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Athlete who started a clothing company in 1933 / FRI 4-12-13 / Millerite e.g. / W.W. II pistol / St. Petersburg's College
Friday, April 12, 2013
Constructor: Patrick Berry
Relative difficulty: medium-hard
THEME: none
Word of the Day: EBERT (19A: Late critic featured on the Hollywood Walk of Fame) —
this is where the definition usually goes but i'm just going to do a sort of moment of silence type thing, cool?
• • •
the usual amount of genius from patrick. low word count, few black squares (which is a shame, because i had a great "the blacker the berry..." joke all ready to go), exceptionally smooth fill, and, oh, these:this was not a smooth solve for me. broke in in the NW corner with mr. EBERT and one of my favorite blues tunes of all time, "AIN'T nobody's business."
then i scrapped together bits and pieces in each corner (a WES here, a SPINER there) and eventually it all came together like a jigsaw. a couple of missteps - had MTV for CBS, and i'm not even gonna tell you what i tried before BOGEY.
quick ones:
- 31D: Be an angel? (BANKROLL) — angel investor. hardest, and best, clue in the puzzle.
- 8D: Willard Scott's successor on "Today" (AL ROKER) — not gonna bring it up not gonna bring it up not gonna bring it up AL ROKER POOPED HIS PANTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE dang it
- 26D: Bill who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 (COSBY) — he's also the only non-Obama that can eat for free at ben's chili bowl.
- 26A: Leave off (CEASE) — also, comedian Kyle:
- 1A: Entree meant to be eaten with the fingers, according to its creator (CAESAR SALAD) — wait, totally forgot about this one. WHAT? yep. also, this whole time i thought caesar salad was invented by julius caesar, or, like, the ape from "rise of the planet of the apes," and not just some guy named caesar. so disillusioning.
- 32A: Art of television (CARNEY) — VANDELAY wouldn't fit.
thanks for putting up with me. i love you and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
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89 comments:
Solid Fri. Easy-medium for me with an emphasis on medium. The only easy part was the NE, the rest was a tad more crunchy.
Only erasure: a to E in LIRE.
Did not know: CAESAR SALAD is (a) an ENTREE and (b) finger food. Also, that LACOSTE was a jock. And, never heard of ECKERD College or Brent SPINER.
That said, I don't see any tough crosses.
Low on zip, but a good Friday workout. Liked it!
Short & sweet writeup, Eric. Is your Shift key broken, or are you just in a hurry? ;-)
Worthwhile puzzle for the CAESAR SALAD trivia alone: an entree (really?) meant to be eaten with fingers (really??..ick, for the smelly fingers alone.)
Total lucky guesses: LORELEI, EBERT, and SETTEES which I got from just the S in CBS. As was CBS, for that matter...I would have put FOX if I could imagine a piece of Victorian furniture beginning with X.
I really liked the clue for SLOPS OVER. MANOLETE I would never ever have gotten; however I got all the crosses so no need! But then I was so sure that 28D "Turns up" was CURLS that I kept it for ages even though the crosses just wouldn't happen. The instant I deleted it everything fell into place.
Amazingly fast Friday for me! Thanks Pb!
For those who find the Caesar salad tidbit curious but won't be reading about it, the Wikipedia article says, "... the original recipe included whole lettuce leaves, which were meant to be lifted by the stem and eaten with the fingers; coddled eggs; and Italian olive oil."
I think that sounds like a neat idea, actually.
René Lacoste was one of the world's best tennis players in the 1920's.
Medium here - about 14 minutes. Similar experience to our blogger Erik - a slow start, but an answer here,and answer there, some crosses started to build, and it all came together. Lots of white space always makes a fun challenge.
Favorite wrong answer - FINE ARTS @ 30D, off the R in 45A. Got the acrosses at the top of 30D, but kept insisting that the answer was some kind of ARTS. Which meant that 30D was ART FARTS at that point. Reluctantly corrected it.
HAVANA has a Karl Marx theater? CAESAR SALAD as finger food? Verrrry interesting...
In fact, learning these and several other things I had not known made this one of my favorite puzzles so far this year.
