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Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: phiz (42D: Phiz on a five => ABE) —
n(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Anatomy) Slang chiefly Brit the face or a facial expression an ugly phiz Also called phizog [ˈfɪzɒg fɪˈzɒg][colloquial shortening of physiognomy][Also]
Browne, Hablot Knight (hăb'lō), pseud. Phiz, 1815-82, English illustrator. At 21 he was chosen by Charles Dickens to illustrate Pickwick Papers. His success was immediate, and in due course he illustrated many of Dickens's novels as well as works of Harrison Ainsworth and Charles Lever. Browne also contributed popular cartoons to Punch and painted numerous watercolors and several oils.
• • •
Main attractions here are the eight interlocking 15s — an impressive feat in and of itself, but one that does not provide (today) for much sizzle. Phrases are either plain (HAWAIIAN ISLANDS => 17A: Cook's final setting), tired (BRIDGE TO NOWHERE => 8D: Symbol of pork; 3rd time this year—officially retiring after this appearance, I hope), disappointing (MIND YOUR MANNERS =>
11D: Social admonition; really wanted, and in fact wrote in, MIND YOUR PS AND QS), or from outer space (MIGNONETTE SAUCE!? => 33A: Accompaniment for oysters). That last one was a total mystery to me — I know the French word "mignon," which kinda sorta helped, but ugh — and so the west was by far the toughest part of the grid for me, and where I finished. Had to run the alphabet at SIRED / ARI (36A: Actress Graynor, someone I've never heard of, likely because she's the star of nothing — whoa, turns out I've seen her many times: as the younger sister of Agent Dunham on "Fringe"). After the 15s, you've just got a Lot of short fill. Lots of threes. Not much to see there.
Puttered around for what felt like a long time before really getting a strong footing in the grid. Wrong DAIS to start gave me right AMAT and then A MOI. Got my first long answer after taking care of the easy fill-in-the-blanks in the NE and then putting down MIND YOUR PS AND QS (changed to correct answer after ERNE became clear answer at 62A: Kite's kin). I mainly fiddled around the periphery until enough of a long answer came into view that I could get it. Stopped the clock midway through just to confirm that PEARY was really a thing (61A: "Northward Over the Great Ice" writer). Wasn't too sure about HAI (59D: Asian affirmative). Only other answer I wasn't sure of was adipoCYTE (63A: Suffix with adipo-). Fat-killer? [no, wait, that's -CIDE I'm thinking of...] Oh, and MSEC (51D: How long it takes light to travel 186 mi.). I just wrote in -SEC and waited. Oh, oh, and I didn't know what "phiz" meant, but since the phrase "on a five" was in the clue, I figured ABE was involved.Bullets:
10A: One trying to eliminate bad notes (T-MAN) — fantastic clue; really had me fooled for several seconds, even with T-AN in place.- 23A: Graffitist's trademark (TAG) — tagging around here is sparse and weak, but sometimes trains come through with astonishingly good work on them.
- 51A: Dovetail part (MORTISE) — Would expect "tenon" to go with MORTISE. But not today.
- 5D: Honeybee genus (APIS) — yay for my brief but intense study of Latin. Virgil liked to talk about APES (bees).
- 7D: Suffix with Mozart (-EAN) — he really deserves an -ESQUE.
- 19D: City in the Plain of Sharon (LOD) — most of what I know about Israel, I learned from crosswords.
- 34D: "Thimble Theatre" surname (OYL) — as in Olive. "Thimble Theatre" was the E.C. Segar strip that spawned "Popeye."
- 35D: Something with many arms (SEA) — every SEA? Is every nook and cranny of the shoreline an "arm?"
41D: Source of an essential oil with medicinal properties (TEA TREE) — faddish ingredient in beauty products. That's how I know it, anyway.- 48D: Setting for Hitchcock's "Notorious" (RIO) — knew it was South America somewhere. In three letters, RIO was a good bet.
