August 30, 2011
Nancy Salomon
Theme: Go-Getters — Each theme answer is a familiar two-word phrase where the word "go" can precede each word to form two other familiar phrases.
Theme answers:
- 17A: *Sydney's locale, familiarly (DOWN UNDER).
- 21A: *Man, according to a longtime Desmond Morris best-seller (NAKED APE).
- 33A: *Bluntly (STRAIGHT OUT).
- 42A: *Skip-over-ads button (FAST FORWARD).
- 55A: *Hosting squad (HOME TEAM).
- 61A: Overachievers, and a hint to a word that can precede both words of the starred answers (GO-GETTERS).
Bullets:
- 1A: Beat to a pulp (MASH). This amused me. To me, the phrase "beat to a pulp" is 100% figurative. I mean, that's how you talk about the victim of a bar brawl, right? But taken literally, it's about cooking! Ha!
- 9A: Very cold (GELID). Can't remember if it was the LAT, but I do recall seeing this word in a puzzle sometime in the last year or so. I still don't like it.
- 20A: Ain't right? (AREN'T). The word "ain't" is, of course, not a "proper" word. If you fix it up right, it becomes "aren't."
- 29A: Doggone (DADGUM). Best word in the grid. Made me LOL.
- 66A: Case for notions (ÉTUI). I'm sure we all have our favorite crosswordese (and by favorite, of course, I mean most dreaded). This is mine. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I can tell you right now I'm never putting it in a puzzle. (Doug: We haven't put ÉTUI in a puzzle, have we?)
- 12D: "No need to wake me" ("I'M UP"). Great colloquial phrase.
- 22D: Twisty-horned antelope (KUDU). I like the way this looks in the grid. I would like it more if it was something I'd ever heard of.
- 40D: Popular Dixie drink (SWEET TEA). I was in North Carolina last year for a girls' weekend and at lunch one day one of the girls ordered unsweetened tea. Our horrified host immediately apologized to the waitress and, even though they were trying to keep the ensuing conversation to themselves, I'm pretty sure I heard the word "yankee" a couple times.
Everything — 1A: Beat to a pulp (MASH); 5A: Dapper Dans (FOPS); 9A: Very cold (GELID); 14A: Mental block buster (IDEA); 15A: Guinness who played Obi-Wan (ALEC); 16A: Memorable mission (ALAMO); 17A: *Sydney's locale, familiarly (DOWN UNDER); 19A: Bantu-speaking South Africans (ZULUS); 20A: Ain't right? (AREN'T); 21A: *Man, according to a longtime Desmond Morris best-seller (NAKED APE); 23A: WWII bond designation (SERIES E); 26A: Mental block buster (MUSE); 27A: Spoiled-rotten kids (BRATS); 29A: Doggone (DADGUM); 33A: *Bluntly (STRAIGHT OUT); 37A: Sun Devils' sch. (ASU); 38A: Work like a dog (TOIL); 39A: Clumsy dummy (OAF); 40A: Iditarod racer (SLED); 41A: "I'm with ya" ("YUP"); 42A: *Skip-over-ads button (FAST FORWARD); 46A: Like porn (X-RATED); 48A: Very strange (EERIE); 49A: Skyline-blurring phenomenon (HAZE); 51A: One begins parallel parking in it (REVERSE); 55A: *Hosting squad (HOME TEAM); 59A: Lucy's landlady (ETHEL); 60A: "It was you," in a Verdi aria (ERI TU); 61A: Overachievers, and a hint to a word that can precede both words of the starred answers (GO-GETTERS); 64A: Odom of the Lakers (LAMAR); 65A: Pianist Gilels (EMIL); 66A: Case for notions (ÉTUI); 67A: Annapolis frosh (PLEBE); 68A: Smelling awful (RANK); 69A: "Look __, I'm Sandra Dee": "Grease" song (AT ME); 1D: Big name in muffler replacement (MIDAS); 2D: Love to bits (ADORE); 3D: Runoff collector (SEWER); 4D: Memorable Alps crosser (HANNIBAL); 5D: Bleacher creature (FAN); 6D: Stale (OLD); 7D: Rounded hammer part (PEEN); 8D: "Get outta here!" ("SCRAM!"); 9D: Feasts one's eyes on (GAZES AT); 10D: Gave the slip (ELUDED); 11D: Tra-__ (LA-LA); 12D: "No need to wake me" ("I'M UP"); 13D: Two caplets, say (DOSE); 18D: Wombs (UTERI); 22D: Twisty-horned antelope (KUDU); 24D: Droop (SAG); 25D: Cultural credo (ETHOS); 28D: Hillary's department (STATE); 30D: Big shindig (GALA); 31D: Web browser (USER); 32D: Emmy-winning newsman Roger (MUDD); 33D: River of Hades (STYX); 34D: Take to the road, as a rock band (TOUR); 35D: Philbin co-host (RIPA); 36D: "I'm gonna make him an __ he can't refuse" (OFFER); 40D: Popular Dixie drink (SWEET TEA); 42D: Main movie (FEATURE); 43D: Wood-shaping tool (ADZE); 44D: Rock in a seam (ORE); 45D: Transfix (RIVET); 47D: What a treater picks up (THE TAB); 50D: Gung-ho (EAGER); 52D: Suave Butler (RHETT); 53D: Red Cross supply (SERUM); 54D: Borden's spokescow (ELSIE); 55D: "SOS!" ("HELP!"); 56D: Like some vaccines (ORAL); 57D: Play charades (MIME); 58D: NYC gallery (MOMA); 62D: Bathtub booze (GIN); 63D: "Benevolent" fellow (ELK).