Thanks, Mr. Berry.
Patrick Berry is a great constructor, but I found this one on the easier side for a Friday. In fact, only one second off my best time for a submitted Friday puzzle on the nyt app. Erik Agard beat me at the ACPT, and he rated it medium-hard, but that just goes to show how different puzzles work for different people. I might have only done it fast because I got ARCHIPELAGO, one of my favorite words, right off the bat.
Interesting fact about CAESAR SALAD, but it makes sense when you see how big and few the lettuce leaves are in a properly made one.
Like WES Anderson and JOREL. CORONADO always makes me think of River Phoenix in Indiana Jones, "The cross of Coronado belongs in a museum!"
MANOLETE was rattling around in there somewhere.
Anyone else notice the clever crossing of CARNEY and ART(FORMS)?
I
Darn it, back to the one wrong square club!
MANOLErE/ArM! Of course it was MANOLETE! Couldn't dredge it up, CORONADO and RENELACOSTE took all my recalling foreign men braincells.
Actually quite the LINEUP of men: RENELACOSTE, SENORs CORONADO, MANOLETE, plus JULES Feiffer, Bill COSBY, Brent SPINER (?!?!), ALROKER, Roger EBERT, JOR-EL, Art CARNEY, CAESAR, WES Anderson, Wm INGE, FERMI...
14:2, men: women...and one of the two is fictitious! (AGNES deMille and LORELEI)
And I'd like to throw in PAM, but she's just an oil!
It took two of us but we managed to tackle this one to the ground.
Shed a little tear at 19A, what a brave fighter he was.
Patrick Berry is one of my favorite constructors and this one cemented my admiration for his puzzles. Thanks Patrick!
I was truly expecting an Easy rating,maybe because I knew Data's(Brent Spiner) real name.The top fell like a badly made wall-the bottom had a little more traction.I went with TRAILblazER first and babes over LAMBS but all pretty fixable.I wonder when this was submitted was the clue for 19a updated? as always with BP an artform!
The only toreador I ever heard of outside of opera: MANOLETE, the Eddie Arcaro of the bullring! Makes a nice change! Thank you PB for a fun puzzle. And Eric for a sweet writeup.
Are we going to argue again about ORIENTS vs ORIENTATES?
'Scrapped' together? Really?
Too simple for Friday, and not hard enough to satisfy.
erik – thanks for filling in. nice succinct summary.
@syndy –“I was truly expecting an Easy rating.” @Elle54 – “Amazingly fast Friday for me!” @Benko –“ I found this one on the easier side for a Friday.” Huh? Were we doing the same puzzle? This one DEMOTEd me to the back of the class. I found this to be one of Patrick’s more difficult ones – just never got myself ORIENTated. (Good morning, @Ellen S.) I don’t know if the traps were intentional, but I was off and MAKING A RUN FOR IT with so many wrong answers:
Tenor SENOR
Stp PAM
Kansas BOSTON – had to be intentional
Like AIN’T
Top. . . . FORE. . . .
CAMELS right next to ARABIA. So elegant. So Berryesque. Istic? Ish?
@jae – Why do I *always* have to erase that “a” in LIRE? Every. Single. Time.
Maybe I’ll startle someone at the club today with DOFF. “Ma’am, would you like to DOFF that coat? I can hang it up for you.”
@Benko –“I got ARCHIPELAGO, one of my favorite words.” That’s why I like to hang out here. I can’t even spell that, and it’s one of your favorite words. I favor “dweeb,” SLOP, and “cadge.” (Use those three in a sentence!)
But here’s why I *really* like it here: @Benko spotted the ART/CARNEY cross. I may have gone through the whole day not seeing that and my day is better for having been shown that and I’m not even being a smart alec. What a Berryous touch.
When my son was in fifth grade, one of his friends was over, and I fed them dinner: pork chops, baked potato, tossed salad. I wasn’t present when they ate, but when I went to clear their dishes, his friend, Gordo R., had cleaned his plate. And his silverware was untouched. What a guy.
Big dnf for me – once I googled LACOSTE and CORONADO, though, I managed to limp to the finish. HAVANA CAMEL now. Very nice puzzle, Patrick.