- 60D: Pianist Pogorelich (IVO) — Whoops, forgot about this guy. Cover his phiz in MIGNONETTE SAUCE, because I didn''t know him either.
- 57D: Women with auréoles: Abbr. (STES.) — hey-o! Me: "What's the French word for 'All Of Them?'" I was getting halos and nipples confused. It happens.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
Ask a woodworker to point to the dovetail mortise and you would probably get a blank stare. We cut pins and tails. Mortises go with tenons just as Rex said.
ReplyDeletevery easy friday,got most of the long answers first -maybe a pause for spur of the moment=Paula just speaks to me. I did have apples hanging at first,and admittedly had mignon----sauce.yeah on the nsec msec whatever but flowed right along for a friday
ReplyDeleteI entered BRIDGE TO NOWHERE with no crosses, MEAT THERMOMETER and MIND YOUR MANNERS with just one or two. If I hadn't confidently written in TAHITIAN ISLANDS (and confirmed it when [Test the patience of] became TRY), this would have been my fastest Friday ever. ATHIRST/MIGNONETTE/ARI/SIRED kept it from being really easy, but still faster than Thursday's.
ReplyDeleteHad a whateveryoucallit with AND I [Ran] before [You] AND I. A Flock of Seagulls, Celine Dion, whatever. I'll assume she was remaking the Crystal Gayle/Eddie Rabbit duet instead of the Wilco song.
I respectfully beg to differ there was no theme! Someone get poor Paula a meal!
ReplyDelete(and something to drink: ATHIRST)
LOWHANGINGFRUIT, MIGNONETTESAUCE, MEATTHERMOMENTER..."sound that might indicate hunger" MEW...
throw in a (GENTLEMAN)FARMER and we've got some serious food issues underlying this puzzle!
(Or maybe I just need a late-night snack)
I too started with DAIS...and I think the nrA has more arms than SEA.
Oh, I also beg to differ that being RENAMED is "superficially updated"...It changes EVERYTHING!!!! The heart, the soul, the gist, the raison d'etre.
;)
But more importantly, how DOES one make 8 interlinking 15s? Brava!
Me too for DAIS and pretty much the same solving path as Rex with the exception of PSANDQS (EADS was a gimmie). Also had the same opinion as Rex about this one. So, nuf said!
ReplyDeleteBridge to nowhere = symbol of pork?!? How oblique can this Paula Gamache get? Completely ruined a wonderfully frustrating puzzle, one which I otherwise got without a single Google. I realize the myopia of America might make a vague political hot potato worth noting, but perhaps puzzle makers can remember that there are others on the planet that enjoy the NYT puzzles also, and broaden clues accordingly.
ReplyDeleteVery close but no HAVANA for me, this HAWAIIAN ISLANDS wahine ended up with a few holes. I've been cooking for a long time but I have never heard of MIGNONETTE SAUCE, maybe because have always SHIED away from oysters. I'll have to look it up in my Food Lovers Dictionary.
ReplyDeleteI always love a Paula Gamache puzzle but this one was on the tough side for me.
"How does one make eight interlocking 15's?"
ReplyDeleteTry these ;)
ROMULUS AND REMUS
VOODOO ECONOMICS
AT AND T OPERATORS
IN MINT CONDITION
TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS
MESSAGE TO GARCIA
RUN FOR ONES MONEY
COME RAIN OR SHINE
I usually love Paula Gamache puzzles, but this one gave me little joy. I appreciate the technical elements in the construction (the interlocking 15s), but I just didn't have much fun, largely because of all the short fill. Fortunately, the 15s were very gettable with just a few letters, otherwise I would probably still be working on this. As it was, I finished in about 36 minutes. That's extremely good for me on Friday.
ReplyDelete@SethG: I also had TAHITIAN ISLANDS. I was so sure about it because of the erroneous crossing with TRY.
