Dr. Larch's drug in Cider House Rules / WED 9-11-13 / Joyous Cosmology subj / Life-size likeness of Elvis maybe / Former Giant Robb / How many bootlegs are sold

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Constructor: Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: Autumn? — circled squares for a WARM-to-COLD word ladder


Theme answers:
  • 16A: Endothermic (WARM-BLOODED)
  • 23A: Birth place (MATERNITY WARD)
  • 37A: Life-size likeness of Elvis, maybe (CARDBOARD CUTOUT) 
  • 47A: A fan might need one (EXTENSION CORD)
  • 58A: Unaffected by emotion (COLD-HEARTED)


Word of the Day: "PEYTON Place" (28A: "___ Place") —

Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks. It was adapted as both a 1957 film and a 1964–69 television series.
The fictional Peyton Place is a composite of several real New Hampshire towns: GilmantonGilfordLaconiaand Manchester. Grace Metalious and her husband George first considered Potter Place (the name of a real community near Andover, New Hampshire). Realizing their town should have a fictional name, they looked through an atlas and found Payton (the name of a real town in Texas). They combined that with Place and changed the "a" to an "e". Thus, Peyton Place was created, prompting her comment, "Wonderful—that's it, George. Peyton Place. Peyton Place, New Hampshire. Peyton Place, New England. Peyton Place, USA. Truly a composite of all small towns where ugliness rears its head, and where the people try to hide all the skeletons in their closets." (wikipedia)
• • •

Odd. This one is just odd. A four-step word ladder. I feel like I'm missing some twist or trick. I am so used to Patrick's puzzle's having some brilliant or devilishly clever element that I keep waiting to see something like that here. But I think it's just WARM becoming COLD in four steps. Fill is quite run-of-the-mill, with the possible exception of FORT MYERS, which I wouldn't exactly call "good"—just somewhat unusual. Unless there is something I'm missing, I'd say this is pretty a workmanlike effort. I like the central answer—CARDBOARD CUTOUT—but not much else about this puzzle really stood out.


I had an odd lot of trouble getting started. Just couldn't see JAWS of Life even with the JA- in place. I kept moving away and coming back to it—maybe two or three times—before something clicked. FORT MYERS also took many crosses to see. Went with AYE instead of NOD at first—that held me up a bit. But my biggest screw-up happened around what eventually became the CARDBOARD area. First, I had PARE for 28D: Clip (PACE). Seemed a perfectly good answer. Then, stupidly, with the -OM- in place, I wrote in ROME for 25D: Final "Romeo and Juliet" setting. It didn't *feel* right, but the letter pattern seemed to ask for it, and it's Italian, after all, so I just threw it down. This left me with the very interesting RARDEOAR- as the opening to the Elvis answer. I don't know much, but I know that unless there is some very complex theme involving ciphers or backwardsness, RARDEOAR- is not the beginning of anything. I think I got TOMB, after getting MATERNITY, and then RARDBOARD quickly became CARDBOARD. Nothing after that held me up much. Felt slow, but ended up 26 seconds faster than last week, i.e. with a pretty normal Wednesday time (4:03)
    Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

    59 comments:

    August West 12:04 AM  

    Pretty bland for a PB joint. Warm becomes cold in four easy pieces? Yawn. Not sure if my favorite answer was GOES DUTCH or JAFAR. I think JAFAR.

    COLD HEARTED. Never forget.

    Evan 12:10 AM  

    I'm admittedly spoiled by Patrick's highly inventive grids, so by that standard, this was a little bit meh. At the very least, the themers are all solid phrases, and it's nice that they split up the word ladder in a consistent pattern (alternating from beginning to end). The fill's okay, though plural first names like TEDDYS just never sit well with me. And I don't think I knew that FETE could be a verb.

