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Milky gem / MON 6-1-15 / Online periodical / Wife portrayed in 2005's "Walk The Line" / Greek letter after phi
Monday, June 1, 2015
When is a door not a door? When it's AJAR! When is Rex Parker not Rex Parker? When he's GUEST BLOGGER ANNABEL THOMPSON!
Constructor: David Woolf
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: "Chicken Soup for the Crossword Lover's SOUL/SOL/SOLE/SEOUL" — Theme answers feature homophones of "soul."
Theme answers:
- SOL CERVEZA (17A: Popular Mexican brew)
- SOLE BENEFICIARY (27A: The only trustworthy one?)
- SEOUL SOUTH KOREA (48A: Where Kia and Hyundai are headquartered)
- SOUL SISTER (63A: Woman's closest female friend)
Word of the Day: LOVE-IN (6D: Groovy 1960s event) —
A love-in is a peaceful public gathering focused on meditation, love, music, and/or use of psychedelic drugs. The term was coined by Los Angeles radio comedian Peter Bergman, who also hosted the first one in March or April 1967 (sources disagree) in Elysian Park.[1][2] It has been interpreted in different ways by different organizations, but is often connected to protesting local, social or environmental issues.[3][4] Such protests were held in opposition to the Vietnam War.[5]
• • •
This puzzle was a SNAP for me, actually; I got at least half the across clues on my first round, and I don't expect down-only people had much trouble today either. The fill was just OK, honestly, didn't learn a lot of new words and there weren't any neat arrangements. I did like all the Spanish words peppered throughout! ESOS...PESO...SOL CERVEZA...even DOS although it's supposed to be talking about hair arrangements. But I never took Spanish. Ay caramba!
The theme was...a Monday theme. Not much to say here. Except that I had GIRLFRIENDS in 63A for the longest time and was driving myself nuts wondering why nothing would work with it. (I briefly considered "gal pals," but it obviously wouldn't fit.) Until I realized "duh, that's a theme answer."
Wow, that really wasn't a very glowing review of this puzzle at all. Am I turning into Rex??? I͓͚̞̳͝ͅs̕ ͕̰ṭ̦h̨e̟̥̖̮͔̬̲ ̷͚̣̖t͖̱͖͔r̷͎͇͓a͍̲̙̥͕͈͕n̗͇͍̠ş͎̼̠̠f͉̕o͕̰͝ṟ̣͟ͅm̻ͅa̦t͕͍̗͎i͙̻͎̫̫͉͡ọ̸n ̴̼̞̰̫͇s̭͈̙̣͉ṯ̼̰͓͞a̴r̦̙͚̪͙͍͓͝t҉̼̮i̴͖̘̭̣̼̩n҉̯̗̝̹̙̭g̵͓?͉̤̟̘͕͢?͎̭̖͇ͅ?̭̺͙̪̮ͅ?̫̤
Bullets:
- LIQUORED UP (29D: Three sheets to the wind) — I have never once heard this expression used in my life. Maybe that's just how the kids don't talk these days?
- OPAL (15A: Milky gem)— I'm at the point where I can't see the name of a gemstone without thinking of Steven Universe. So, here you go!
- IN HEELS (22A: Wearing party shoes) — Please give credit to anyone who wears heels, ever. Prom happened the other weekend, and let's just say that I got way more blisters from my stilettos than I did from six days hiking the Appalachian Trail, even when I fell over a rock and, later, almost got bitten by a snake. And we're expected to dance in heels? Next time there's a formal dance, I swear I'm going in combat boots.
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired high school student - and that's the last time I'll be writing that. Get ready for Annabel Thompson, tired RISING COLLEGE STUDENT, to start blogging!!!
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89 comments:
Annabel- nice review and I agree with your comments.
Especially liked SOLE BENEFICIARY.
CrosswordEASE--URDU and TNUT.
The proper names were all straightforward leading to an easy solve.
Q: When is a boy not a boy?
A: When he is a little hoarse!
Thanks DW and AT.
Annabel, charming write-up as always. I was also glad you found this to be easy because I wondered if a couple of answers were Monday level. Mainly PHO. If the cross hadn't been the easy RHO I might've had to TEAROUT my hair! Also I've never heard of SOLCERVEZA, CERVEZA, yes, but not the SOL. However, that was totally inferable by the other theme answers.
Loved ICECUBES above LIQUOREDUP. And especially liked REESE Witherspoon next to JUNECARTER.