IVO Pogorelić was a gimmie for me. He's a first rate Croatian pianist who has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon for many years. I have many of his recordings. His career really took off in the early 1980s when he was eliminated from the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Pianist and judge Martha Argerich was so outraged by this "miscarriage of adjudication" that she resigned from the jury in protest. This created something of a scandal in the piano world, much copy was generated, and a star career was launched, albeit an extremely worthy one.
I'd have to rate this an easy Friday as I just about finished the whole thing before bed when pretty tired. I left a couple of blanks which I saw clearly this morning, especially the "R" at SIRED/ARI.
ReplyDelete8 15's is remarkable.
I got MIGNONETTESAUCE but really wanted this answer to be STRINGQUARTET.
@Rex, in defense of BRIDGETONOWHERE showing up for the third time, Paula may have come up with the idea first but her puzzle just got published third. It happens.
I thought the cluing was especially clever ... thank you, Paula!
Halo, Rex. as for 57D, it was neither tit nor tat! Now I NOAH where the Captain's Cook was goosed and lei-d to rest. Just another Xword smash from Paula (The PEARL) Gamache, that made us ERNE our stripes!
ReplyDelete"Easy Friday" hey? Hmmm . . . maybe this really isn't my blog. I took 35 very hard minutes to solve this puppy and felt I earned my self-given pat-on-the-back. When I can complete a Gamache puzzle without ONCE having to go to Google for help, I consider that a really good Friday solve! I think that some of you guys are just getting jaded.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 2:34 - it's the NEW YORK (USA) Times.
ReplyDeleteFirst answer was LOWHANGINGFRUIT. Never heard of MIGNONETTESAUCE - was thinking cocktail sauce, shucking knives, etc.
Totally thrown by 17A HAWAIIANISLANDS - great misdirection.
Tough one.
i need help making the connection between PORK and a "bridge to nowhere," please.
ReplyDeletethere is something anti-climactic about finishing a puzzle like this by getting all the 15s and then having trouble tidying up all the shorter fill. it's like you get the house built, and ready to move in, but two face plates on the outlets in your spare bedroom still need to be put on. i start to think, "why bother?"
btw, a "normal" friday puzzle would have included "DAIS" in it...a monday puzzle would use "HALL." unless, Ms. Gamache thought we would think that and by making it easy it became difficult...like a scene from the princess bride.
@rolin mains - The "bridge to nowhere" was an example of pork barrel politics, i.e. wasteful spending.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your whole anti-climactic assessment. I was stuck on AMA[T,S], API[A,?] x ATHIRST and left with a why bother?
Okay, like everyone else, I was ignorant of the term MIGNONETTE SAUCE. Let's hope Foodie comes in here and schools us!
ReplyDeleteI liked the clueS and answerS at 45A ("Steel worker" = ROBOT), 21A ("desperate" = DO OR DIE), and 38A + 52D (the "grand" place being the OLE OPRY). HAVANAS took me too long, as did ATHIRST, although I'm forgiving myself for that one. Good word, though.
Speaking of the HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, my word of the day is "kinguele." I suspect Queen Liliuokalani stole half his letters.
Sorry about the "clueS" and "answerS" thing. Need to proofread.
ReplyDeleteExcellent Friday puzzle, IMHO. Even starting with half of the 3-letter answers, like HAI, I was left with a lot of work to be done! The MEW at my feet indicated ATHIRST rather than hunger, at the end... Many thanks to Paula for this clever work.
ReplyDelete∑;)
Good Lordy. Miss Scarlett...wat be a DOORDIE?
ReplyDeleteI had exactly the same problem as Zeke -- confidently put in APIA, then couldn't make sense of AMAS/AMAT, and after many IRKsome minutes threw in the towel. No DOORDIE for me today. Gaaaah!
ReplyDelete[I like doordie as one word -- Scottish, I think -- och, tha's a doordie wee thing!]
I agree with Andrea... definitely a food theme.And Cook's final setting really wanted something to do with an oven.