    Looking over at Xwordinfo, Patrick says that "There were two J's in this grid when originally submitted, but one of them was changed since it created a too-tricky vortex of literature and music." That has to be the LETT/LEM cross, which I'd think is a little unfriendly for a Wednesday puzzle, though not impossible to figure out. The original submission must have had JETT/JEM [Rocker Joan/"To Kill a Mockingbird" boy].

    Steve J 12:11 AM  

    Slow for me, primarily because I also expected something tricky when I saw Patrick Blindauer's byline. I certainly didn't expect a simple word ladder.

    My expectations of something sneaky came from the same mistake Rex mentioned: PArE instead of PACE. I got the stuff outside the circles pretty quickly on CARDBOARDCUTOUT, but with that leading R, I figured there was some sort of word scramble or letter exchanged featuring the letters C, A, R and D. That was reinforced with having the ARD part of MATERNITYWARD in place. But then I was completley confused because I had GAME of Life instead of JAWS of Life, which gave me an M at the start of 16A, which didn't support my initial idea.

    Finally I realized it was just a simple word ladder (I don't recall exactly where the a-ha moment came). Combined with a couple key writeovers (I had UWASH instead of UCONN, and AHH instead of ESS for "Start of a sneeze?" - I prefer my entry), the misdirection was enough to put me a good 50% above my typical Wednesday time.

    I liked the fill overall. The theme answers are all of pretty good quality, along with GOESDUTCH. PARTI and ORT next to each other were a bit painful, but other than that even the crosswordese was of tolerable scope and variety. Not a favorite Wednesday, but solid.

    jae 12:18 AM  

    Cute word ladder and easy-medium for me.  I agree, this was A TAD blah with some iffy fill.  Not a typical Blindauer.  The zippiest thing was the clue for 15a.   No erasures and no WOEs thanks to a puzzle by Andy Kravis that Rex linked to a few days ago.  Now that one was fun and zippy and turned a WOE in this puzzle into a gimme for me. 

    So, liked the ladder but...

    wreck 12:19 AM  

    I guess I'm in the minority ... I totally get word ladders, I just don't see the point in them as a theme. Might as well be themeless as they don't help me solve the puzzle.

    Anonymous 1:09 AM  

    I loved it!

    As a relative newbie, the fill was a bit tough for me. But, once I caught the theme and could complete the theme answers, the rest dropped into a place. A nice example of the theme complementing the solving process.

    Thumbs up from me.

    Newbie Joe

    wreck 1:19 AM  

    Hey anon! ... I'm certainly a newbie as well (about 21 minutes for me). If I don't figure out what the theme is until 30 minutes after I solve it - it is "themeless!" LOL

    ZenMonkey 3:33 AM  

    I enjoyed solving this one. The fill was improved by some amusing cluing ("Pique condition?") and I appreciated how it not only went from warm to cold, but also WARMBLOODED to COLDHEARTED. There's a story to be told in between, I think! I especially liked how ETHER was clued; Cider House is one of my favorite books (and my favorite Irving novel) and I can't remember it referenced like this before. .

    An easy Wednesday for me but I found it a bit zippier than others did, it seems.

    Anonymous 4:49 AM  

    Waiting for @Acme's post, as PB2 notes that she was a "puzzle consultant" for this crossword, and apparently she and PB2 weighed up UMBILICAL vs EXTENSIONCORD. I'd have plumped for UMBILICAL myself, but then I'm good at having my puzzles sent back for re-writes :).

    Gareth Bain 4:50 AM  

    Waiting for @Acme's post, as PB2 notes that she was a "puzzle consultant" for this crossword, and apparently she and PB2 weighed up UMBILICAL vs EXTENSIONCORD. I'd have plumped for UMBILICAL myself, but then I'm good at having my puzzles sent back for re-writes :).

    Too Old to Care 5:57 AM  

    Even Maleska would have refrained from including ROBB NEN. Never heard of him. Of course that was not necessary because of the cross. Otherwise easy fun for 5 AM.

    Anonymous 6:51 AM  

    I thought it was easy for a Wednesday and enjoyed it. 6 minutes and change which is almost 4 minutes under my Weds average.