Whenever I see a Q I look for a pangram but not today. Why not? W not!
Fun and interesting start to the week, thank you, David Woolf!
SOL CERVESA? Is that like saying Coors Beer? Or, "I'll have a Bud Light beer, please."
Other than that, I thought the puzzle was thoroughly adequate.
@joho - I found two double u's, URDU and TUTTUTS.
SOLCERVEZA...who drinks this? Anyone? I don't know if I've ever had it either...but if I was going to buy a Mexican beer in this style, I'd buy Corona. Like just about everyone else. Sure, there are many other *really* good cervezas out there, but this light style with the label printed right on the bottle boils down to two: Corona and Sol. No one I've ever met drinks Sol. So, "Popular Mexican brew" is a tad...um...wrong. Hey, I could be wrong here. Maybe a lot of you drink Sol...but I'd be surprised if anyone would admit it publically. I'm many things snobby, but I'm not a beer snob...so it isn't like I look down on Sol, but I'm just surprised it has found a market at all in the US given how dominant Corona is.
Pepsi. Speaking of, do people still drink this? I live in the south, finding a Pepsi drinker is rare indeed.
A breezy Monday.
I have no problem with the theme (in fact, I couldn't have finished the puzzle without it (SAL/ESAS v.SOL/ESOS). Spanish is not my forte, so I'm not sure if its wrong to have ESOS and ESTA in the same grid. Top third with ANAL,ASS, and NAZI?
TUTTUTS sucked.
The song that woke up Woodtock:
https://youtu.be/AqZceAQSJvc ( Soul Sacrifice
)
@NCA Prez, the most interesting man in the world (not me, the one on TV) would like you to drink Dos Equis, which is not bad brew. My own favorite is Negra Modelo. Please try them. Without lime wedges.
As a long-time New Yorker, I'm partial to Pepsi, which is based in the Empire State. Coke, to me, is such a Southern thing. It's interesting to me how commercial brands of all sorts coalesce into different tribal identities. I'm sure it's sometimes by marketers' conscious design. But I believe it's often an organic and mysterious process determined by consumers themselves.
Annabel is charming. I hope she enjoys college, and drinks good beer every weekend, like I think I did. I can't remember what happened exactly.
Liked it - I thought it was a creative exploitation of a four-part homophone. Unlike Annabel, I found it a tough-ish Monday. I had no idea about SOL CERVEZA - or whether its cross would be ESOS or ESaS, so I was slow to get started. However, once SOLE came into view, things sped up.
HIC (but not HI-C) makes an apt complement to the LIQUOR and beer. RHO x PHO - an eye rhyme, right?
Hi, Annabel. I feel your pain re dancing IN HEELS. You may be pleased to hear that Cybill Shepherd, at the height of her popularity in the '80s, wore day-glo orange hightops w/ her stunning strapless black designer gown to the Emmy Awards! She was duly chastised by the fashion NAZIs. Sally Field, not quite as bravely, on one occasion, changed from her Oscar ceremony heels to canvas sneakers to attend the Vanity Fair after party, while still wearing her red Valentino ball gown. Pictures of both ladies may be Googled at your discretion.
Normally, I do not drink beer, but when I am in Mexico, it appeals to me because I only drink bottled LIQUids due to tap water issues there. Beats drinking PEPSI or ARSENIC. I agree w/ NCAPres. that Corona is the way to go. Have never heard of SOLCERVEZA til this puzz.
SOULSISTER reminds me of lyrics to "Lady Marmalade" a/k/a Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? by the Pointer Sisters. Now it is earworming its way in my head.
Easy, breezy Monday. Thanks, DW and WS.
Oops! "Lady Marmalade" was by Patti Labelle. I conflated the song w/ the Pointers' "Voulez-vous". Sorry about that!
BTW, Hi-C was my mom's idea of good parenting. Kool-Aid, but with vitamins!
@Carola, I can't think of any word that actually rhymes with PHO. I believe it's pronounced somewhere between pheh and phuh. So it's gotta be an eye rhyme.
@Annabel --
Not surprising that "three sheets to the wind" would not be in the lexicon of a gentile high school student like yourself. Hope it stays that way when you're a gentile Wellesley student. Just stay away from those MIT fraternity parties. ;-)
FYI, this nautical expression refers to sheets (ropes tied to sails to position them properly) on a sailing ship. If several are loose and blowing in the wind, it would lead to a ship being out of control, causing it to wallow in the high waves. Much like an inebriated person might stagger down the street.