ReplyDeleteAny one have eero for 46A??? I did at first but I have driven over Eads bridge so many times.....
so glad we are finally getting back to food. Thanks Paula
p.s. Many thanks to @foodie and @dk for the kind comments on my daughter's book, "Dark Life"! It may show up again just before 10 a.m. Eastern time on NBC, since Roker only held it up yesterday and said "Next" before being cut off...Fingers crossed!
ReplyDelete∑;)
Oh, and now I see I had OHL/HER instead of OYL/YER -- total Natick for me -- both possibilities occurred to me, both seemed equally plausible, no way to decide, coin toss -- got the wrong one.
ReplyDeleteLoved this puzzle, tho I messed myself up for the longest time by "cooking" up SANDWICHISLANDS for 46A. Yes, difinitely a foodie theme, with the delightful incongruity of the 15s. Just think. If our legslators had stuck a MEATTHERMOMETER into the BRIDGETONOWHERE legislation, maybe they wouldn't have built it!
ReplyDelete@ CaseAce: Parse it DO OR DIE
ReplyDeleteBit of a slow go for me, medium - hard.
ReplyDeleteEspecially slowed by two write-overs, 13 D had ROOM before NOSE, 18 D TRY before IRK.
And shouldn't 9 D, "Ran" preceder, be Kagemusha?
@VaBeach - Pretty sure it never got built?
ReplyDeleteI really liked this puzzle - maybe because it was a bit easy for a Friday. Loved the 15s and was grateful for the 3s. Also thought the cluing was exceptional today.
I was trying to work Tabasco sauce into the oyster accompaniment. That, saltines, and ice cold beer are the must haves.
Does Tea tree oil really have medicinal properties ? Bet your doctor doesn't think so.
ReplyDeleteWhile many claims about TEA TREE oil are likely spurious, it seems that the oil does, indeed, have certain medicinal qualities. Wiki actually cites numerous sci/med. journal studies.
ReplyDeleteI rate this one Challenging. It certainly challenged ME! Took the better part of an hour to wrestle it to the ground, and still ended up with an unforced error.
ReplyDeleteAt 13D, I plunked in rOom, and the crosses slowly revealed the S and E, but I never wrote over the r, so 10A inadvertently ended up as the impossible TMAr. I could have fixed that if I'd been in proofreading mode, but I was too damn eager to get to the blog. Blimey!
I lived in Louisiana and practically lived in raw bars, and I've never heard of MIGNONETTE SAUCE. The main place I frequented had a bartender/shucker named Doug who made his own sauce that kicked some serious oyster ass. Wherever you are, Doug, I love you!
I thought the cluing on this one was just wicked clever all the way through, but 45A has to be my favorite.
I am now ATHIRST for more caffeine to propel my sorry carcass through the day that lies ahead. Happy weekend, all!
Binidd! (That Nidd over there? He has a lot of options on a Saturday night, if you get my drift.) -- jesser
My solving experience was nearly the same as Rex's but I think I enjoyed it a bit more.
ReplyDeleteThe 15's came early in the game but some of the fill had me scratching my head a bit (no lice however!)
Margin notes were
Athirst - ugh.
Clue for Noah - nice.
Robot clue - funny.
Phiz - unknown but easily sussed.
@ Greene, A pianist who is totally out in (my) left field and you write an entire paragraph!
Easy and entertaining.
My but we are stretching the limits for clues for Erie.
There is evidence that tea tree oil can increase breast size. Unfortunately, the effect is limited to boys.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm ATHIRST and my throat DRIES, I like a wine with a bright, PEARY NOSE, and complex notes of green TEA and FRUIT on the finish.
ReplyDelete@Martin - Uh, did you actually read the article you linked to? Granted, it's in a Herbal Soap site, thus likely an apologist for essential oils and deserving of no credence, but it pretty specifically says there is no reason to believe that tea tree oil cause an increase in breast size.
ReplyDeleteMedium for me too. Long answers much easier than fill.
ReplyDeleteAnother hand up for DAIS, and I had FLIES for "gives air time."
I'll probably never forget the word HAI after 1583 pages of Shogun.