    Loren Muse Smith 7:19 AM  

    @Evan – you've never heard the question, "Who's being FETEd?"

    I'm not a scientist, but doesn't ETHER smell funny? If so, nice cross with ODOR.

    I've never tangled with engineering word ladders, but I imagine to do clever ones: WARM BLOODED to COLD HEARTED, Liz' POOR-RICH, DAWN-DUSK and Peter Collins' AARON-BONDS – has to be really tough. I've played around with the idea all morning and have finally come up with my own. It's really quick, too. Womb – TOMB. Done.

    Hey – MATERNITY WARD crosses TOMB. Pretty much most of us start and end that way, huh?

    Liked TIER next to UPDO. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Brown, had a serious beehive that was TIERed. She always called me "Laureen Moose."

    Had "ach" before ESS, "adopts" before ENACTS, and "afro" before UPDO.
    Otherwise smooth sailing for me.

    Thanks, Patrick. Perfect way to start this hot, hot day. (PS, PB - I did go back twice looking for the Q.)

    mathguy 7:31 AM  

    Too. Easy for the word ladder to help. Twelve gimmes. Like some of the other commenters, didn't notice the word ladder until I had finished. Clue of the day: "Word before dog or dance."

    John V 7:32 AM  

    Easy, save for NW, as Rex noted. wanted LST for 19A, so got Naticked; did not know JAFAR, could not see JAWS.

    Good puz, felt more Tuesday-ish.

    Carola 7:58 AM  

    Like @Zen Monkey, I enjoyed the transition from WARMBLOODED to COLDHEARTED via a MATERNITY WARD, a CARDBOARD CUTOUT and an EXTENSION CORD and imagining the story behind it.

    I liked the WARMBLOODED - AMORE - AMAS cluster, which seemed like a good lead-in to the MATERNITY WARD. Also liked WARM crossing FORT MYERS and PEYTON (Manning) on the A TEAM.

    Unknown 8:02 AM  

    Circles - yuck. Word ladder - meh. Fill was easy with two exceptions for me. I kept reading 5D (One serving under Gen. 60 down, informally) as if it wanted RDA, as in single serving. Then, I was reading 50D (How many bootlegs are sold) as if it wanted a quantity. DUH. Need more coffee.

    Z 8:36 AM  

    @Newbie Joe and @wreck - keep commenting. It's always good to have the newer solver perspective.

    @Too Old to Care - Robb NEN has two very useful crossnames, so make a note.

    Workmanlike, yes. But quality work. The grid gruel is minimal, the cluing just chewy enough that I couldn't fly through. My biggest issue is that FORT MYERS is missing an E and then flipping back and forth between PaYTON and PEYTON.

    @August West - I think we already have. I can't decided if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Or to be more exact, whether or not the good of forgetting outweighs the bad of forgetting.

    jberg 8:39 AM  

    Despite my having PArE and dAWn of life, I breezed right through this one. The word ladder did help, in that I wrote in COLD as soon as I got it. I probably didn't need that, though.

    That wiki exceprt leaves out the main thing about PEYTON PLACE - its sex scenes were considered shockingly explicit at the time. Nothing like Henry Miller or Lady Chatterly, but you didn't really want your parents to know you were reading it. That and LAP dance gave this one a steamy feel, to match the weather here today.

    Anonymous 8:42 AM  

    Fort Myers was my last fill also.

    Ironic, since our retirement winter home is in Bonita Springs, a few miles south of The Fort, as we call it. I go there frequently for shopping, restaurants, car service, Red Sox spring training games, the airport, and enroute to Sanibel.

    Gr-r-r-r!

    dk 9:04 AM  

    Great moments in parenting - providing my then13 year old son with the "cheat" that disrobed Ms. Croft.

    As I rarely get the themes I am left to delight in the fill. I liked this one. LOL experience was having ApE for AXE and thinking pACTO was an off brand of XACTO. The the little gray cells started to turn...

