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SUNDAY, Jun. 28 2009 — Locale for Apfelstrudel and Sachertorte / Tulip-exporting city / Tiny friend Dumbo / Cesar five-time gold glove winner 1972-76
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Constructor: Barry C. Silk
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "SECRET INGREDIENTS" — circled squares inside eight theme answers spell out herbs (is PEPPER an herb?)
Word of the Day: DRAWEE (114A: Party to a financial transaction) — n.
The party on which an order for the payment of money is drawn.
Not among my favorite Silk creations. First off, this type of theme leaves me cold. I don't mind circled letters when they are doing something clever or interesting, but this pick-and-choose-the-letters-that-
spell-things tactic is kind of stale — a low bar, especially without any additional element of thematic interest. If a theme answer is long enough, you can find Lots of embedded words in it. MANGO's in MANAGING EDITOR. RETINA's in PRINCETON SEMINARY. There's two new potential themes for you right there. Circling a ragged assortment of letters just doesn't feel very exciting or inspiring. I have high expectations for Silk puzzles, and there's none of his usual kick here. Further, some of the theme answers felt odd. PRINCETON SEMINARY doesn't seem a noteworthy enough place (no offense) to be a theme answer. COARSE-GRAINED WOOD was just blah. Felt weird to have to know two different middle initials for this one (I remembered MICHENER's but I didn't even know the TIMOTHY part of the MOUSE answer, let alone the "Q"!). Most of the non-theme fill seemed quite solid, but man oh man DRAWEE / WIEN is horrible. Never ever heard of a DRAWEE (114A: Party to a financial transaction) and had to infer WIEN (116D: Locale for Apfelstrudel and Sachertorte) from WIENERSCHNITZEL. It's the German spelling of Vienna, but that's a spelling rarely seen / heard over here. Very marginal financial word crossing marginal (*in its German spelling*) Austrian place = yikes. A huge black mark on an otherwise nicely filled puzzle. Just not feeling this one today.
Theme answers:
- 23A: Battle of Trafalgar hero (Admiral Nelson) / DILL — why oh why did I write in ADMIRAL NIMITZ?
- 38A: Oak or ash (coarse-grained wood) / OREGANO
- 60A: Lucifer, notably (fallen angel) / FENNEL
- 83A: Suffer for acting unwisely (pay the piper) / PEPPER
[Erik Estrada!]
- 101A: New Jersey ecumenical institution (Princeton Seminary) / ROSEMARY
- 124A: Tiny friend of Dumbo (Timothy Q. Mouse) / THYME
- 17D: "The World Is My Home" memoirist, 1991 (James A. Michener) / JASMINE
- 52D: Deadline maker (managing editor) / GINGER
The nature of the theme made the puzzle very very easy in parts — once you got the theme, if you had a circled square or two filled in, it wasn't hard to infer the herb and fill in the other circled squares. I got the theme very early — with this kind of theme, it's not hard. You need just one answer, two tops, and it's clear what the gimmick is. So I flew through most of it, but there were some patches that were quite rough. Puzzle first resisted me in the MANATEE (49D: Sighting off the coast of Florida) section of the grid — love that MANATEE crosses HOMELY, because, well, they are. I had MACAW for MYNAH (67A: Mimic of a sort), which gummed things up, and I couldn't understand 57A: Computer letters at all at first. When I saw the answer was EMAILS, I think I said "ugh" out loud. Not sure how I didn't see that. Don't know the Beach Boys song about WENDY (80A: Title girl of a 1964 Beach Boys song), so I had (misspelled) RONDA in there for a bit.Then there was the TIMOTHY Q. MOUSE section, which was like a separate puzzle-within-a-puzzle. Rough. DRAWEE / WIEN was the big groin-kicker, but the "Q" in SQ MI (119D: 640 acres: Abbr.) was no picnic either.
