August 2, 2011
Patti Varol
Theme: Time After Time — Each half of each theme answer is also the first half of a word or phrase ending in "time."
Theme answers:
- 18A: *Delayed reaction (DOUBLE TAKE).
- 20A: *Radioactive decay measure (HALF LIFE).
- 44A: *Military hobbyist's pastime (WAR GAME).
- 58A: *Prom time, to prom-goers (BIG NIGHT).
- 60A: *Modern (PRESENT-DAY).
- 37A: Repeatedly ... and a hint to the answers to starred clues (TIME AFTER TIME).
I really enjoyed this theme. If you're gonna do a word-before or word-after theme, at least jazz it up a little and use both parts of the theme answers, right? All the resulting "time" phrases are solid. The weakest in the bunch is TAKE TIME, but it's not really bad, and DOUBLE TAKE is an awesome entry. Apart from the theme, the fill is very smooth. There aren't any particularly long entries, which is where I look when I'm trying to find some sparkle, but there are some fun shorter entries like BAD HOP, NO GOOD, and BJORK (1D: Tough play for Derek Jeter / 49D: Call after a missed field goal / 33A: Reykjavik-born one-named singer). I always like to say the word BJORK as if it's a cartoon sound effect, but maybe that's just me.Bullets:
- 42A: Beret perch (TÊTE). French!
- 52A: "Little Women" sister (AMY); 39D: "Little Women" sister (MEG). Love this pair. The other two sisters are JO and BETH.
- 53A: Alimentary route (CANAL). M-W.com tell me the "alimentary canal" is "the tubular passage that extends from mouth to anus and functions in digestion and absorption of food and elimination of residual waste." Ew.
- 4D: Put the kibosh on (STIFLE). Is it possible to see this word without thinking of Archie Bunker?
- 5D: Salon foot treatment, briefly (PEDI). I'll be getting one of these after work today.
- 8D: Diamond org. (MLB); 37D: Nine of diamonds? (TEAM). Two "diamond" clues today, both referring to baseball. MLB = Major League Baseball, and a baseball TEAM consists of nine players. Well, nine positions, with more players in the dugout. But you get the idea.
- 9D: Stout maker (BREWER). This could have been clued in reference to baseball too.
- 10D: Bat mitzvah, e.g. (RITE). PuzzleDaughter asked me the other day when we were going to have her bat mitzvah. Liiitle problem ….
- 11D: "Come __ My House": Rosemary Clooney hit (ON-A). I've never heard this song, so I went to YouTube to find it. You all should definitely go listen to Rosemary Clooney sing it, but I think you'll all understand that when I found a version of the song sung by Eartha Kitt in Japanese — well, I had my video clip for the day.
- 15A: Airline with blue-striped jets (EL AL).
- 30D: Double-platinum Steely Dan album (AJA).
- 40D: Mythical big bird (ROC).
- 57D: Grounded fleet: Abbr. (SST'S).
- 62D: Actor Wallach (ELI).
Everything — 1A: Programmer's banes (BUGS); 5A: Hollywood tree (PALM); 9A: Soup base (BROTH); 14A: Subj. to bone up on? (ANAT.); 15A: Airline with blue-striped jets (EL AL); 16A: Washer cycle (RINSE); 17A: Poor boy seller (DELI); 18A: *Delayed reaction (DOUBLE TAKE); 20A: *Radioactive decay measure (HALF LIFE); 22A: Baa nana? (EWE); 23A: "__ Mio": classic Italian song (O SOLE); 24A: Treasure-__ (TROVE); 26A: Question of identity (WHO); 29A: Pre-euro Spanish coin (PESETA); 31A: *Aviation display (AIR SHOW); 33A: Reykjavik-born one-named singer (BJORK); 36A: Iron-rich green veggie (KALE); 37A: Repeatedly ... and a hint to the answers to starred clues (TIME AFTER TIME); 42A: Beret perch (TÊTE); 43A: Choir part (TENOR); 44A: *Military hobbyist's pastime (WAR GAME); 47A: It makes Tom frisky (CATNIP); 52A: "Little Women" sister (AMY); 53A: Alimentary route (CANAL); 56A: "Seinfeld" specialty (IRONY); 57A: __-fi (SCI); 58A: *Prom time, to prom-goers (BIG NIGHT); 60A: *Modern (PRESENT-DAY); 64A: Fireworks reaction (OOOH); 65A: Knocks for a loop (JOLTS); 66A: 1804 duelist (BURR); 67A: "__ arigato": Japanese "thank you very much" (DOMO); 68A: Provolone alternative (SWISS); 69A: Part of a.k.a. (ALSO); 70A: Paradise (EDEN); 1D: Tough play for Derek Jeter (BAD HOP); 2D: The heebie-jeebies (UNEASE); 3D: Winemakers Ernest and Julio (GALLOS); 4D: Put the kibosh on (STIFLE); 5D: Salon foot treatment, briefly (PEDI); 6D: High, as a kite (ALOFT); 7D: "Today" co-host (LAUER); 8D: Diamond org. (MLB); 9D: Stout maker (BREWER); 10D: Bat mitzvah, e.g. (RITE); 11D: "Come __ My House": Rosemary Clooney hit (ON A); 12D: "Have you no shame?" (TSK); 13D: Laugh syllable (HEE); 19D: First name in