I like the contrast between the opaque theme yesterday and the clear as glass puzzle today...the solving story and more reactions at El Dorado
"I'm not going to get anything" to "Done." Typical Berry.
@Rex - Sorry to hear about your cat.
I had a very similar experience to @LMS. A few differences:
I filled in Islands in 15 across off the I, which cost me a lot of time.
I had several Naticks: MANOLErE at 29D; CARNie at 32A; kOREL at 25A(I know, dumb); could picture the actor at 38D, but had no idea of his last name, so I had SPaNER at 38D.
Like many of you, I really enjoy PB's puzzles! I learned several things today.
I often order Caesar salad as an entree. Many restaurants offer it with grilled chicken or salmon. I get it without croutons and its a trusty gluten-free meal, assuming the dressing is made correctly. I am here most days and enjoy the group very much. I'm late often and my comments would just repeat what someone else has already said, so I don't comment very frequently.
Thanks, Erik, I loved your post and I love that you love us all!
A solid beans and franks (with brown bread of course) Friday puzzle. For the unaware a Friday bean supper is common in Maine. The other Maine trigger was JOREL. Our next door neighbor worked for the newspaper and would get dated comics (covers removed) from the newsstands (remember newsstands) and give them to us. The result was boxes of unsold Mad, Classic Comics, Prince Valiants, Superman and Archies… to name four. Classically educated and former college professor father would shake his head in disgust and return to his Martini as we poured over them on the beach. The classic comic benefit was a synopsis of nearly every book we had to read in high school and placement in honors lit classes. The puzzle world benefit is… never ending.
Big challenge was spelling CAESER, messed it up twice.
College girlfriend (Hi Marina) and I had many colors of Lacostes. I liked white with the long rear tail. Remember when tennis balls were white. Marina looked much better in them than I --- still does.
🐊🐊🐊 (3 Crocodiles as there are no Alligators, sorry RENE)
okay I cannot count… to name five
Rather than say the puzzles this week have been easy, I prefer to think that I am getting much smarter. I fear I'm wrong, but a Google free week is a major accomplishment for me. Time today was actually faster than yesterday!
Great long answers and lots of clever clues today made this a real pleasure. Thanks Mr B
As I was reading this, I first assumed joon was doing the blogging, what with the typography... But it didn't sound like joon's style. Then the revealer! Thanks Erik!
This is how to make a relatively (for Friday) easy puzzle entirely satisfying. Surprising facts (Havana's Groucho Marx Theater) compensated for with fair crosses ('over' so obviously fits with 'slops', offering its 'v') allowing a good chance for solution.
Tried 'error' for the scoreboard blemish; 'luger' gave me the 'g' and thus 'bogey'.
Saw 'Boston' in Cincy in the late 80s---good show, and one of the few bands of the era worth paying attention to. RIP, Brad Delp---what a voice.
My high school Spanish teacher had a thing for Manolete, so his poster hung prominently in her classroom all four years.
If you get to Coronado---across the bay from San Diego---take/rent a bike and ride along Orange Avenue to McP's Pub---big Navy SEAL hangout. They train right across the street on the beach near the Hotel Del Coronado.
This pilot loves the irony of 'in flight' morphing into the more earthly 'making a run for it'.
Evil
Great puzzle. Loved CAMEL, Coronado, Lineups.
My goodness! Finished a Friday with little trouble working from SW counterclockwise. Since this is unusual for me, was surprised to see the rating.
I thought this was a bit heavy on the proper nouns. Like @jae, didn't know ECKERD or SPINER. I had the SALAD part at 1A and just could not move. I googled "what salad can you eat with your fingers?" and then spent an amazing amount of time reading "How to eat with your fingers Indian style."
Didn't know the home of the KARL MARX Theater was in HAVANA not that I give a rats ass.
Thanks for the write-up Erik. Al ROCKER pooped his pants?
I was right on the wavelength for this one and finished quickly, no errors. ECKERD perhaps took the longest, even though my daughter just came back from visiting it (and many other FL campuses)...says it would be a great place to go if you're interested in Marine Bio. She isn't. Guess I now have to google why CATSPAW is a tool.