Took some time to get INTERS (132A: Lays low?), so the terminal "I" wasn't in place on SQ MI and without the "Q" or "I," I was confused. In the adjacent section, I wasn't sure how to spell TEENIE (128A: Like a yellow polka dot bikini in a 1961 #1 hit), and had SACHEL (?) for SACHET at first (103D: Bag in a closet). Oh, and I finished the puzzle with a mistake — misread the clue at 93D: Ones whose symbol is a harp as a singular clue, and so had IRISHMAN. This caused me to wonder, over and over, why MANDEL sounded so wrong for the genetics guy (129A: The Father of Genetics -> MENDEL).Bullets:
1A: Blade for blades (scythe) — good one. Had to get it from crosses. True AHA moment.
13A: 1965 title role for Peter O'Toole (Lord Jim) — no idea. "Lord Jim" is a Conrad novel. I thought it was Kingsley Amis, but that's "Lucky Jim."
47A: Silents star Renee (Adoree) — again, no idea. Needed all the crosses. Add her to the list of other silent actresses you see in puzzles, like POLA NEGRI and MABEL Normand and THEDA BARA. The "A" cross was unknown to me: HAARLEM (34D: Tulip-exporting city).
74A: Container that's hoisted (stein) — They love to hoist their STEINs in WIEN.
121A: Co-star of "Grumpy Old Men," 1993 (Matthau) — "Odd Couple" reunited.
2D: Cesar _____, five-time Gold Glove winner, 1972-76 (Cedeno) — rough if you're not a hardcore baseball fan. I collected baseball cards at the right time (late 70s/early 80s) to make his name a gimme for me. I think he was on the Astros when I was collecting.76D: It has 1,366 seats: Abbr. (NYSE) — without "WENDY" to help in the cross, this took me a bit.
102D: Axis leader (Il Duce) — another rough one. Had the "I" and thought "??? ... IDI AM... no ..."
107D: Snack food made by Drake's (Yodels) — started writing YOOHOOs (that's a drink), then melded that with HO HO's (a snack food, but the wrong one), and eventually ended up with the right answer. Not on my junk food menu growing up. If I was going to eat baked goods, I was going to Winchell's to get fresh-baked donuts ... maybe stop by McDonald's to get a 20-pc Chicken McNuggets. How I survived teenagedom without becoming obese is Beyond me.
And now, culled from Twitter, your Puzzle Tweets of the Week:
- ericmathew As a train we are filling out a crossword puzzle. Only at 2am and in nj.
- nicavecmini sat on a train drinking wine and listening to some retards doing a crossword
- MikeHasTweets Why do I even bother with post-Wednesday crosswords? (not rhetorical)
- zsumoz Saturday's NY Times crossword dominated. In pen. #willshortz
- mssilhouette On My Fifth Crossword Puzzle As I Watch The Golden Girls
- foodjobsbook If you are good at solving crossword puzzles, consider a career as a freelance cookbook indexer.
- wineoffensive It's a Jay-Z unplugged kinda day. Also an NYT xword kinda day. A baking kinda day. You know, a piquito enchildas verde kinda day...
- shewillbeapples: Crossword clue: Autograph site (4 letters). Me: "Boob?" Dad: "U need to engage your brain before you open your mouth.”
And lastly, one announcement today — the upcoming Lollapuzzoola 2 Crossword Tournament, hosted by Ryan Hecht and Brian Cimmet. Here's the info provided to me by Ryan (for more infor, contact rbxblog@gmail.com):
Website: http://lollapuzzoola.bemoresmarter.com
- WHAT: Lollapuzzoola 2: Son of Puzzoola, a fun-filled crossword tournament
- WHEN: Saturday, August 22, 2009 from 11am to 5pm
- WHERE: Community Church in Jackson Heights, NY (that's part of Queens -- and it's the church where Scrabble was invented!)
- WHO: Hosted by Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht of the blog "Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords" and the podcast "Fill Me In"
- HOW MUCH: $20, payable online via PayPal or pay at the door when you arrive.