    Please note the setting for Cider House Rules is the Granite State (NH) as well.

    🌟🌟🌟 (3 Stars) ATEAM and TALC are seen everywhere these days and welcome home ORT.

    joho 9:14 AM  

    I like that both WARMBLOODED and COLDHEARTED are body related making the transition from WARM to COLD more meaningful to me.

    I love CARDBOARDCUTOUT! Especially with the visual of Elvis.

    @Gareth Bain, I have to say that umbilicalCORD would have been a great pairing with MATERNITYWARD.

    Clever clue with "Punch lines" for OWS.


    I can't be the only one who at first had ApE for Swinger in the woods? can I? Another fun clue.

    I liked it, thanks, Patrick!

    joho 9:16 AM  

    @dk, nope, I wasn't the only one!

    Jim in Chicago 9:20 AM  

    Not a big fan of the clue for DOZEN. I realize that dozen is a way to express 12 of something, but the line in the carol is "Twelve drummers drumming" not "A dozen drummers drumming.

    Have we seen "lap dance" before. The "OK at breakfast" line seems to be moving a bit of late.

    Danp 9:22 AM  

    Never even noticed the circles, which explains why I couldn't figure out the theme, though I new "warm" and "cold" had to be part of one. I really do hate Wednesday themes.

    Danp 9:22 AM  

    Never even noticed the circles, which explains why I couldn't figure out the theme, though I new "warm" and "cold" had to be part of one. I really do hate Wednesday themes.

    Lewis 9:31 AM  

    Quality puzzle, maybe a little easy for Wednesday. Very little grid gruel. The theme helped my solve. Solid, solid puzzle.

    I would much rather seen ACTE instead of ACNE, then we could have had NET instead of NEN.

    mac 9:40 AM  

    Nice puzzle, with, for me, memories of Andrea and Patrick discussing it (and a couple of other puzzles Patrick carried in his back pocket) at my place YEARS ago.

    Who came up with umbilical cord?;-)

    I'm so used to Patrick's puzzles giving me a hard time, it was a pleasure to sail through this one.

    I'm on my way to meet JenCt's Justice!

    Notsofast 10:05 AM  

    Unlike some others, I found this puzzle to be a helluva good time! I loved every minute. Clueing was bright: OWS: Punch lines? ... did Fanta and Nehi coexist?

    chefbea 10:29 AM  

    Pretty easy but I did have Ape for swinger in the woods at first.

    I remember Peyton Place...the first night time soap!!

    shout out to @Mac at 34 across

    Go Huskies!!!

    r.alphbunker 10:39 AM  

    The word ladder was interesting. It uses the minimal number of steps (rungs?) from WARM to COLD and each step is part of a phrase.

    There are 4*3*2*1 possible minimal word ladders of length four. There are 4 choices for the first letter to substitute, then 3 choices for the second letter and so on. I wrote a short program to list all 24 possibilities and only 5 use only acceptable words:
    WARM
    WORM
    WORD
    CORD
    COLD
    ----------
    WARM
    WORM
    WORD
    WOLD (British: a piece of high, open, uncultivated land)
    COLD
    ----------
    WARM
    WARD
    CARD
    CORD
    COLD
    ----------
    WARM
    WARD
    WORD
    CORD
    COLD
    ----------
    WARM
    WARD
    WORD
    WOLD
    COLD
    ----------

    Ray J 11:11 AM  

    LEE TREVIno – haha!

    Perhaps TEDDYS clued as “Leather and lace purchases” would have spiced this up A TAD and eliminated the plural first names that @Evan mentioned.

    AROMA and ODOR together? Mr. Blindauer might be nosing around your smelly puz opus, M&A.

    MetaRex 11:12 AM  

    Took 90 seconds or so to find my APE-PACTO mistake...often that gets me irritated, but the cute misdirection in the AXE-APE clue made me smile this time.