Had the same thought as @syndy - crossword puzzle as ART FORM. Found it difficult, but so much fun to do. Unusually for me, it was proper names that got me started: CORONADO, AGNES, LORELEI, MANOLETE, FERMI and LUGER. I needed to get ECKERD from crosses but then remembered that central Florida is replete with Eckerd Drug stores.
Liked SEAFARER crossing ARCHIPELAGO.
@acme - I'd like to throw in LAUREL, too, even though she's only a tree or leaf!
Several years ago in a restaurant in Upstate NY I ordered a CAESARSALAD (which is very often on menus as an entree) and then noticed I had no silverware. When asked for a fork the waitress laughed and told me I wouldn't need one, and explained why. I did get my fork, and I had garnered info which made 1a a gimme. Given CAESARSALAD almost all of the first 11 down clues are very easy.
I played a lot of tennis so RENELACOSTE was my first guess and made the SE a quick study.
Struggled in the SW, but ANTES finally filled the matador's name and I had a reference book/google-free finish in just over 1/2 hour. Probably the fastest Friday ever here.
Clean puzzle, lotsa fun.
Funny. Could not find my mistake until i realized I had TBS which makes Toranado. I guess the old car name was stuck in my brain.
Ego booster 4 a Friday-- no speed bumps, filled like Wednesday
Tough puzzle. Had to google a lot. Didn't know caesar salad was suppose to be eaten with your fingers...nothing better than a good one where your server makes the dressing right at the table.
tried to fit WD40 at 46 down but alas had to use pam.
@Idaho connie (from yesterday)..if you would like to do the daily puzzle in real time, I can send it to you every day. Just e-mail me and let me know
I too have found the whole week on the easy side but know I am not getting any smarter. I am, however, thrilled in any week where there are two Mad Magazine related clues--it was my first fill both days. Favorite feature--Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions. E.G.
Woman cooing over babies, "Are they twins?"
Mother, "No, they are a pair of identical strangers..."
@Erik: thanks for the laughs!
Good puzzle, easy medium for me, too. After a slow start it fell pretty quickly, but I notice I have Lire with an A as well...
Lorelei, archipelago, caesar salad, Rene Lacoste: fantastic words! And the Art Carney cross is amazing.
Worried about Rex now.
Patrick Berry plays his usual role by giving us a clever, fun, intelligent puzzle with enough misdirections, (mostly chuckles rather than killers), to make things interesting and in the end it’s another solvable gem, perfectly tuned as a Friday offering.
Though it couldn’t have been in Patrick’s mind when he created this puzzle, CAMELS brought to mind a report that has been widely reported today, telling of a CAMEL given to French President Hollande by the government of Mali for his help in liberating Timbuktu from Islamist rule. Mr. Hollande left the gift animal with local Mali farmers for safekeeping who promptly did what Mali farmers apparently do when entrusted with CAMELS, they killed the beast and turned it into CAMEL stew. (Not to worry, embarrassed Mali authorities are sending a replacement CAMEL to Mr. Hollande in Paris and hopefully, tagine is not on the Hollande menu).
The puzzles two 15’s were top-notch, the better of the two being the one evoking a fun image, MAKINGARUNFORIT, clued as “In flight?” while the other 15, clued as “It’s often freely given” for PERSONALOPINION, while quite nice, had a more generic ring to it.
Singling out the puzzle’s cleverest cluing means highlighting “Key chain” for ARCHIPELAGO; “Goes beyond the pail?” for SLOPSOVER; the previously mentioned CAMELS that was presented as “Dry mounts?” and my favorite, LONER, clued as “Company boycotter?”.
I take it as a tribute to PB’s skill of selection and presentation that some of the most challenging answers, the likes of MANOLETE, FERMI, CORONADO and RENELACOSTE were able to be dredged up without too much trouble and the only unknown was SPINER, (RPG for rocket-propelled grenade was not a stumper for this old infantryman).
Patrick strengthens his extraordinary reputation every time out!