It's a crossword tournament with assorted twists... Last year's event included a Name That Tune puzzle with live musical accompaniment, a snack puzzle (three secret entries in the grid were CHI-PSA-HOY, and you had to eat a cookie), a surprise game of Twister (theme entries included RED, BLUE, RIGHT, LEFT, FOOT, HAND, etc.). We were even honored with a visit from the Puzzlemaster himself, Mr. Will Shortz.
We can't give away the secrets of this year's tournament, but we have confirmed a few of the puzzle constructors -- Peter Gordon, Todd McClary and Mike Nothnagel will be providing three of the six puzzles featured in the tournament. We'll also be having ACPT-style finals, with two skill level divisions and dry-erase board solving for the finalists. And of course we'll be offering our patented Google Tickets, making those Friday- and Saturday-level puzzles a bit more manageable for the everyday solvers.
Some snacks and drinks will be provided. Prizes will range from unique to useless. What more could you want?
That's all. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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64 comments:
The theme definitely made the solving easier in places. In fact, it made it almost too easy. I like a bit more of a struggle on Sunday - especially trying to figure out the theme. This one was evident on the very first answer. Otherwise, the puzzle was just okay. That "Q" in Sq MI was my very last entry.
I solved without the theme but drew a blank re Sam's club. Easy, especially for a Barry silk who can be worse than Lucifer with fiendish, treacherous clues.
I'm the first???? Of course I loved the puzzle. Got Fallen Angel first and the rest was easy.
I too had Ronda and sachel.
I think Barry Silk made this puzzle for us - two Dutch answers, Australia, Canada, and my last name.
A fun Sunday puzzle blended all together
I thought the puzzle was OK, not great. The HAARLEM/ADOREE crossing was close to the N word for me, but I was pretty sure I'd seen ADOREE before (I know it's hard to believe, but I'm not all that familiar with silent film stars). I live a few miles from Harlem, but never knew it was a Dutch place name. I love learning through crosswords.
I work in finance, and I thought DRAWEE was pretty horrible, too.
The theme did help me in the SE with TIMOTHY Q. MOUSE, as I filled in THYME on the Y alone.
What Rex said. All of it.
Oh, and the yellow polka dot bikini in 128A wasn't just TEENIE, it was "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie". Wouldn't fit, though.
Totally agree, Rex. Feh!
Misread the clue for 108A as "snack cake made by Drakes", and filled in doodle from the crosses. i Thought "Thats a snck cake isnt it?"
Never heard of ADOREE or HAARLEM so that required a google to finish.
Overall a very easy and fun solve.
BTW, Wien is in Austria, not Germany
Thanks Mr. Silk.
No thanks NYT. Again, no second Sunday puzzle.
Eeeeee fest for this one:
Es : Emag, eBay, emails, egad, emer , ete, enuf, espo, elsa, erma, etal, elia, emil, edam.
Double Ees : drawee, adoree, eels, emceed, teenie.
Eas :Tea ,tearat, tease, atease
Great music today. "Pepper," "Wendy," and "Itsy-Bitsy...." are all classic favorites. The puzzle, not so much favorite. I've only been doing puzzles regularly for a little over a year now, but I feel like I've already seen this exact theme 2 or 3 times before. Spices in circles! Exciting shit!
Return of the curse of the circles.
A short lived moment of hope when first "theme" answers I put in included Admiral and Prince, (maybe a title theme?), then Rosemary popped out, found Dill, and Fallen Angel went in.
Back it went to just another puzzle with circles.
I agree with Rex --- at least on circles. :)
.../Glitch
Totally agree w/your comments today Rex.
As a pseudo-foodie, once I got
the first (ginger in this case)
the rest were very-gettable.
I never heard of drawee.
Pepper 2 days in a row?
Rhea
Count me in on the theme... pretty pedestrian even for someone who would enjoy indexing cookbooks.
I'm with Rex on this one. I ignored the theme so medium works for me. I also tried RONDA and misread 89a which caused me to wonder what the Brady Bunch had to do with guns.