    XWord M.D. 11:17 AM  

    One minor nitpick: 36 down clue. "Ocular", as an adjective in Medical jargon, really refers to the globe (eyeball) and its contents. Hence, "extra ocular muscles", e.g. The more appropriate clue for STYE (which, of course, is an affliction of the eyelid) should be "ophthalmologic", which encompasses all diseases of the eye and its adnexa, including the lids.

    quilter1 11:33 AM  

    Confidently wrote tree at 1D, follwed by right at 13A, did not know JAFAR, did not know FORTMYERS was a retirement community and so the NW was the last to fall with write-overs. But that said, I really enjoyed and appreciated this puzzle and having expected a struggle was happy to solve steadily until the end. Thank you, PB.

    Masked and Anonymo4Us 11:59 AM  

    COOL.

    pauer says that he made this puz before iPads existed. Which is why we get IPODS, instead. Fortunately, the game of POOL had been invented. Anyhoo, fun solve. Plus it's got the circles, to drive 4-Oh to drink.

    Drives me nuts dept: Things about this puz that bugged me...
    * JAFAR. Cannot remember this friggin name, no matter how often I see it. JAMAL? ...see? Forgot it already.
    * "___ Place" clue. Wanted PAARRK.
    * "Number of drummers drumming, in song" clue. Dude. Do they really sing "Dozen Drummers Drumming"? You do realize, this opens up a whole new Yuletide shtick:
    A short rest wortha rings,
    Little joe callin birds,
    A crowd's French hens,
    Deuce turtle doves...
    And cosine of zero partridge in a pear tree.
    (I leave the higher gifts as an exercise for the reader.)

    But I digress.
    M&A

    M and A also 12:29 PM  

    @r.alphbunker... Oh wow, dude. Nice word ladder analysis.
    How about an actual WORD ladder in a puz, sometime?

    As in:
    WORD
    CORD
    WORD
    WORE
    WORD
    WARD
    WORD
    LORD
    WORD...

    zzz...zonk...snort...
    huh?

    ... oop. Sorry. har. Nodded off there, for a coupla minutes...

    M&A

    retired_chemist 1:18 PM  

    OK puzzle but add me to the chorus of those who think this is not up to Mr. Blindauer's usual standard.

    Word ladder helped a bit.

    Ocular in common parlance (i.e. a non-medical dictionary) means "of or connected with the eyes or vision), so the clue is fine.

    @ LMS - ETHER has a characteristic but not unpleasant ODOR. Nice catch.

    JAFAR and IKE were WTFs. Robb NEN, not.

    Thanks, Mr.B. Mo betta' though, please. (Urban Dictionary installs the apostrophe. Who knew?)

    Bird 1:49 PM  

    Before I get to the puzzle, I will pause to remember and reflect.

    343

    I liked this puzzle with two exceptions. 1) Those vehicles at 54A were identified in the movie as alien spacecraft. 2) The fill is stale in some parts.

    Started with “A” think ACH at 41A, but paused and checked the Downs. Good thing.

    Needed to change APE to AXE when PACTO (filled in from downs) didn’t look right.

    How about a word ladder where the letter changes spell LADDER? Or has that been done?

    More and Anonymous 2:12 PM  

    @r.alphbunker... Sorry to keep abotherin U...

    Be sure and say YO! to The Shortzmeister for m&e, tonight out in there Iowa City. Lookin forward to a full report on the festivities, in the mornin. Thanx. Sorry I can't be there, but it's just outside the range of the M&Amobile. Plus, might not be able to get thru campus security, wearin the mask...

    M&A

    DigitalDan 2:13 PM  

    @Too Old:

    I find it comforting that once in a great while a West Coast Natick is part of the puzzle. Robb Nen was a household name in the SF Bay Area for many years. Atlantians should stay up later -- they're missing the best games.

    LaneB 2:37 PM  

    So pleased to sail ( slowly of course) through today's with only one google and no erasures., A remedy for yesterday's embarrassment. Only delay was caused by the LETT, PARTI and ARTS cross.. I seldom see the theme until Rex tells me about it. Today was no exception.