I spent the longest time trying to fix what was obviously not a word, "doordie" (rhymes with "Lordy!"). Didn't finish the NE, in part because I couldn't see "a moi" as a possessive---it translates to an English possessive ("mine"), but those words are not actually possessive. Guess I should read clues a little more loosely!
ReplyDeleteIs there no limit to Master Martin's multi-faceted talents? With his latest input we can now call him "The Galloping Gourmet"...truly our man for All Seasonings!
ReplyDelete1A: "Where a lecture may be given"
ReplyDeleteWhere = HALL
From where (not the clue) = dias, or better, but not legal, *lecturn*.
*Woodshed* didn't fit. ;)
I did a little looking around for that sauce. It sounds simple and savory. The name seems redundant.
ReplyDeleteIf mignon means petite and the
-ette suffix means diminutive then just how small is this stuff? :)
Pretty tough Friday for me. Lots of Gamache panache in this one.
ReplyDelete@acme & chefbea: no doubt about that food theme. It made me hungry!
@Rex etal: my godson Benedict's father has studied the benefits of tea tree oil at the University of Heidelberg.
If you are still occasionally ACNED but over the age of 35 and thus ill-suited to the use of benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid preparations (because they dry and irritate the skin), TEA TREE oil is your best friend. I evangelize for Desert Essence's tea tree Blemish Touch Stick, which you can find at Whole Foods or Amazon. The antiseptic and antiinflammatory properties work wonders at nipping pimples in the bud. They say it's good on bug bites, but I wouldn't know.
ReplyDeleteOysters on the Half Shell with Mignonette Sauce Sauce:
ReplyDelete1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 shallot, finely chopped
White pepper to taste
Salt as needed
Directions:
Place wine and vinegar in saucepan and reduce to one-half. Turn off the flame and stir in the shallot, white pepper and salt as needed (remember: oysters tend to be salty). Set aside to steep. As you shuck your oysters, collect their juices and add to the mignonette sauce. Serve the sauce in small dishes or ramekins, letting your guests spoon it on top of each chilled, raw oyster on the half shell.
Yield: Sauce for 36 oysters
A good Friday - no real problems, but tough enough to keep me busy for a while.
ReplyDeleteUnusual in that most of the long answers were not that difficult.
Started with AMOI/AMA?, which gave me HAHA and HALL (avoiding the DAIS trap). Bounced around all over the place, getting a few letters here and there. ACNED fit, but not sure it is really a word. Had indO/rOom in the NE for a long time.
@submariner is right about pins and tails, but after I had the MO in place, the answer had to be MORTISE.
I first thought aureoles might be related to ears, rather than halos or nipples. Fortunately, that didn't generate any answer, so the S in HAVANAS ste me straight.
@Zeke - thanks for the nice compliment yesterday. I'd humbly submit I had good material to work with.
Most enjoyable Friday puzzle. I took my car in for service in Port Chester this morning, and was dropped at the Rye train station to come back into the city. I stood on the platform wondering if Paula might be around (she's on the Rye city council). I sat down on the train and opened the paper to a Paula puzzle!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to @mac and the Oranje! Huge win over Brazil...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHad to be on Paula's wavelength - I was not. But I appreciate the post-attempt languor.
ReplyDeleteClever cluing to my eye, Paula.
@rolin mains, nice reference to The Princess Bride!
BTW, pins and tails are kinds of mortises and tenons. A tail is a tenon with a trapezoidal shape and a pin is a mortise cut to receive the tail. As a woodworker, I'm ok with this even though I'd always say pins and tails.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected on the Tea tree oil,certainly enough history for a puzzle clue.
ReplyDelete@ Rex, Chacun d'eux! Priceless.
ReplyDeleteWow, all of those long answers.
Luckily they were easy and very much "in the language" unlike
mind over body from yesterday.
The Dutch beat Brazil!?!
I really wish I was in Amsterdam right now.
Actually I always feel that way but
I can only imagine the sea of Orange right now.