@JannieB: Q was also my last entry. Had to Google Timothy Mouse to come up with the letter. I couldn't do SQMI until then. Rest was fairly easy.
Alas, MITCHENER not MICHENER only causes trouble in Xwords. Liked the Pole, next to the German above Austria.
Can't believe I couldn't remember Walter MATTHAU's last name. Googled it, and recalled Kevin Spacey's spot-on SNL impersopnation of him and Christopher Walken doing the Star Wars auditions. YouTube removed them, but Spacey is also here, and he's unbelievably good.
I was humming "Help me, Wanda, help help me Wanda" for at least 60 seconds before I remembered that wasn't the song. According to Wikipedia, it was originally released as Help Me Ronda, so your (Rex, et al.) initial take was a good one. No complaints with DRAWEE. It's a perfectly good financial and legal term. I'll take that over rappers and obscure (to me) opera trivia any day.
Wien was easy as I remember standing in airport thinking what the hell I am supposed to be in Vienna. Don't even ask about Croatia. Last fill was Rye and my brain keeps singing "whisky and rye" because I never knew the words.
Who knew "Without purpose" was an adverbial phrase? And what the hell is REE, anyway?
Was completely lost in the NE.
Let's cut BCS some slack. The theme answers took plenty of ingenuity to cook up. Of course, he may keep a lexicon of embedded words. Still....
Agreed with the general sentiment about this type of theme--had fun with some of the fill, though.
@anonymous at 10:45: That's not the issue. Since the Austrians speak German (admittedly with an accent, but so do many other native German speakers), Wien is the German spelling. However, I do not consider this spelling obscure--unless one considers every spelling of a name in its original language obscure--Milano, Roma, Köln--really?
@Ulrich,
I completely understand what you're saying. But first, I see MILANO, ROMA, and KOLN way way way more in my xword and non-xword life than I do WIEN. Why, I don't know.
Second, I think WIEN wouldn't have struck me as "obscure" (in that spelling) if it had had a different clue. Here's the complete transcript of a msg I sent HudsonHawk earlier in the day.
"Here's something weird (WIERD?):
Every other clue for WIEN in the cruciverb database (only 7 of 'em) mentions either "capital" or "city of waltzes," and the word is thus considered easy (appearing in M and T puzzles, primarily).
Those desserts just didn't point at VIENNA very strongly for me, it seems.
I think I'm really just mad at DRAWEEEEEEEEEEEE.."
@Rex: fair enough. Not that many people would know that Sachertorte was invented at the Hotel Sacher in Wien. It's unbelievably delicious if the original recipe is strictly adhered to--you couldn't tell from the imitations available in the US, and that includes the version sold at the Neue Galerie in New York--They really should know better! My wife called their version a Frechheit--an effrontery.
I love to read your take on the NYT Sunday edition puzzle. It gives me my "belly" laugh for the week. I think the puzzles of late have been taken from the 1960's and 70's and updated. That is why some of the clues are so "outdated". You are the King!
Agree with Ulrich, who agreed with everyone else : ) I also agree with him re Wien.
Rex asked:"is PEPPER an herb?". I don't believe so, but I was willing to reinterpret the theme as "Herbs and Spices" --e.g. GINGER. But my main question is about JASMINE. It's my favorite flower/shrub, and I love its smell. But I'm not aware of it being used in cooking. I know there is JASMINE Rice, but I think that is the aroma of the rice itself, nothing added. Can anyone think of a dish to which JASMINE is added?
I had a very smooth puzzle experience and didn't look at the circled letters until I filled in the last letter, the Q in sq.mi.
I think it is a competent Sunday puzzle, but we know and like Barry Silk better as a develish Fri/Sat constructor.
Noticed there is another herb in the puzzle: bay at 104D. I've used all in food, except the jasmine. That I have in tea sometimes. Talking about food, I think the clue and answer for 116D Wien is perfect. The two pastries are in their German translation, and the Sachertorte was created in the Hotel Sacher in Vienna.