(Not that I had any personal experience with such behavior in my Cambridge days. Nor, I hope, did my daughter when she was at Wellesley.)
@Ludy --
I too would drink only bottled water when ay Mexican resorts. However, when walking out to the beach one day I spotted a hotel worker behind the hotel filling water bottles from a hose. Thereafter, I was careful only to imbibe from bottles with sealed caps.
Anyone who's looking for it can find a PISA ASS in the NW.
I think this was too easy for a Monday. Too many gimmees even for the easiest puzzle of the week. I greatly liked LIQUOREDUP and TUTTUTS as answers and they look good and go well together. Is IRA HISS related to Alger? The grid is clean and we have a mini theme in words that end with A: PISA, AURA, ESTA, IRA, YENTA, SPA, and two of the theme answers. Minor nit: I don't believe TRILLS are exclusive to sopranos. The puzzle had a lively feel.
As with @imsdave, the theme helped me with the beer name, which I've never heard of.
@Ludy --
I too drank only bottled water at Mexican resorts. When I was walking down to the beach I spotted a hotel worker out back filling bottles from a hose; thereafter, I drank only from bottles with a sealed cap.
I need a hint for Switchbacks, the Patrick Berry puzzle in yesterday's magazine. I thought that MAIDEN, BACON, and CORNERS were gimmes, but I can't get any of them to work.
Okay, now I am going completely crazy...turns out "Lady Marmalade" and "Voulez-Vous" ARE the same song AND it was recorded by Labelle, AND Pointers AND more recently, Pink, L'il Kim and Christina Aguilera!
@Fredd, your story emphasizes why I only drank the beer in Mexico!
Put a fork in me; I'm done.
@Michael Fuchs: Don't misunderstand, I enjoy lots of Mexican beer. Negro Modelo Especial, Dos Equis, Bohemian, etc., but like I said, in this class of beer, Corona and Sol are very similar (kind of like Coke and Pepsi), and most everyone I know who buys this kind of beer, buys Corona.
So yeah, for the record, I like Mexican beer...and my point was that Sol is not "popular."
@Billy C.: I'm posting anonymously for this correction, so you won't hate me, but this is really something you should be aware of for future reference. Annabel may indeed be a Gentile (a term Jews use for anyone who's not Jewish) or she may not be, I have no idea. But what you meant in describing someone who's well brought up and free from vulgarity or rudeness is GENTEEL.
Must have been too easy for a Monday—I finished in record time with no checks, lookups or anything.
Well, I never said I went to Harvard. It was Cambridge Community College, and I think I missed that day.
@anon9:12 ---
Yes, indeed, how embarrassing. Wnen I was writing the post it occurred to me that "gentile" has the meaning of non-Jewish, but for some reason I let it pass. [Blush!!!]
Fun easy Monday puzzle...and great write up Annabel I too was looking for a pangram but @Joho..there is no G either.
Just my two cents: you say either a SOL beer (which, granted, sounds pretty weird) or a CERVEZA SOL. Like that, in Spanish, wih your noun first. In English you don't go around asking for Coors beer, that's right. But in Spanish you do want to say you want beer firt and then which kind (and we have plenty different kinds, gotta admit).
Anyway, just wanted to say something because it really bothered me when I saw it written like that.
Cheers!
I thought that somehow the TV Guide puzzle was accidentally inserted for the NYT puzzle. So bad, too easy, even for Monday. Thank goodness for BEQ.
Congratulations on graduating, Annabel.
Thanks, Anabel – enjoyed the write-up. David Woolf – loved the ear rhymes.
@Lewis – good one = PISA ASS. You get the gold star for the day!
@joho – I looked several times for that W, too. Good rebuttal, @Z. @chefbea – GUN IT.
Honestly, I’ve never had a bad beer. @Billy C - close your eyes and picture an 11 month old just learning to walk. That was me heading back to the keg of Old Milwaukee at UNC at 1:30am.
I liked DOS and DOER together. I guess a stylist is a DO DOER?
I tell you, every single day I teach, I'm the SOLE BENEFICIARY of HEELS by some Israeli genius. Ditch your Mephistos and Merrells and run get you a pair of Naots.
LIQUORED UP is just a great phrase, but it seems kind of civilized. Jeeves was a tad liquored up when he served the coq-au-vin without his customary elan. For me, though, if you're likkered up, things are taking a decided turn for the worse and you'll probably be part of the lead story on the 11pm news.