jeans (LEVI); 21D: Leave alone (LET BE); 25D: Like bourbon barrels (OAKEN); 26D: "Kapow!" cousin (WHAM); 27D: Links target (HOLE); 28D: Run a tab, say (OWE); 30D: Double-platinum Steely Dan album (AJA); 32D: Deal with moguls? (SKI); 34D: Quite a lot (OFTEN); 35D: 66, notably: Abbr. (RTE.); 37D: Nine of diamonds? (TEAM); 38D: "Just doing my job" ("I TRY"); 39D: "Little Women" sister (MEG); 40D: Mythical big bird (ROC); 41D: Get fit (TRAIN); 42D: "Up, up and away" carrier (TWA); 45D: The "A" in RAM (ACCESS); 46D: Principal (MAIN); 48D: Vacuum tube type (TRIODE); 49D: Call after a missed field goal (NO GOOD); 50D: Like some health care (IN-HOME); 51D: Slithering squeezer (PYTHON); 54D: Kareem __-Jabbar (ABDUL); 55D: Perjurers (LIARS); 57D: Grounded fleet: Abbr. (SST'S); 59D: Pita sandwich (GYRO); 60D: Jammies (PJ'S); 61D: Obey the coxswain (ROW); 62D: Actor Wallach (ELI); 63D: Sched. question mark (TBA).
23 comments:
I really wish OFTEN had been clued as Quite frequently rather than Quite a lot, because the first is way more accurate.
I love the idea of extending BAT/BAR Mitzvahs to goyem. It's a process whereby young people take ownership of their own moral and spiritual life. Your daughter might be less interested if she were informed about the amount of work it takes to prove you're ready, but to any child, the gelt has got to be the main thing anyway.
The Eartha Kitt clip was fabulous. She's been a favorite of mine since childhood.
Had a nice aha moment when I discovered there was a before and after theme.
Didn't know AJA. After my TIME. Didn't know DOMO arigato. These days, do people know lots of Japanese?
Didn't know MLB - apparently, as @PG said, Major League Baseball. As opposed to what other national professional organization? Or as opposed to collegiate? or Minor league, which would have the same initials? I need to know this in order to fill in these things quickly.
Also didn't understand Nine of Diamonds = TEAM.
Thought BREWERS was lame, but didn't know it was a team, or a sports clue.
What is BAD HOP about? He's good-lookin', but that's all I know or care.
And are WAR TIME and GAME TIME common expressions?
Though I didn't Google - and what would I Google? I felt like there was a different language spoken.
Is there a site for short stupid sports expressions for the indoorsman?
On the other hand, I know Come ONA My House, and MEG Jo Beth and AMY.
Tomorrow's another day - maybe some literate sparkle, eh?
22A was cute: Baa nana? EWE
But 47A had me stumped. It makes Tom frisky. Since Tom was capitalized I was looking for a product name (Kal-Kan?) in lieu of a noun.
@Sfingi - I think the MLB clue/answer is perfectly fair - there's no other professional sports organization that I know of with those initials, and the "diamond" points you squarely at baseball. Collegiate would be NCAA, minor league is governed by MLB also, so no confusion is really possible. PG gave you the reason for TEAM, and BREWERS today wasn't a sports clue. BAD HOP would be a surprising bounce of the ball on the way to Jeter at shortstop possible causing a misfield.
I think you're being a bit harsh with "short, stupid expressions".
Also - WARTIME and GAME TIME are common, IMHO.
Me, I didn't know ONA or BURR, but that's what crosses are for.
LOL - Eartha Kitt singing in Japanese! I remember the song sung by a Japanese singer, Chiemi Eri.
I didn't know the original singer. Thank you. Domo Arigato
Check this out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR1CuFnOYQ4&feature=related
LOL - the clip! I do know the one by Rosemary.
Solid puzzle, what PG says. Enjoy your pedi!
Lower right corner with OOOH, DOMO and TRIODE reeks, in my opinion. SSTS is also weak.
Not my cuppa today.
Damn Sfingi, how old are you? AJA was released 34 years ago.
I'd think more kids today have a smattering of Japanese (due to anime if nothing else) than know all the accursed French that these puzzles drip with.
I'd like to think BAD HOP is a super clever segue from the baseball clues to the brewing clue, but I'm not sure it was intentional
I did pen in 'side' instead of TEAM at first. What I get for watching lots of European sports. Only misstep I had though. Rest was easy.
It seemed like I was reliving the 80's we get Cyndi and Time After Time. One of my favorite movies WAR GAME(s) with a young Matthew Broderick. Big Night was another excellent movie that didn't get seen enough which really put Stanley Tucci on the map circa 2001.