For the tulip-exporting city I tried to cram in Aalsmeer, which is where the main auctionhouse for flowers is. It's close to Haarlem, though.
@Rex: thanks for the info on Cedeno; I got the name completely from crosses, and I thought he was a boxer with that golden glove.... I guess that would have been a plural if it were so!
Easy! Finished in 15 minutes, which is way shorter than my normal time. There were almost no hang-ups at all here, especially in the top half. Not a very fun puzzle, either.
@foodie,
To be clear (which I am clearly having trouble with today, sorry), I wasn't faulting PEPPER for not being an herb, merely questioning whether my own description of the theme was accurate. Apparently not. Someone else suggested "seasonings," which seems fine as well, though PEPPER really stands out from all the others (to me).
As for what might have JASMINE in it, there's tea, obviously, but I don't know about anything else.
rp
I thought of "herbs and spices" as in "eleven different herbs and spice" when I saw "SECRET INGREDIENTS". I cavil at JASMINE.
I get the Saturday puzzle in the local paper, 6 weeks late as you suggest. "Yesterday"'s puzzle and today's had a Canadian national park and Athens (differnet places in each case).
ps. I got WIEN easily enough, different life experiences I suppose, but I thought 'locale' was unecessarily misleading. On the other hand 'Sitzenlieben' might have been too much. Was it the capitalization of the desserts that gave us the hint that the answer was in German?
I agree this was just so-so. After I got a couple of the ingredients, I was expecting all the ingredients to add up to one dish, like a calzone or shepherd's pie or something, and that whatever it was would be clued somewhere.
Unlike most here, I loved the puzzle. Once I changed Horatio Nelson to ADMIRAL NELSON and dill fell into place, the rest was fun and reasonably easy. Loved the call out to me with the Beach Boys song. Woo Hoo!
Demel's has the best Sachertorte in Vien, my father's hometown.
I probably have as many spices as chefb and can report I have Jasmine Oil, which is used in Arabic recipes more often, but is found in a few Indian dishes as a balance to some hot/bitter dishes to cool the scent. My favorite use is to add a drop to whipped cream and have guests try to guess the flavor. Jasmine tea drinkers are about the only ones who can guess. It is very flowery (it comes from a flower) and a little goes a very long way.
I created a reception after a recent music concert involving Viennese waltzes and the theme was a Viennese coffee house. I served linzertorte, apfelstrudel and sachertorte with ten varieties of coffee. The ones with kirsch were the most popular.
I liked the puzzle and thought it must be difficult to get all of these long phrases down and across without tripping on each other. Well done Barry.
A very easy puzzle but boring. I, too, had a problem with "jasmine," which didn't seem to fit the spice theme. I pulled "Timothy Q. Mouse" out of a hat -- can't imagine why I remembered that character. Wien was a gimmee if you know anything about Sachertorte and speak German. And Haarlem? An art historian who reads (but, alas, doesn't speak) Dutch couldn't miss that one.
I sort of objected to "Princeton Seminary" since, as a former Princeton resident, I know that the correct name is "Princeton Theological Seminary," but that's a mere quibble.
I loved "paisano" the Spanish version of Italian "paesano," for countryman, or person from the same place. Italian is my favorite foreign language, but both the Spanish and Italian words seem to come from Old French.
Jasmine is used as a scent. It's an ingredient in perfumes. Just like juniper is used to scent gin.
Jasmine simply does not belong with this group.
@twangster: great idea! Too bad Andrea Carla doesn't cook...
@phillysolver: you are a very creative host! I'm looking into this jasmine oil, but so far I've only found sources for the aromatherapy kind, and I'm not sure those are edible.
Am I alone in being a stranger to NOHO? The old standby Soho didn't work (wrestling with LOSG for "time-consuming" consumed a lot of my time).