If there's a word out there comprised of your name followed by an ISM, then you better be a good sport. My students howled when I asked if it was "musket-loading" season (it's actually "muzzle-loading"), and apparently this is a Smithism that will live on for a while.
SOL CERVEZA, LIQUORED UP, HIC, GUN IT, TEAR OUT, ICE CUBES… Once? When I was in Innsbruck? . . .
TNUT keeps making me go immediately to Pnut. Which reminds me actually of a true story, but it's rather long, so most of you will want to skip this (and I probably already shared it).
When I was a TA at Carolina teaching Linguistics 101, another TA who taught the same class in the same room immediately after me asked if she could sit in on mine because she was terrified of being in front of a class and wanted to already be in the room when it was her turn. No problem. So this one day I was trying to get across the idea of a phoneme, which is a pretty hard concept – very different from just a phone. I gave examples of words with the T sound – top, stop, pot – and said that those T sounds were similar but fairly different in the world of phonetics; aspirated, not aspirated, unreleased… but that they all shared lots of characteristics of a "T" – in a moment of inspiration, I said, "It’s like they all share a "T-ness." Marjorie liked this explanation so much that she used it for her class, too. She sought me out later sheepishly and said she should have stuck to my choice of the voiceless stop T because without thinking, she had gone with a different voiceless stop, P (pot, spot, top), so she ended with, "It's like they all share a P-ness…"
Hi, @chefbea! How about GUNIT?
Leaned a lot for a Monday - so things were a bit slower for me.
SOL CERVEZA - and three sheets to the wind.
OH - And I don't wear heels.
Please, please, please do not turn into Rex, Annabel.
@NCA President:
Having been to Mexico on only a couple occasions, mostly on business and away from tourist areas, I can assure you that plenty of people drink Sol. A much smoother drink than Corona, which to my palate runs skunky. Given the choice, I'd take Sol every time. I've had it on a few occasions stateside - best served ice cold on a very hot day with some spicy fare off the grill.
Congrats on graduating, Annabel! Something tells me this will be a minor early step in a stellar academic career!
-Lojman
@Joho and @Loren...thanx..didn't see it!!!
I don't wear heels either.
@NCA Prez - I see lots of SOL being drunk in Mexicantown here in Detroit. Corona is more popular, but SOL is growing in the states. I wonder if it is on the PBR hipster popularity arc.
@LMS - For you. Personally, I appreciate seeing a variety of opinions stated here.
I keep thinking all those Us should come together to make one double-u, but I guess that doesn't count.
I had Tsk-TskS before TUT-TUTS, so I can't say it was too easy, but it was easy. I never heard of SOL either, but who cares/
Thanks, Annabel! Hope you don't get too busy for us once college starts.
I thought so too.
I thought so too.
Hi @Lewis! Somehow I missed the PISA ASS, but got an eyebrow-waggle out of COQ over T[he] NUT. Seemed the midWest there was an O-ZONE for SECTS.
Nice puzzle. Not a SOLEcISM insight.
@mathguy - Those words are correct. Did you remember to include the semi-circular spaces as places to put letters?
You could never turn into Rex, Annabel. You have much too good a sense of humor and it's the best kind -- the self-deprecating kind. But what were those crazy typographical marks over that sentence? Is there such a thing as "morphing marks"? Calling Stephen King.
Nor are you alone in suffering hugely in heels -- a torture device probably invented by the same guy who thought up Chinese foot binding. The good news is that, the older you get, the freer you will feel to dispense with heels entirely. There will be much less peer pressure, as other women kick them into the gutter right alongside yours. And when I finish this post, I'm going to @Ludyjynn's link and look at the gorgeous celeb women who are wearing sneakers with their designer dresses. Way to go!
Found the puzzle harder than most Mondays. I needed the theme answers to get SOL (rather than SaL) CERVEZA. Because I had TEAR OFF instead of TEAR OUT at 25D, I had SEOULS OF THE -OREA for the longest time. Also loved the clue for SOLE BENEFICIARY. An unusually nice Monday, I think.
This puzzle was a SNAP even for a Monday.
Nothing to HISS at or TUT TUT about except perhaps for PHO, as in fee FIE PHO fum?
Liked GUN IT crossing TEAR OUT and the SPARKS hidden in the SE corner near SOUL SISTER.
