); 53A: Windows icon (MY COMPUTER); 57A: "__ girl!" (ATTA); 60A: Slide presentation (AMEBA); 61A: Place for pitchers? (SALESROOM); 63A: Mormon Tabernacle feature (CHOIR); 64A: Conductor in a circuit (ELECTRODE); 65A: Goalie Dominik who won the Vezina Trophy six times (HASEK); 66A: He came out of retirement to play Winston Churchill in "Inglorious Basterds" (ROD TAYLOR); 1D: Archipelago part (ISLE); 2D: Stick in a medicine cabinet (Q-TIP); 3D: Mountains containing the Cathedral Group (TETON RANGE); 4D: Erodes (EATS INTO); 5D: T selection (SML.); 6D: Pairs of even numbers? (TIES); 7D: "Once more ..." ("I REPEAT …"); 8D: It's longer than a Kurzgeschichte (short story) (NOVELLE); 9D: Knotted up (GNARLED); 10D: How one must sometimes win (BY TWO); 11D: Blue blood vessels? (YACHTS); 12D: Three-toed bird (RHEA); 13D: Tot's tea party guest (DOLL); 14D: Seafood selection (SOLE); 21D: Bungle (MISDO); 23D: Sits (MEETS); 25D: Political junkies watch it (C-SPAN); 26D: Breathing (ALIVE); 29D: Keyboardist's support (PIANO STOOL); 30D: Off (UNLIT); 31D: Early statistical software (DBASE); 34D: High air? (YODEL); 37D: They may be counted (SHEEP); 39D: Singer with the 1965 hit "1-2-3" (LEN BARRY); 42D: Not as quick on the uptake (OBTUSER); 43D: Beefy hybrid (CATTALO); 44D: Used a prayer rug (KNEELED); 47D: __ Brothers, who sang "Black Water" (DOOBIE); 51D: 100 pfennigs, briefly (D-MARK); 53D: Speed-of-sound name (MACH); 54D: Jewish youth org. (YMHA); 55D: Corp. bigwigs (CEO'S); 56D: A sq. is one (RECT.); 58D: List heading (TO DO); 59D: NAFTA part: Abbr. (AMER.); 62D: Place to get a tkt. (STA.).
19 comments:
Rod Taylor and our favorite Eloi.
Enjoyed the puzzle and finished without errors or googles (YAHOO), but it took me quite awhile. First entry was SPERMWHALE which came to me out of the blue with no letters in place -- had no idea if it was correct but it fit and elephant didn't.
I thought the pair of tea party guests was cute, DOLL and TEDDY. It was TaDDY at first because I had NOVELLa, but corrected it to the German spelling as indicated by the clue ... and because taddy was wrong.
LOL'd at abbrev. for dumbbells LBS.
This political junkie watches MSNBC but since I had the C from CARNE, it had to be CSPAN.
I've heard of beefalo but not CATTALO. Seems the difference is in their appearance, acc. to wiki. (?)
And EPOS was a new one for me.
65-A/54-D is misspelled in the answer grid. Should be HASEK/YMHA.
Thanks, Anonymous. Grid is fixed now.
I would have sworn I'd seen this clip of LENBARRY here before! If PG doesn't remember, I guess I must have gotten it from Rex? Great song, regardless.
I also had to correct TaDDY because I wasn't familiar with the German. And I remember Rod Taylor from The Birds as well as Time Machine, but I still thought it would be a more famous actor from the clue. Quentin Tarentino loves those 60's actors that haven't worked in years.
I don't understand "T selection (SML)". Can anyone clue me in?
@ mercuriosity A T-shirt can be be small.
This was a super tough Sat. but I stuck with it and was eventually rewarded with success, although I had to stare at the bottom third with very little progress forever.
Also tons of stuff I never heard of in here. LITTLE EVA, EPOS, ODETTE, HASEK, ROD TAYLOR, LEN BARRY, CATTALO (I have heard of Beefalo).
Things that helped save me were NIM (thanks PG for the CW 101, that's where I got it from), DENIS Diderot, CARNE, EBAN.
Didn't really care for OBTUSER, as it's more correct to say "more obtuse," isn't it? Also was a touch annoyed by the spelling of AMEBA, even if it might be technically correct.
@mercuriosity: I figure it refers to T shirt size.
T selection (SML) refers to a T shirt and the sizes available. Although not sure if (SML) is an abbreviation of (SmallMediumLarge) or just (Small).
I was stuck on E???diODE for ELECTRODE for far too long. Also had a malapop, with dollY before TaDDY, before TEDDY. Briefly checked whether daDDY would work. I had a hard time seeing OOLALA without the usual H, but you can transcribe such expressions however you want, I guess.
I was doing this very early this morning (before bed) and got irritated and Googled ODETTE and IMDB'd RODTAYLOR (who?). Kind of sorry I didn't walk away and try again after a night of sleep and a cup of . . . I am sure that ODETTE would have percolated up out of my brain.
On the other hand, it was fun to hear how the BYRDS picked their name. For those who are interested, here is a bit more info from "The Rolling Stones Encyclopedia of Rock &
Roll." "The band was formed in the summer of 1964 as the Jet Set and toyed with the name Beefeaters before settling on the Byrds, misspelled a la the Beatles. A few months later, the Byrds were touted as L.A.'s answer to London."
couldn't get tetonrange or eatsinto because I was positive about "EPIC" not "EPOS" Never heard of epos.
I found today's puzzle very enjoyable. I didn't find it that difficult but it had a nice bite to it. Quality work.
Not easy, but not too hard. I finished with no errors. The ones I didn't know came through the crosses.
My first answers were gimmes-- ELLIOT and CARNE. I had EPIC too, but luckily I have to explain EPOS to my students each year when we do Aristotle.
I agree with Rojo re OBTUSER (ugh). The last two for me were OBTUSER, 'cuz I kept reading it as O.B.T. USER, and finally YODEL, once I had THE D of DENIS.
Nice Saturday, tough but fair. The keyboard in 29D had me thinking of an electronic keyboard, so I did NOT want to change PIANOSTAND. That, plus confidently throwing in RHOM(bus)for 56D, plus not knowing RODTAYLOR made the SE a nightmare.
pretty smooth for a saturday. I liked all the cluing except 56 down because a sq. is not a rect. a square has 4 angles and all the sides are equal. a rectangle has 4 angles but 2 sides are shorter than the other 2. I reccomend a new math book,dictionary,or glasses for mr. silk
@Ron Worden: In fact, a square is a rectangle, by definition. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Explanation: Squares are Rectangles. Perhaps you could use a refresher math course yourself :-)
Thought Mr. Silk's puzzle was Saturday- tough, but l liked it a lot. My big problem area was OBTUSER next to CATTALO crossing SALES ROOM. My spell check is not happy with OBTUSER. Like others, I have heard of Beefalo, but not CATTALO.
ELLIOT Richardson was the commencement speaker at my college graduation. LEN BARRY's 123 was a Jr. High dance regular in my suburban Philly town. He was the lead singer on "The Bristol Stomp" which a classic Philadelphia song and dance. If I try to do it now, I usually can't walk the next day. Speaking of which, the young woman in the go go cage doing the Jerk was hilarious. Ouch!
Bristol Stomp
Thank you, Anonymous. Squares are indeed rectangles. If only we had such fact-checking in DC!
I'm confused about 23D - sits - meets.
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