Re: 45A - I'm probably among the stingiest of people with my personal opinion. Nonetheless, they're always freely given. I call bullshit. Oops, just freely gave a personal opinion.
This was a blast! The easiest Friday I can remember. And still had quality fill. That genius P.B. never disappoints! Once again, I'm in awe.
Greetings from Hockey Town USA! Yale and Quinnipiac, seven miles apart, set to play tomorrow night for the NCAA championship.
Wheelhouse. I sailed through this one but, like others, had the LIRa error. Love Patrick Berry puzzles - doable but loaded with fun fill, especially the proper nouns.
How can I not love a puzzle that begins with CAESARSALAD? I think I could live on it. ARCHIPELAGO is such a beautiful word.
MYPERSONALOPINION is that nobody creates puzzles that are as fair to the solver as Patrick Berry. His crosses always allow a way to get the answers, even the ones you've never heard of: SPINER? There is no Natick in Mr. Berry's world.
@acme & @carola, I have a neighbor named HONEY.
Great Friday! Thank you, Patrick! Thank you Erik!
Definitely a satisfying solve. I sailed through most of it but got hung up on BANKROLL. Took some crosses to chip away at that one. Happy Friday to all!
Too little knowledge/too much knowledge: Had no idea about the CAESAR SALAD being eaten with the fingers; when I stared at 16 A, "Millerite, e.g." all I could think of was this kind of Millerite,which I could not boil down to three letters.
A local pizzeria where I stop occasionally has a chalkboard menu which lists "Ceasar" salad. Discretion has kept my mouth shut for years!
Nothing in particular to say, just checking in. SW was last to fall as BOGie was keeping me out of that corner. I think I was thinking of "dogie".
Also, I fell hook, line & sinker for Millerite in the sense of a 19th century sectarian, but never actaully filled anything in beacuse I couldn't think of a suitable answer in 3 letters.
A very pleasing solve, as usual, from PB! Lots of interesting clues and gettable answers.
Faves: CAESAR SALAD, clues for ARCHIPELAGO, LINE-UPS, and SLOPS OVER, and the 3 SENORs- CORONADO, MANOLETE and Don Quixote.
Also, a funny write-up from Erik!
Good Friday!
Thanks, @EllenS, for "MANOLETE, the Eddie Arcaro of the bullring"! Loved it!
-- FearlessKim
It's been a bad week. I should be back for Sunday.
Thanks a million to everyone who came to the rescue this week. It's good to have friends.
Patrick Berry rules.
RP
In keeping with the Simpsons sub-theme of this blog, I will add that one of approximately 2 episodes I have ever watched included Millerites running around in their white robes. Somehow they had gotten folded into a plot that revolved around mall development and the Scopes monkey trial.
My professor of American religious history showed it to the class :~)
The plural of Italian nouns whose singular ends in a changes the a to e.
casa case houses
penna penne pens
pizza pizze pizzas
ragazza ragazze girls
sorella sorelle sisters (About.com Italian language)
lira lire
Loved solving this. Never heard of Wes Anderson, and thought the matador was Manoleto, but "Wos" Anderson didn't seem right, so I finished correctly. For me, easier than most Fridays, but I don't rate puzzles based on degree of difficulty. Answers that seem tough at first, and then make perfect sense, and elicit "Oh, of course!" (as Havana) are the pleasures of solving. Thanks again, Patrick!
Great clues and vocabulary today.
You know you've done a lot of puzzles when angel? makes you think of a theater and some long word that ends in -ite is an ore.
I know nothing about Superman except all the ladies have the initials L.L. so the J was the last entry. Very good feeling to finish.
Loved ARCHIPELAGO! One of my favorite all-time words. That won me over right there.
Interlaced in this masterfully clued puzzle was a smattering of fun facts! CASEAR SALAD is eaten with your fingers? Bill COSBY won a medal of freedom? Mad Magazine didn't have ADS from '57-'01? Who'da thunk it?
"IMHO" is the new PERSONAL OPINION in text-speak. Glad to see the unedited English here.
Great, fun puzzle.
@ Loren - LIRA is singular, LIRE is plural. Think of it as derived from Latin, first declension. Constructors often seem to use clues that conceal the number, I'd guess they do that nearly always (as today) in late week puzzles.