It's a theme with a hopeful story: the SOL shines on a SOLE SOUL in SEOULE.
The other problem with SOL CERVEZA is that in Spanish, and correct me if I am wrong, it should be CERVEZA SOL, if the word CERVEZA is even said at all with SOL. The way it is, it sounds to me akin to saying "Let me have a beer Budweiser."
I think SOL would have been better served by SOL INVICTUS (invincible sun), the official sun god of the Roman Empire, or if that's too obscure for a Monday, the "Concerto en SOL MAJEUR pour piano et orchestre" by Maurice Ravel.
Other than that, I can't complain if a Monday puzzle seems too easy for me after 45 years of solving NYT puzzles. I keep thinking of newbies for whom this is a welcome respite from Thu-Sun. But ANAL and ASS was pushing the boundaries a bit, and I am not sure I would like to see JUNE CARTER all LIQUORED UP.
A nice and easy Monday romp this was. I enjoyed it - thanks, David "big bad" Woolf.
🌕🌕 (2 mOOns)
Easy peasy.
Nice write up future 7 (not soul) sister.
ps Rex yells at us when we post bad jokes
Didn't know what vowel to put at the intersection of ESOS and SOLCERVEZA.
For the first time, I found the Monday Mini a greater challenge than the Daily. Thanks Mr. Fagliano!
Thank goodness I am late enough to see the gentile-genteel kerfuffle played out. I was gobsmacked by the initial post and very relieved to see @Anonymous explain the error which had eluded me. Phew!
High heels are instruments of torture, Annabel, but I bet you looked gorgeous! Sometimes a pair of Birkenstocks just won't do, but that occasion is very rare indeed. They'd work just fine under your cap and gown. Have a fun graduation night with happy feet!
The musical interlude for today: the Dead March from SOL
Can you Handel it?
Nice puzzle; nice write-up.
Thematically speaking, good to see that Annabel hasn't sold out; hope she never does.
This MONXWDP offering, courtesy of our OPAL David Woolf, was a Groovy 1960's LOVEIN, that I was completely SOLd on, even prior to my having solved it!
I sent a comment yesterday at 2:32 PM introducing myself, however no one acknowledged it or welcomed me here with open ARMS in Rexville...no problem, perhaps this comment will catch most everyone's eyes?
Have a great month of JUNE (CARTER) everyone, glad to be aboard!
For the marginally confused:
It's a SOLecISM to say that you don't want no stinkin' grammar corrections, and a SOLipsISM to think you serve a desirable social function in the guise of a Grammar Nazi.
Lips that touch SOLipsISM shall never touch mine.
PIty to have "like" in both 41D:LIKE_MIKE and the 19A:SNAP clue, especially when Joel reveals at xwordinfo.com that the clue for 38A:SURREAL was changed from "Dreamlike" to "Dreamy" for the same reason…
Wanted the center answer to be SoulfuL rather than SURREAL but of course that SOUL was already condemned to the puzzle's nether regions. Too bad. Otherwise agree that it was an easy start to the week.
When MLB opened its season on Easter Sunday 1999 in Monterrey, Mexico, one of the visiting US officials came to the stadium LIQUORED UP. The only phrase anyone heard him use the entire evening was "Dos cerveza por favor". I doubt very much if he cared whether it was SOL, Dos Equi, Corona, or Pabst Azul Cinta. He had quite the night.
A combined sigh of relief, as both ASS and ANAL are Behind us!
Disappointed to see GUNIT clued as GUN IT instead of G UNIT, which is way more fun and also would have been an opportunity to plug 50's slew of post-rap business ventures: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201406/50-cent.
The psychological theory that said being "Excessively focused on something" (12 Down) is ANAL was hatched at a time when the prevailing medical theory said that health is a matter of balanced body humors and barbers were still using leeches for bloodletting to treat illness.
Both theories have long-since been discredited and abandoned by mainstream psychiatry/psychology and medicine. Why, then, does the NYT xword give the imprimatur of legitimacy to the former theory by always clueing ANAL as if we're still in the late 19th century?
That's such a handy, convenient four-letter sequence that we have and will continue to see ANAL in grids on a regular basis. It would be refreshing to see clues for it that were more 21st century friendly.
Just goes to show you that when an idea or belief gets accepted widely into a culture, it's damned hard to eradicate, no matter how wrong it's later shown to be.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to check my horoscope.
Huff.