18 comments:
I liked 20A (Ain't Right) and 5D (Bleacher Creature) a lot. Very cute. But 9A (Gelid) stuck in my craw (what ever that is). I got stumped on Kudu, for some reason I wanted to go with Kodi (which really screwed up my grid).
Have a great day, all!
Not a very exciting puzzle, to me. Hand up on not liking "gelid". Did like "dadgum", but that's about it for the pizzaz (seriously: tra la la?) Maybe I'm just grumpy this morning.
I dislike themes like this because, well, I'm stupid. I read the reveal and took it to mean that 'get' could precede both words in the starred clues. It worked until I tried to decipher WTF GET APE could possibly mean.
GELID is my #9 favorite word/phrase for very cold. The first 8, in no particular order and with repeats are "very cold" and "ice cold".
Why does ELSIE get all the cow cred in puzzles?
Not necessarily Northerners who dislike sweet tea - here in Houston many of us do not drink sweet tea.
Good Tuesday puzzle, no complaints.
Huh. I liked GELID but not ARENT.
Is the clue/answer for 5A a shout-out to O Brother Where Art Thou?
Ulysses: Hold on, I don't want this pomade. I want Dapper Dan.
Vendor: I don't carry Dapper Dan, I carry Fop.
Ulysses: Well I don't want Fop, goddam it! I'm a Dapper Dan man!
What's wrong with GELID?
Unfortunately sweet tea has made it across the country. It's everywhere now.
Chuckled at Dadgum and At fop. Good Tuesday.
I think I've seen GELID in puzzles before, but this time I'm making it my WOTD. As @Steve said, "What's wrong with GELID?"
Didn't particularly like STRAIGHTOUT. Wold have preferred the 15 letterer, "straightforward". It would fit both the clue and the theme.
Only writeover was isnoT for ARENT.
FWIW, there is/was a baseball playing "Blue Moon" ODOM, a defensive end Antwan ODOM, as well as the Lakers' "Candy Man" ODOM, according to XWord Info.
Another comment on iced tea. Growing up in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, whether or not to sweeten tea is about as important as religion. I'm not kidding, it's a big deal, and like Anonymous said the answer isn't necessarily sweetened. My family was mixed, with my dad liking sweetened tea. Needless to say, my mom won and to this day I do not sweeten my tea. I'm no Yankee! More than you wanted to know, but I couldn't let it stand that only Yankees like unsweetened tea!
Don't like the same clue "Mental block buster" (14A, 26A) for IDEA and MUSE
GELID = new word 4 me
My thought for this puzzle's title was "Gogo Boots" so loved the last pic, @PG.
Don't like or dislike GELID. Any more than ETUI. Just got used to both. Both seem pretty limited to CW use though.
In flyover land, where I live, if I order tea, invariably the next question is "Sweet or unsweet?" I like the short hand, though occasionally I do hear the full blown "sweetened or unsweetened?" No shame in either choice.
Thought this one was very smooth, though did have some initial tension with the MUdE/GAZEdAT cross.
I liked this puzzle, not loved, but enjoyed the solve. I FASTFORWARDed through that particular entry, since I record almost every thing so I can skip the ads.
When I read the clue for 1A, I thought it might be MASH, so I checked the clue for 1D, and confidently filled in MAACO. I always get that confused with AAMCO, another familiar crossword company that does do exhausts as a sort of sideline to its main business of transmission repair. It turns out that there is a very good reason I confuse the two companies. I consulted Wiki:
"MAACO Collision Repair & Auto Painting is an American franchisor of auto painting and collision repair shops. . . It was founded . . . by Anthony A. Martino and Daniel I. Rhode. Ten years before MAACO's founding, Martino had launched AAMCO Transmissions with partner Robert Morgan. He created both names by using the first letters from his name (Anthony A. Martino)."
@PG, I would like to nominate 60A, ERI TU, for your Crosswordese 101 list. I have finally memorized it after some DNF's over at the NYT.
All right, I will be the first to say it. GO plus two (or three, or four) of the theme entry halves could be considered 46A, XRATED. I will leave it to your imaginations, or not, as you prefer.
Above anonymous is Gareth whose name is being mysteriously stripped again...
Fun simple puzzle. Appreciated ZULUS and KUDU (a word from the zulu) in close proximity. Can't see anything wrong with GELID, it's a real, if slightly high-end, vocabulary word.
@CoffeeLvr I also put in MAACO before MIDAS. I second your opinion on X RATED, especially 17A/56 D LOL.
I have never, ever heard DADGUM before or KUDU. GELID pops up every now again. I only know it from crosswords.
Theme was lame. Get has too many matches.
Didn't know KUDU, but he's a beautiful creature - both greater and lesser KUDUs. Didn't know ALAMO was also a mission, as well as a fort.
Suave Butler was cute. DADGUM is a stupid expression.
Asked a random guy what a Sun Devil was.
Gave up tea in 1773.
Loved!!! the answer GELID for
9A-Very cold. This has been in puzzles several times and I can always put the correct answer. Being a fan of the mid 1960's TV series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" -- I remember an episode -- from the later on reruns -- with a bad-guy character named GELID who was the leader of these Frost Men who were trying to cause trouble. Of course, "Seaview" and her crew eventually defeated these nasties. HEY !!! We all have some kind of Trivia that is stuck in our brains & memory banks !!
JoMag
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