IRISHMEN gave me STLEO at last -- I'd fumbled around with OTTOI way too long. Overall, I enjoyed this one and think the Secret Ingredients added a bit of spice to the concoction. Polly
@Norm -- I second you on DRAWEE, a very basic legal/financial word. Take that you sports bullies! ;)
@twangster ... I agree with @mac .. if the ingredients had created a certain dish this would have been incredibly delicious.
I filled in all squares but the "Q." SQMI seems obvious to me now, TIMOTHYQMOUSE not so much.
I always appreciate Barry Silk puzzles, but this was not my favorite.
I'm wondering if I should move to NOHO.
"Manatee" doesn't cross "homely". It does, however, cross "mammal", which also crosses "homely", so, even better, I think.
"Drawee" got the best of me, too, given my lack of familiarity with North Pacific islands and the German spelling of Austrian cities. Reading the clue for "Wien", I was desperately trying to remember the German word for bakery.
Done in by a mouse, Timothy Q to be exact. And I didn't even notice the theme until I got here.
Happily, I guessed Haarlem correctly.
I visit Pointe Pelee in Canada every year in May for the bird migration. People from all over the world visit and if you're a birder, it's a must visit. There's lots of info on their site.
I'm having trouble with Princeton Seminary as an Ecumenical Institution, since it was founded by the Presbyterians in August 1812 and remains a Presbyterian Theological Seminary to this day. There probably are ecumenical programs there, but at its heart it is denominational.
Re Anonymous @ 2:55 PM:
Re STLEO (Fifth-century pope):
Isn't there a convention in these puzzles that abbreviations be indicated in some way by the clue? Perhaps it is secretly abrogated for saints, because I recall a similar violation in recent weeks.
OTTOI, OTOH, isn't an abbreviation. It's just ugly.
Larry the Lurker
(cf. Joe the Plumber :-)
Odd controversy: frankfurters are named for Frankfurt, hamburgers are named for Hamburg but weiners? Heh, heh -- he said "weiner."
Would have been better had I spelled "wiener" correctly. Sigh.
Polly, I had problems with NOHO too, and never caught it. I liked the HAARLEM answer. It's interesting seeing PANAM turn up again. I've got relatives in WIEN so that wasnt' hard for me, although I've never heard of DRAWEE before either.
Rex, thanks for the response. I actually understood that you were not being literal and were questioning the herb category with PEPPER as one of the answers. My working hypothesis is that you don't make conceptual mistakes : )
I evolved my view of the theme iN an odd way because I started from the bottom and thought it would have something to do with Simon and Garfunkel-- Parsley, Sage, ROSEMARY and THYME. As GINGER emerged, I started thinking herbs and spices. But JASMINE still would not fit in my mind as either... I agree, JASMINE tea comes closest.
@Philly, I know about JASMINE oil and I've seena tiny drop added to hot water and lemon as an after dinner tea (sometime called White Tea). Rosewater can also be used that way. But I've never seen it in cooking from my neck of the woods (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan). Could it be Moroccan?
I'll try your idea of putting it in cream. That sounds very interesting! And I agree with @Mac, what a great host you are! That party sounds fabulous. Since we have a cooking connection between Rex's blog and the Food Network, we need to get you on next!
I've been waiting for someone else to say something about STLEO, viz. he wasn't a saint when he was Pope.
Just finished the puzzle after a long, hot day of restoring a piece of Florida scrub for son's scout Eagle project. I love having food related clues in puzzles, but I'm not a fan of the circle method. So meh...Had the same solving experience as Rex and many of you. Jasmine? Timothy the Mouse got the best of me with the Q.
It was nice to see manatee in the puzzle. They are very sweet looking, docile herbivores which have to compete for territory with props on motor boats. Most bear distinctive scars of their encounters. Usually they spend the winters in the fresh water springs which are warmer than the Atlantic or Gulf.
I'm a fan of silent films and Renee ADOREE played the love interest of John Gilbert in The Big Parade which a professor of mine raved about as a great WWI film.