The answer to 1A brought back memories of the early 70's when I worked in Salinas, California as a fuzzy cheeked legal services lawyer representing farmworkers. The United Farmworkers had just launched a big strike, and the fanciest restaurant in Salinas took the Caesar Salad off the menu. Seemed to make no difference that Cesar Chavez' first name was spelled differently.
Just got done with yesterday's puzzle, so trying not to look at the solution/comments for today's until later.
Just wanted to share a funny story about a word in yesterday's puzzle. I saw a story on the news many years ago about an old racetrack announcer who was retiring (I believe from Arlington, outside of Chicago). They asked him for his most embarassing moment. It happened when a horse with a peculiar name couldn't run one day. He told the crowd "Don't forget to scratch HARASS."
I had a huge issue in the SW because I was convinced the tool was a CATclAW.
While there are a couple of zippy looking answers (SLOPSOVER, MAKINGARUNFORIT, i.e.), what makes this puzzle so enjoyable, I believe, is the cluing. I think that's the key to a great puzzle during the end of the week. In the beginning of the week, those zippy words are needed because the cluing is so obvious. Patrick is a master at cluing -- his clues have a way of making me (and it looks like I'm not alone here) smile, which makes the whole puzzle shine.
Primo. thUmbsUp. Did y'all spot the theme, yet? Spoiler alert, in the rear...
Relief to hear from 4-Oh, but sorry about his weak week.
Fave stuff:
JULES and JOREL.
What Mad didn't have: I suckered for UPC, at first.
RPG -- which is also an old programming language, btw.
SPINER - I'da gone with SWINER [Member of the Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Porcine], and beefed up the puz's Scrabcount a bit. Patrick, Patrick... If you'd only run these grids by me, first.
Speaking of counts, U's = only 3. Patrick, Patrick...
Theme: Wraparound REAR. A little light on themer squares, tho. Patrick, Patrick...
The Millerite clue reminded me of the well-known Leaverite.
According to geologist husband, it refers to when one is rock-collecting and find a great rock, but it's so darn heavy that you Leaverite there.
SEAFARER crossing ARCHIPELAGO was genius too.
And JULES Feiffer always makes me remember his wonderful illustrations for Phantom Tollbooth.
Am surprised there aren't more Trekkie Crossword fans! (a friend just recently went to a Star Trek TNG convention. Her quote: "Patrick Stewart aged really well. Brent SPINER didn't.". Ha!)
maybe the reason this week's puzzles seem easier is because they are more contemporary, overall, thanks to constructors' youth...
@LorenMuseSmith "cadge" is a good one too
@bob kerfuffle 10:28
Even tho I'm queen of typos here, CAESAR and BLEU cheese misspelled on chalkboards/menus continues to be a pet peeve of mine!
Sometimes I'll say (with big smile) "If I point out a slight misspelling on the menu, do I get a free salad?"
(which has yet to happen and probably would come with waitress spit in it!)
Yesterday I passed a high-end jewelry shop with a pretty fancy handmade sign that touted "Handcrafed". Poked my head into open door and said to the gal, "Someone left a "t" out of "HandcrafTed" in your sign."
She almost glanced up from her phone and said, "Good to know" (not).
Took awhile, but I nailed it with no googling!
Good experience. Had ARCHIPELAGO, MANOLETE. Tripped a lot: naifs/LAMBS, folks/LARKS, RoNaLd/RENELACOSTE. Patrick's puzzles an adventure as you tweak out the right answer. Alas had artbarker, confused by Let's Make A Deal somehow. Ashamed because I love Art Carney. DNF on that side.
Nice write up Erik.
Thanks for stopping by Rex. Take care of yourself.
R. I. P. Johnathan Winters.
But best of all, we went to the Plaza de Toros.
Now whenever I start feeling morose,
I revive by recalling that scene.
And names like Belmonte, Dominguin, and Manolete,
If I live to a hundred and eighty,
I shall never forget what they mean.