    Anonymous 3:37 PM  

    Disagree with medium difficulty. Got this in less than 10 with only the across clues, which is my thing. Fairly rare for me to complete a Wednesday this way. Had to guess on former Giant Robb (Net? Ner? Neh?) but guessed right. Not even sure which Giants he played for. -skeptic 53

    jburgs 4:06 PM  

    Back in the 70's Kodak placed in stores a life sized cardboard cutout of a pretty girl in a bikini holding a larger than life box of Kodak film. While driving through the Okanagan valley on vacation I came across a hitchhiker who stood on the side of the highway with one arm around the shoulder of such a cutout. He had covered the film box with a cardboard sign listing his destination of Vancouver. I picked him up and commented on his creativity. He let me know that he had never had such quick rides since bringing along this prop which folded up neatly in three to fit in his pack

    jackj 4:28 PM  

    "OK puzzle but add me to the chorus of those who think this is not up to Mr. Blindauer's usual standard."

    So said retired_chemist and I totally agree with his thought.

    Perhaps when editors sit on a puzzle for an inordinate length of time, as a courtesy to the constructor, (when they finally publish it), they should point out that they have been holding it for many years.

    Amore Cardboard Maternity 6:21 PM  

    WOW, just goes to show what a genius Patrick is that people thought this was blah or workman-like or not up to standard!!!!

    That flabbergasts me!

    To be it was solid and to go from WARMHEARTED to COLDBLOODED in such short steps IS genius!!!

    And the long ones are SUPER fun...CARDBOARDCUTOUT and MATERNITYWARD are great fill...
    and I love "Punchlines?" for OWS!!!!!!!

    (THo OWS is NOT good in Scrabble, no interjections are allowed S. An dI would have loved the JETT/JEM crossing)

    I'm with @Carola and @joho on this, not surprisingly!

    I have ZERO memory of being a consultant, nor being at Macs tho I do remember introducing them and having a wonderful dinner at some point a million years ago...so I'll have to read what Patrick said.
    I enjoyed this from word one (1D that is...
    who wouldn't love JAWS of life!!!!)

    Anyway, couldn't get to commenting till late today and am floored that this was not embraced.
    It's not one of his Thursday mind twisters, it's a Wednesday.

    Just goes to show that my therapist is right that it's ALL about expectations bec this is one terrific little puzzle!
    And EXCEEDED my expectations in the subtlety of the solidity of the theme.

    And as it's indeed going from WARM to COLD these days I'd say this puzzle's theme was AUGUST, with accent on the second syllable!

    acme 6:25 PM  

    OOps! Make that WARMBLOODED to COLDHEARTED...
    Doubly neat that they can be interchanged!!!

    Now on to donner with PuzzleSister...maybe we'll make up a puzzle that can be solved in 2018!

    Twin Citi-zens!!!! Don't forget it's not too late to see Will tomorrow night!!!! Wish I were there!

    JenCT 8:31 PM  

    @jburgs 4:06 PM: Liked your story.

    This puzzle wasn't terribly easy for me!

    Had a lovely day with @mac & Justice at my house and sightseeing around UConn.

    Looking forward to bringing Justice to the next ACPT with me!

    ANON B 8:36 PM  

    Can someone please explain
    endothermic=warm blooded?
    The dictionary and my chemical experience say endothermic refers
    to reactions that absorb heat.
    If you react two chemicals and
    the reaction produces heat, it's
    an exothermic reaction.If it's
    endothermic the medium gets cold.

    retired_chemist 8:43 PM  

    @ ANON B - yours is the first definition in my dictionary, but WARMBLOODED is the second. it's legit.