As others have noted, Barry Silk is well-known for his Fri/Sat themelesses so this one was a disappointment to my lights as the theme came across as simple to me. Lots of names and movies - right up my alley so I had less of a problem with this one as I was able to sidestep a lot of trouble spots that others had.
Very strange and easy, not a good combination for a Sunday.
Well, I missed one letter -- the crossing of timothy q mouse and sqmi.
I was irked (to use a word that occurs more in crosswords than in real life) to have missed this because I should have know the square mile thing. not the middle initial.
I am more than irked at the removal of the second puzzle from the magazine...
Like others above, I was fairly annoyed by ADMIRALNELSON (as opposed to HORATIONELSON, which would have the same letter count), and by STLEO (it would have been easy enough to give the clue as "5th-c. pope"). I *did* like MYNAH, though: it reminded me of "Twin Peaks."
I got screwed up early because I insisted that the gold glove Cesar was the Red's centerfielder Cesar Geronimo who won a bunch of gold gloves too. Finally I figured it was Cesar Tovar, who once played nine different positions in a game. But I think he was a jack of all trades master of none.
Finally I remembered Cesar Cedeno, and the rest of the puzzle came fairly easily excepting Wein which I would have gotten if the answer had been ex-Phillie and perennial coach Bobby Wine.
@Nat: very funny--"Wein" means "wine" in German and has nothing to do with the capital called "Wien". This is just for the anagram lovers out there!
I had the same problem as Michael. Had a blank at the Timothy Mouse and s_mi intersection. As I ran through the alpahbet, I thought that an "e" made sense. I figured it was a "semi" something, though I had no idea what of! Haarlem was a total guess, but nothing else seemed to fit. Overall, I really enjoyed the puzzle, and continue to have tremendous repect for anyone who can construct these darn things!
Pope Leo I, or Pope Saint Leo the Great, aka St. Leo:
Re the latter, are Mr. Ed and Mr. Clean abbreviations?
Is Ste Joan?
Just curious ;-)
.../Glitch
woohoo! the princeton seminary love made this alum's evening!
@Glitch said...
... are Mr. Ed and Mr. Clean abbreviations?
Is Ste Joan?
---
Those are not abbreviations, but they do include abbreviations. So they should indeed be clued as such, IMNSHO.
Larry the Lurker
Yoohoo, Rex!
Did you meld, or did you....CONFLATE?!
hoho
Rather late here (was in transit all day yesterday to become a temporary Utahn for the next week). I did solve the puzzle, though like most here I didn't get much out of the theme. For once it might have been the fault of the title, which led me to expect that the hidden words would somehow relate to the full entry. This was the case in another Sunday puzzle about a year(?) ago that found things like BEER in a BrEwERy. A title that better captured the theme would have helped.
NDE
Greetings from syndication on July 5th!
@XMAN : REE is actually RYE. The Y comes from "idly" rather than "idle" for 75D. I made the same error.
@PlantieBea: I was touched by your kind words for the manatees, poor creatures who are often hurt or killed by boat strikes.
@Ulrich: Now I want to go to Wien and taste the REAL Sachertorte. Yum.
My first entry in a theme line was "pay the price" rather than "pay the piper". So I had PEPICE in the circles - wtf? I didn't know Espo, had ditto then soami (so am I) for Me, too, making this little area quite messy. This puzzle took me a long long time but I liked it and felt a great sense of achievement to have finished.
How's this for embarrassing? I had magazine editor instead of managing editor and never figured out that it was wrong ... and my job title is, in fact, the latter. (I thought the circles spelled an herb I never heard of ... duh)
I, too, had magazine editor, Aneela [Merkel] and was musing about James Bond flying a "pagam" in Dr. No when Pan Am came to me.
Feel somewhat sheepish to admit I never caught the spices going down. I kept writing and re-writing the letters in sequence with the other spices, thinking I would find the name of a recipe that used all those spices (hence, "secret ingredients"). I guess I was over thinking.
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