TRIODE crossing DOMO, iffy for a Tuesday.
David: "The Big Night" is one my all-time favorite movies. It's available from Netflix for anyone who wants to see an excellent foodie drama with superb acting by everyone.
I simply don't get triode for princpal - help?
@Anon 10:45 - You're misreading the clues somehow. A TRIODE was clued as a type of vacuum tube, principal clued MAIN.
@Anon 10:45 48 D TRIODE was clued Vacuum tube type. However, I have no idea what either the clue or the answer means. It just fell into place due the crosses.
This went down very quickly for me, even the sports clues. The only one I didn't get immediately was BAD HOP, but it makes sense. MLB is on the news all the time in LA due to the deplorable state of the Dodgers.
I was a little thrown by Poor boy seller - DELI, since that sandwich is usually called a Po' Boy.
Liked the dual TIME theme a lot.
@Sfingi and Tuttle I'm no spring chicken, but I had AJA on vinyl and cassette. I now have the CD. Have to say that my favorite Steely Dan album was "Gaucho."
@David I also loved "Big Night". That along with "Babette's Feast" and "Julie & Julia" (also Tucci) are my favorite food movies.
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Smooth solve. I'm always impressed with these types of themes as I imagine the constructor coming up with the initial idea and then cursing the the complexity of finding words that fit with "time" and fit in the puzzle.
I liked the baseball clues ... clever, and agree that a respite from any and all French would suit me fine. At least Japanese has the decency of being fairly phonetic, and no (to my knowledge) silent letters. Japanese is Ichi Ban!
Wow! Puzzle was OK, fun, no real stumpers (well, TRIODE, maybe), but @PG's clip of Eartha Kitt singing Come ON A My House in Japanese, and the other comments here, and the link to Chimei Eri (thanks Anon 8:26)that led to other clips of Rosemary Clooney's and Dean Martin's versions really made a fun romp. Didn't race through the puz, more somewhere between jogging and loping.
Liked the movie associations @David and @CrazyCatLady.
Once I thought of Cyndi Lauper's TIME AFTER TIME, I couldn't help think of Styx's "Mr. Roboto" (DOMO arrigato, Mr. Roboto)[good-bye to the 80's] and Linda Ronstadt's timeless "Your NO GOOD,".
I got the TRIODE/DOMA cross on my second guess, without using Check, so we won't call it a DNF. It didn't look right with the C I tried first.
Pretty good Tuesday puzzle; I am looking ahead to GAME TIME in the NFL. I can hear the call now: NO GOOD.
@Tuttle - 66. 34 years ago I was home with a 2-year old watching Sesame Street 3x a day. (English, French and Spanish). My favorite song was "You know that I am called the Count, because I really love to count, I sit alone and count all day, sometimes I get carried away..."
@Steve - I just have no truck with sports and want an easy list.
Triodes were big in the vacuum tube days. My father fixed old tvs on the side - when they were the latest thing. Audio nuts collect and use them because when you copy digital over and over you lose some true sound. Before transistors, semi-conductance was achieved with the vacuum tube. Semi-conductance is important because some devices use miniscule voltage which must be carefully controlled. And that's the short lesson.
Let's not forget that 31A AIRSHOW is also a theme answer, for a total of 7.
@Sfingi Ha- I was thinking of the tube on a vacuum cleaner! I get what you're saying about the Sesame Street days. I spent the early to late 80s listening to Sesame St., Raffi and sound tracks from "Sound of Music," "Mary Poppins," and Disney movies. Now my little great nieces know all the words to Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. I think I'll pass on the CCL action figure, but thanks for the heads up : >)
@anon 2:31 Nice Catch!
@CCL: there are many good foodie films: Ratatouille, Like Water For Chocolate, Chocolat. Now I have to take a look at Babette's Feast.
@Sfingi - I guess there's no easy list, even if we restrict ourselves to the three-letter fills.
You can start with the four major US professional team sports - NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA, but then you're going to have to add golf - PGA.
Soccer's getting more coverage now, so add MLS in there too.
Sadly (for you) this is only the tip of the iceberg, as you now have to consider the "scoreboard" abbreviations of all the teams in at least three of the team sports (you can probably ignore hockey as these don't seem to come up in crosswords much).
Los Angeles alone gives you four in two sports - LAD and LAA in baseball, LAL and LAC in basketball.
Beyond that you'll get the "Hall of Famer" names like ORR and OTT.
After that, you've got the "scoring" or statistical entries (TDS, ERR, RBI, INT, etc.)
Add the officials - REF, UMP and I'm sure sundry others and your simple list is at least 150 entries long and we haven't even started on the four-letter words yet.
I'm playing catch-up myself with all this lot, I'm not from the US originally and so all these were completely unknown to me when I moved here.
did you know that eartha kitt did the voice over in the commercial for the aja album? small world
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