Rhyming Manolete with hundred and eighty? Only Tom Lehere of course.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=9nm3IzCT088&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9nm3IzCT088
http://tinyurl.com/24cn9a
Just a few seconds off my best-ever Friday time, so I guess that makes this one an "easy" for me.
One of the things about Berry puzzles: Very few genuines WTFs. Instead, I usually have an "aha!" moment when I finally fill in entries I was stuck on. That makes for a maximally enjoyable solving experience in my book.
Loved the "Be an angel?" clue, though I needed half the crosses before I saw what this was getting at.
Initially had a mistake with MANOLErE, but I had suspected that 'r' was wrong when I entered it, so that was the first place I looked when I didn't get the all-clear.
As usual, Patrick's puzzle deserves two thumbs up!
@retired_chemist and @DB Geezer - thanks for the Italian lesson. So I’ve been changing both LIRA and LIRE to and from each other. I feel a bit better.
@Rob C – I tried for several minutes yesterday to find that “scratch HARRASS” radio blooper but couldn’t. So funny.
@M & A – Hah! You made me examine the grid more carefully. I’ll see your wraparound REAR theme and raise you a nice little wraparound SLUG TEAT SCAR.
@lms:
Chicago announcer
A Robot got in???
Some nice Googlable clues made for a relatively quick solve. I realize that occasional use of Google is rather impure, but I need to get a reasonably fast start or I would be spending all day with these puzzles (as much fun as thet are.)
What language is the robot writing in?
A robot spouting gibberish? What are robots coming to?
@JenCT - thanks for the link. Like LMS, I couldn't find anything either. Another funny one, a track announcer calling a horse named Hoof Hearted. Only happened a few yrs ago, so its on you tube if you type in the horses name.
@Jen CT - Thanks for that link. I saw the writing about it.
I found a clip. The HARASS starts at 2:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBwiS2yeLao
I didn't see RPG at all while solving -- got it entirely from the long crosses in quick succession. And I'm just a bit SAD that it wasn't clued as [Dungeons & Dragons, e.g., for short] or something to do with Role-Playing Games. I played way too many of those growing up (but actually, never D&D -- I wasn't that big of a nerd).
Thanks, Erik. I'll now take my business to Google where "Al Roker White House poop" will be in my search bar for the next 30 minutes.
@lms: My dream theme in the puz was WRAPAROUND LEIA. But I figured, that was over the top.
M&A
@M & A – you wrap-around TAINTed CAD! You TEAR me up!
No time to read throug, but great write-up, I LOL'd at the ROKER thing. Fun puzzle, gotta go, bye!
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak I've made to my method. 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.
All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 5:33, 6:10, 0.90, 10%, Easy
Tue 7:16, 8:15, 0.88, 15%, Easy
Wed 9:50, 10:16, 0.96, 40%, Medium
Thu 13:57, 16:58, 0.82, 18%, Easy
Fri 16:46, 22:14, 0.75, 13%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:22, 3:42, 0.91, 9%, Easy
Tue 4:25, 4:49, 0.92, 15%, Easy
Wed 5:12, 6:04, 0.86, 12%, Easy
Thu 8:37, 9:56, 0.87, 22%, Easy-Medium
Fri 8:38, 12:47, 0.68, 5%, Easy (9th lowest ratio of 172 Fridays)
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Am I the only person who could see C_ _ _ EY and the clue "Art of television" and write in "CLOKEY."In hindsight, the answer is obvious, but I guess I'm a bigger Gumby fan than I knew.
Got Manolete immediately because he is referenced in the Tom Lehrer song "In Old Mexico" during the bullfight segment.
@DBlock, fellow "Mad" scientist, my favorite feature was the comic stylings of the late, great Don Martin. Upon learning of his passing, my own "usual gang of idiots" bowed heads in a minute of silence, broken by the simple prayer:
Poit!
I love the memories that these puzzles jog, like the above, and the musical stylings of BOSTON. They don't make bands like that any more. Hell, they don't even make MUSIC like that.
Still more memories: the "Hey there, Ralphie boy!" of Art (nice clue, but the appearance of the word in the clue, vis-a-vis 30d, is a defect) CARNEY; the speechy stylings of Brando as JOR-EL; SPINER as the yellow-eyed Data.