@Norm C.: That was it. I didn't think that the semi-circles contained letters. Thanks a lot.
Howie,
You are welcome to join us, as is anyone and everyone else. I am personally pleased as punch to see you. Anyone with his birthday one April's Fools Day and a lovely Librarose by his side is a welcome sight.
One word of caution: we have the unwritten self-policed rule at Rexworld of limiting our comments to max. three per day. So make them count!
@muse: Hey, maybe this puz coulda snuck in even more soul sounds, if it HAD went sorta phonetic...
* SOLONGSUHWEETIE
* SEWLIKEYOURMOM
* SOLARPANELDISCUSSION
* SOLDFORSCRAP
* SOWLOVESABOAR (subtly desperate)
* SUELAZEDROUND (mainstream desperate)
* SOLIDGOLDHITS (eye rhymer)
* SALTANDPEPPER (TOO desperate)
* SOLOPERFORMANCE
* SOYLENTGREEN (great schlock flick)
* etc. etc.
Shoot, enough stuff there for a SunPuz.
fave moocow easy MonPuz clue: "Letter after bee"
fave weeject: PHO. Historic note: if there woulda been one more Greek letter, this was scheduled first in line. Yo, bro, go pho ho.
better symbiotic clue dept: For CREE: {Tribe after Bree??}
M&A
**gruntz**
p.s.
@Blu-'Bel: primo writeup. Congrats on movin up the academic ladder, but sorry U are tired so much. Or is that only when stayin up til midnight to subpost for @63? Anyhoo, U might oughta try cinnamon rolls, to combat that. Caution: do not mix with Sol Cerveza.
p.p.s.s. I always thought the company was Cerveza and the beer was just called Sol? (short for SO Looped on beer I woke up in Tijuana)
@Warrin' Howard Hughes: day-um. For real? Kicked outta Wordplay? That's sol surreal. Did U not play well with the other words? Anyhoo, yo, bro, pho what it's wo.
So lo pho no,
M&A
p.p.p.s.s.s.
Nope. nope. Wrong again, cerveza breath. Painstakin research reveals...
"Cerveza" means "beer" in Spanish. Learned somethin. And it's only Monday.
M&A
m&a -- "Tribe after bree" -- great one!
@warren -- welcome!
Factoid: In 2008, for the first time, engineers proclaimed that the leaning Tower of PISA stopped moving, and it is expected to remain stable for at least another 200 years. (The top of the tower is more than 13 feet off vertical.)
Quotoid: "Ninety percent of the politicians give the other TEN percent a bad reputation." -- Henry A. Kissinger
The condescension with which old people address young people on this board is consistent and disgusting.
What's the matter, you whiny little wimp? Your momma not here to tell us how great you are? We didn't give you a trophy for participation?
Donde esta la cerveza? SOL and Corona are muy Americano...e.g. UGH. If you go to Vallarta and sit outside try a San Miguel or Bohemia. Pleeeeze...stay away from Dos XX. Not even a lime stuffed in that little hole can make it taste better. I will admit though that I'm not much of a beer person except when I go to Mexico. Viva Zapata!
OK puzzle...Like PHO RHO and SEOUL SOUTH KOREA (where else is Seoul?)
I always think of my friend, Yung Suk who smells of kimchi...She introduced me to fermented cabbage and how to laugh at all accents - including her own...
An old boyfriend from San Francisco took me to see Buffy Sainte Marie sing...My first CREE experience. I loved her name and her voice so I looked up everything CREE and now I'm an expert.
Woolf!
@Gill I - Actually, most of the beers you mentioned are Dutch. Corona and Modelo (and Bud) are now owned by a Belgian company. InBev has 25% of the global beer market? Yikes. Especially since something better is likely being brewed within a few miles of you, wherever you are.
@Warren Howie Hughes - Welcome. Make sure you don't condescend to the youngs... (anyone figure out WTF that was about?).
Congratulations, Annabel! Ask your mom to buy you a really superb pair of flats (Chanel anyone) and you will never have to wear spikes again.
@Loren: I will take -esque over -ism any time. But a tut is as good as a tsk.
@Fredd Smith: watch Slum Lord Millionaire.
@Charles in Austin: I have no idea why you decided to be so rude. In fact, why are you here?
Medium ho-hum Mon. for me. You pretty much said it all Annabel.
A cold Corona on the beach in Cozumel works for me. Definitely better than SOL.
Mid-grid:
CO Q [SURREAL] TEN
Quite a rascally Woolf.