I'll bet @mac is on cloud nine.
Did well today but not perfection. Had APIa not APIS which threw me off A(s/t?)HIR-T. Had PEeRY too. Am pleased I did as well as that. Rex, TMan was shown at the Film Forum here in NYC on June 27. I loved that one when I was a kid. Went to see it twice. Funny blog today. Laughed and chortled. A golorious Fourth of July to one and all.
ReplyDeleteI found this more challenging than medium.
ReplyDeleteI also found some of the lues irksomely obscure. I knew Wyoming is east of Erie only because I grew up in Pennsylvania. POGORELICH was unknown. There must be more commonly known AMYS. Didn't know the Norah Jones ditty. Never heard of Phiz. MSEC? Who knew? MIGNONETTESAUCE????? Grayner?
Amy Poehler is very, very famous. Longtime SNL actress. Star of her own NBC sitcom. A big deal. But yeah, if you've never heard of HAL, then you're certainly not going to have heard of her.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to take away from Paula's puzzle today, so I've waited for about 50 comments, BUT
ReplyDeletesomeone needs to mention the phenomenal Patrick Blindauer...
He constructed Thursday's CrossSynergy puzzle, today's Wall St Journal Puzzle AND this Sunday's NYT puzzle (co-written with Tony Orbach)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if that grand slam isn't enough, Sunday, the 4th of July, is also his birthday!
Is there some sort of Puzzle Hall of fame? Can someone canonize him? Or at least give him an aureole?
(St. Patrick...now that has a nice ring to it)
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation of my method):
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Fri 25:46, 26:35, 0.97, 45%, Medium
Top 100 solvers
Fri 13:32, 12:56, 1.05, 67%, Medium-Challenging
Long time lurker. For me,this was very easy for a Friday, probably since I got HAWAIIANISLANDS as soon as I got to it. That was about three minutes in. After that, it was just a workmanlike process where everything fell into place. Not at all like that IDOIDOIDOIDO one last week. That was a killer!
ReplyDelete@Mac congrats!!!! Are you there celebrating???
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 11:44 what time is the party? I love oysters
I confidently put in SANDWICHISLANDS for poor ol' Cap'n Cook's place of demise, thinking I was being so clever because (I think) that's how they were known to westerners at the time. Fit well enough to screw me up for a looong time. Finally I gave it up, with reluctance.
ReplyDeleteNice FUN Friday Challenge.
ReplyDelete7 of the 8, 15's were easy.
Usually just use a squeeze of lemon and tabasco sauce on my oysters.
MIGNONETTE SAUCE and IVO were learning moments.
DELFT was in the Wed.LAT (amazing, I remembered it).
HAHA in both today.
Re my 11:12am post (in case you were wondering):
ReplyDeleteDefinitions of lecturn on the Web: Common misspelling of lectern
Definitions of Dias on the Web: Portuguese explorer ...
Note to self: Get spell checker for the other computer.
Weird, I knew to put in Sybarite the other day, even tho I didn't quite know what it was or even sure I had ever even seen it written before, and yet here it is in today's NY Times Op Ed piece about Russian spies, and capitalized, no less:
ReplyDelete"His deputy lingered on the spectacle of undercover spies as middle-class Sybarites."
No comments yet about Patrick's hat tricks?
@andrea phiz michaels
ReplyDeleteThe only hat I own is a
4077 M*A*S*H baseball cap.
Though Patrick's accomplishment is impressive,
I'm not throwing my hat on the ice.
I abhor ice ...
@andrea pop pop phiz phiz ... I did Patrick's puzzle yesterday and loved it. I just printed out The WSJ and will do that in minutes from now. And I look forward to this Sunday. It's funny because sometimes when I see the initials PB I think of peanut butter. With Patrick Blindauer I think of "buttah," you know, like his puzzles. They're smooth like buttah .. the best.
ReplyDeleteRE: MIGNONETTE SAUCE
ReplyDeletesimilar to @anonymous recipe but bag the dry white whine and use Champagne.