    ANON B 1:12 PM  

    @retired_chemist:
    You're right. Endo=within plus
    thermic=with heat. I was lazy. When I saw the definition I was looking for I stopped looking.

    spacecraft 11:46 AM  

    @RayJ: Thanks for providing Mr. ELS with a playing partner; I never noticed the LEE/TREVI cross till you pointed it out. This gives rise to a whole theme, "Positive names:"

    Golfer Lee TREVIYES
    Book 'em DAYES
    PLAYES, Texas
    Japanese Olympic city NAGAYES

    etc. OK, my mind admits to a bleedover from yesterday's blog that featured the complete lyrics to "Accentuate the Positive."

    Anyway, can I get PARTI of this puzzle ONDVD? Double-ugh. So ugly it pulls the hankie. Call it "unnecessary roughness." I've seen word ladders as stand=-alone entries in corners and such, but as circled portions of long answers it leaves me ATAD meh. It is noteworthy, I guess, that the bookend phrases are interchangeable: one can be either -BLOODED or -HEARTED at both temperatures; but really, as has been said, that doesn't seem to be enough for Mr. B.

    Oh, that reminds me. I've seen ATEAM three times this week, all clued as a generic varsity. Folks, there is, was, and will be only one A-TEAM: Hannibal, Face, B.A., and the inimitable Howlin' Mad Murdock. I'll thank you not to infringe on their uniqueness.

    DMG 2:08 PM  

    For me this was more like a Monday puzzle. Never heard of Mr. Nen, but remember NEHI well. Hello Radar!

    @jberg: Your comments on PEYTON Place are well taken. When I went to borrow it from the library in Pasadena, the grey lady behind the desk tsk-tsked that that wasn't the sort of book that a young girl (I was 24) like me should be reading. Wonder what she would have thought of the stuff the 10 year olds are reading these days!

    Ginger 2:40 PM  

    Liked it more than OFL and many posters did. @Acme said it better than I can; pointing out how clever it is on different levels.

    A MATERNITY WARD is now a Birthing Center. ETHER is from the same archaic terminology. I would have voted for umbilical CORD.

    @DMG PEYTON Place was indeed a naughty secret when it came out. Did not want anyone to see me reading it! I was newly married and my how it made me blush. It seems so tame now.

    Dirigonzo 2:47 PM  

    I finished without any major problems, had fun in the process and - BONUS - saw the word puzzle at CARDBOARD and plugged COLD in the appropriate circle before I even arrived at the clue. (Patting self on back) Maybe it was the LAP dance that made me like it so much - or possible the LSD, who knows? "Houston, the Eagle has landed!" (Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969)

    And of course you already know that several scenes in the movie "Peyton Place" were filmed in my hometown, Belfast (on the Atlantic shore), Maine!

    Solving in Seattle 3:27 PM  

    LAPed up this puzz with one writeover: ApE (Swinger in the woods - jungle, whatever) before AXE.

    Got the WARM... to COLD... theme and shrugged.

    I need to have a @Spacecraft false start flag thrown on 41A. I just don't like those kind of clues. Wanted "aah."

    @Diri, were you an extra in PEYTON Place?

    Capcha: daydayI. A book publisher's start in business?

    Dirigonzo 4:29 PM  

    @SiS - it's probably a rhetorical question but I'll answer it anyway. I wasn't an extra but some of my classmates were (I think it was a shot of families exiting a church). (I'm sure you know that if I had been in the movie, you wouldn't have had to ask.)

    TAM 6:22 PM  

    Maybe someone has mentioned this, but I have a problem with the clue "fragrance" for 56D "odor". I've always considered them at odds with one another.

    Waxy in Montreal 8:38 PM  

    Had UWASH/SWORD before UCONN/SCORE and APE forever (PACTO sounded like a great blade brand). Otherwise OK but IMO not up to the usual Patrick Blindauer level of expertise.

    Interesting how a novel/movie like Peyton Place, innocuous by today's standards, could have been so controversial in the late '50's. I remember the book being passed around in high school as a really hot commodity. Even the Harper Valley P.T.A. hit song contained the line "well, this is just a little Peyton Place...". Everyone knew what it meant.



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