Anon 2:18:
Searched high and low for the condescension you say you find towards young people on this blog. Couldn't find a trace of it. Plus the fact that mostly no one knows the various ages of people here, so one might end up condescending to a 96-year-old by mistake.
David Woolf, nice Monday puzzle, and Annabel, fun write up and thanks for the link to my favorite scene from "Chicago". Hadn't heard of Steven Universe before, had to watch the OPAL tie-in.
A friend of mine is a dean at a Hmong charter school and has been thereby exposed to PHO, which she says is pronounced "phuh" as per @Michael Fuchs. (I graduated from high school with 3 people whose last name was Fuchs - they pronounced it "fox", not the eye rhyme.)
@M&A, nice first one on your list. @Leapfinger is probably still thinking of England after that one. @Lewis, nice PISA ASS (by which I mean the joke of course :-). )
@Z...Just about everything I know about beer, I probably owe to you. I now proudly order an American style IPA beer - preferably a Russian River Blind Pig from Sana Rosa or maybe a Surly Furious. I pick them for their names (just like my race horses) and strangely enough, they taste quite good...
@W Howie H....welcome, welcome.....New blood is always a good thing!
Easy peasy lime-wedqe squeezy. Nary an overwrite. Don't know how popular SOL is, but you see it all over in DC. I do feel SOL CERVEZA is green paint. The words fit together just fine, but no one uses them together. You would order simply a SOL. But still enjoyed the puzzle muchly.
I learned PHO as rhyming with 'huh', from a couple of first-generation Vietnamese immigrants. That does not mean it is correct, but there it is.
Agree with @joho - JUNECARTER and REESE Witherspoon side by side was nifty.
ANAL, ASS AND ARSE (NIC) all in the same puzzle.
Condescension: paraphrasing: "Oh someone as gentile [sic] as annabel wouldn't know that expression." Assholes.
@Gill I - Besides brewing great beer, Surly also supports one of the top Masters Ultimate teams in the nation (Masters = Old Guys and Gals), so you get bonus points from me for liking Furious. (BTW - former commentariat member @Seth G played for Surly).
@Anon8:11 - What, exactly, do you think genteel means? Or have you only heard it with the "affected or ostentatious" meaning? Sometimes a compliment is just a compliment. Really.
The new three and out.
We few, we happy few, we band of puzzlers;
For he to-day that shares his solution with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall genteel his condition
Finished the puzzle last night, just reading all the comments about CERVEZA now. There are two reasons for drinking CERVEZA in developing areas, a) it's usually less contaminated than the water and b) mosquitos won't bite you, I do remember reading somewhere that Katherine Hepburn suffered from mosquito bites when filing the African Queen, but Humpfrey Bogart did not because he only dran liquor, never the water.
As a Peace Corps volunteer we drank PRIMUS which was nicknamed Peulple Revolutionaire Integre Massivement Dans L''Union des Soulards. I also sampled many Belgian beers thanks to the nuns and priests who ran the high school where I taught bio and chem . Belgiand always have special glasses for different types of beer. The glass for Kwak beer is the most challenging to drink from especially if you are LIQUORED UP.
@GIll I, I hate to admit that l am fond of DosEquis and that my Dad used to disparage Corona as "Colorado koolaid". I also confess that I also often pick beers for their names too. I like Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut Down beer because I went to elementary school in Lagunitas and because of the great back story about the choice of name for that beer. Blind Pig and Surly Furious sound like something I would try just for the name.
@Anabelle, always love your write-ups. Sometimes you can find platforms thst aren't as hard to walk in as HiGH HEELS that are just as attractive. Personally I prefer bare feet or flip flops now.
@MDMA lovely
@z, liked the link you posted for lms. Since you are the CERVEZA expert, any extra special beer you would recommend as a celebratory drink if I happen to survive my black belt test this Saturday?
@Nancy, will you be running around the reservoir this Friday at your usual
@Teedmn, as I'm sure you know, "Fuchs" means Fox in German. They pronounce it "fooks" there. Your friends picked a much better pronunciation than my family did -- "fewks." What can you do? Parents!
I see another newcomer actually introduced himself. I just barged in. Sorry. I am a long-time solver, non-constructor but tournament curious middle-aged guy. I finish all the puzzles, with maybe a Google or two every couple of Saturdays or so. I'm in the 8 minutes on Monday, 30 minutes on Thursday, 50 minutes on Saturday category. Love words, and love word lovers. After lurking here a little while, I think you guys are an almost ideal mix of erudition, silliness and feisty character, apparently in all ages and shapes.