I have never seen CAESARSALAD listed in the "salads" section of a menu; it's always been an entree in my experience. Till you get done with a well-made one, you've had your meal. Yum. Now, the finger part? Not so much. Even though one of my Dad's (more wonderful memories!) favorite sayings was; "Fingers were made before forks."
Oh, solving the puzzle? Can I say a PB offering was "easy?" Not quite. Despite getting ARCHIPELAGO off just the G, I had to work all the way around counterclockwise from JOREL/JULES to get the rest of the NW. Shame on me for letting the "salt" clue trip me up for so long. I was trying to sprinkle something on the 1a, which itself didn't come to light till the end. That made it "easy-medium."
Strange, every time I see a Berry puzze I wind up thanking him.
Thanks, Mr. B. See ya next time.
Wow, fun puzzle! Fairly easy for me for some reason. Some Fridays it takes me an hour or more and yet this took me about 30 minutes.
It's fun to read what was the first "gimme" for different people. My first entry was SHIRE. :-)
My toughest spot was around JOREL/JULES/BOGEY. I tried kalEL (oops, that's Superman, not his father) and BaGel (as in a zero on the score card). I even tried Balks for a while (do baseball score cards keep track of balks?). Then I figured out LUGER and the Y in CARNEY got me to BOGEY. The J for JOREL/JULES was a guess.
So, am I the only one who did not recognize the name JULES Feiffer and had to google to see who that was?
@Loren Muse Smith, you're not alone, I also can't spell ARCHIPELAGO. I had an "i" near the end until LAUREL fixed it. :-)
I did not know MANOLETE or ECKERD at all! Fortunately the crosses filled them in for me. I briefly thought of ArM but ATM was so much more obvious answer for the camera location.
I'll end by saying that it's always fun to see FERMI in a puzzle. I have fond memories of visiting FermiLab in Illinois many years ago - http://www.fnal.gov/.
Re: JULES Feiffer, I should clarify that I've seen the cartoons. I just did not remember the name at all.
True story: Many years ago my Uncle was announcing a small town baseball game. Player 'Jammer' was due up third in the inning. Uncle announced so and so at bat, what's his face on deck and Jammer in the hole.
Love Caesar salad, especially if it's made with anchovies. Not really a Caesar without them.
As always, PB gives us a gem. Real time posters said it first, and much better than I can, but the AHA moments, and the tricky clues, make it a treat to solve. Curious, would Will dare (?) to change a PB Clue?
Not surprised that @sanfranman59's rating for this puzzle was easy as it didn't seem as difficult to solve as many Fridays. That being said still DNF due to the same error identified by @ACME in primetime - MANOLErE/ArM. But a very pleasant overall experience - Patrick Berry is a constructor whose puzzles are always fun.
Caesar Salad was created in the 30s at Caesar's Restaurant in Tiajuana, and it's still served there. It's supposed to be mixed at the table with fresh ingredients.
I can often climb on board Patrick Berry's wavelength and today was such a day, so the puzzle seemed easier than yesterday's without the embarrassment of a personal debacle to ruin the experience. AINT and RPG gave me ARCHIPELAGO and the grid opened up with barely a whimper (I was going to say, "like a two-dollar whore" but I don't want to offfend anybody). I finished in the SE corner where RENELACOSTE emerged from the dark recesses of my brain for game, set m and match. HAVANA is a bleed-over from yesterday, no?
Hey Dave, me too on the Lehrer song.
@Diri, si.
This one took a little work, but the little grey cells can always use the exercise. There were a lot of names, and I just had to accept that JOREL and SPINER were ok. But, CAESARSALAD as finger food! Had to come here get the answer verified. I can't imagine all that oil and egg, etc, dribbling wherever, and I'll continue to use a fork, thank you. Still don't know whar RPG stands for, but it fit.
Now to see if I can manage the Captcha as well as the robots or whatever seem to be doing. Wonder if they really believe we read beyond the first word to two of their gibberish.
@DMG - Rocket Propelled Grenade, a weapon as ugly as its name.
@Waxy - gracias.
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