1/2 Veuve Cliquot (Champagne)
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 shallot, finely chopped
White pepper to taste
Salt as needed
I just mix it all together and let it stew in its on juices for a while. Then I shuck the ersters and eat-em up. Oh yeah, I also drink the rest of the Chamagen.
This puzzle was great. I did it between heart breaking football matches.
20A was my only huh moment and I thought it was a DSC not a DSO... sigh
**** (4 Stars)
Yes, I'm celebrating! I think it's paying off that the Oranjes started out quietly. I was disturbed right from the start by the way the Brazilians attacked Robben. I can't wait to read Ulrich's comments! Check out his Krautblog, it's so much fun. Good luck to the Germans tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteI always love Paula's puzzles, but this one was tough for me. Another fractured day, I guess. Loved "do or die". Last night I had a few oysters with mignonette sauce, so why did I put it mousseline sauce???? Oddly enough, my husband mentioned mousseline as well when I asked. Cook's final setting? It has to be some pastry, cake or petits fours stand, right? I inherited an old Galloping Gourmet cookbook and I liked some of the recipes until I hit upon one for deep-fried strawberries. That was it! Much later on he became a healthy cook, probably because his wife became ill after all the rich stuff.
For dessert: I figured Coronas would go well with the cognac after dinner.....
@dk, using Veuve Cliquot for cooking, even in jest, is cause for defenestration.
ReplyDelete@ Andrea, I definitely agree with you re the food (and drink) theme. I thought of you when I saw RENAME, and was not disappointed when I saw your reaction : ) Some scientists have figured this out. They take an old phenomenon,give it a new name, along with a minor twist, and breathe a whole new life into it. And because of the renaming and reframing, new associations emerge and new discoveries are made!
Congratulations to our favorite Dutch commenter! Very cool.
I'm psyched myself- New baby boy grandchild born this morning! I'm headed to help out for a few days. In case I cannot emerge for a while, Happy Fourth Everyone!
@dk
ReplyDeleteRE: MIGNONETTE SAUCE
Bag the 1/2 Veuve Cliquot Champagne.
Use Scotch ...
(It's NOT just for breakfast anymore!)
@mac
Congrats!!!
Great game to watch.
I hope that Ref is used for the Cup game.
@foodie
Even better Congrats!!!...!!!
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 7:11, 6:55, 1.04, 70%, Medium-Challenging
Tue 9:32, 8:49, 1.08, 78%, Medium-Challenging
Wed 8:49, 11:44, 0.75, 6%, Easy
Thu 17:44, 19:15, 0.92, 42%, Medium
Fri 25:46, 26:35, 0.97, 45%, Medium
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:50, 3:41, 1.04, 74%, Medium-Challenging
Tue 5:09, 4:31, 1.14, 91%, Challenging
Wed 4:28, 5:46, 0.78, 8%, Easy
Thu 8:21, 9:12, 0.91, 42%, Medium
Fri 12:48, 12:55, 0.99, 58%, Medium
Congratulations, Foodie! If he has half of the wonder of Sophie, you are in for a fabulous time!
ReplyDelete@Ruth - I hear you. I am like a dog with a bone about some fill - it very much reminds me of the Iowa spirit that Meredith Willson captured: "Oh, there's nothing halfway about the Iowa way to greet you, if we greet you, which we may not do at all."
Have a wonderful Fourth, Everyone! The FIL and I are going to catch some jazz in IC.
Rex is correctamundo. "aureoles"...Halos or nippples. I ALWAYS get women who think I'm interested in their spiritual side.......AND since my "ameba" brain looks for one word, "doordie", was a butt kicker until the 5 watt bulb went on.
ReplyDeleteMeh... such a nice attempt, but I didn't really like it. That's mostly because of the convoluted clueing for the short fill that stretched WAY to far for a Friday, let alone ANY nyt puzzle. Still a noble effort.
ReplyDelete