Hope you don't mind if I join you.
@Aketi -- I was a lifelong tennis player, never a runner, even when younger, but I do WALK around the reservoir fairly frequently and that's my neck of the woods in Central Park. And I always take the reservoir or bridle path to and from the tennis courts, where I still hang out, as I know zillions of people there. I am almost never in the park before 11 a.m., but I often stay there until 5 or 5:30. A lot depends on the weather; I really hate heat and humidity. I'm available to meet you on pretty much any day and at any time after 11 a.m., at your convenience. But not THIS Friday -- It's my high school reunion and I'm not sure I'll be in the park at all. If I am, it wouldn't be for that long, as reunion events start in the late afternoon. Pick any other day and I'll meet you somewhere on or near the reservoir. East or West side, 86th-96th, I don't care. As long as the meeting place is in the shade. Sorry I can't do this Friday, but let me know what else works for you. Would really look forward to it.
@Aketi - Always risky to recommend without knowing what someone likes. NYC... For ease of getting I'd suggest Ommegang's Hennepin for a celebration. For blog related reasons I'd suggest Eternal Wit but I don't know how easy that is to get. If you are adventuresome you might try Binghamton's Black IPA, but that doesn't strike me as a celebration beer. You are in NYC aren't you? I've got the NCers, Midwesterners, and Hawaiians down, but I keep mixing up the right and left coasters.
DOER INHEELS
I made LOVEIN the OZONE with a SURREAL SOULSISTER,
we were all LIQUOREDUP, but I’ll TELL you I kissed her.
In each other’s ARMS we had SECTS, there were at least SIX TRIES
before she said, “STOP being so ANAL, you’ll RUNE the surprise!”
After TEN REPS in the SAC, LET me say with ELAN I’m indebted
as the SOLEBENEFICIARY of the woman that ABETTED.
--- GEN. IRA GUNIT
I am hanging on here by the most gossamer of threads. Today I had to scroll down SIX FEET (!) to get past the spellcaster crap--that's as tall as I am!--just in order to report on another piece of crap: this puzzle. Sometimes I really don't know why I bother.
Sorry, guys, I am not Hispanic! I know, I know, that puts me in an ever-shrinking minority. But you just can't cross two foreign entries like that. Is it ESOS or ESAS? Either--as far as I know--is correct. So what is the beer? How am I supposed to know? Oh, I see. It's a "OLE" theme, so I get to solve that natick from sideways ("around by Funston's," my mom-in-law used to say). Gee (letter after eff?), thanks.
I got down as far as the beginning of 44d: TU______, and thought, "you're not actually going to make me write TUTTUTS, are you?" Let's look at 62a: yep, URDU. OK, forget it, I'm not writing that. I quit. This makes it another CNBMTF: Could Not Bring Myself To Finish. I have already had to endure IDEST, TNUT, RHO and PHO...Just...no.
Where is Will Shortz? Are there NO standards AT ALL? Could we maybe have a grid where at least half of the entries are in (shudder) ENGLISH??
@Cathy: If you wish, you can choose "Name/URL" and put any username in there; that way you wouldn't have to be "Anonymous" and sign your blog at the end. Up to you how you want to do it.
Must be a record for spellcasters. Wore out the mouse wheel scrolling through.
Whaddya mean junk fill?
RHO FIE PHO PESO
URDU ESTA ISM ESOS
IDEST CEE TNUT BROS
UPS RTE INC DOS
That’s a lot. HIC.
REESE Witherspoon, yeah baby.
I did have a favorite answer in JUNECARTER. I have probably related this before, but I once played in a band that opened for Johnny Cash and his lovely wife JUNE at the MN State Fair (first ever sellout, 20,000+). She and the CARTER Family band did a few tunes before Johnny took over the rest of the show. Of course the transition was Johnny and JUNE singing their duet “Jackson”.
Goodbye, that’s all she wrote.
Definitely Monday-easy, but it did the trick. Piece of crap @Spacey? Harsh.
Now, don't TUT TUT me on that.
I first had PHO about six years ago, and it is great. Even made my own from scratch, and it's just as good. Pronounced "pheu", kinda.
When I wrote in SECTS, I just knew that @Burma Shave would include that in his poem. Didn't disappoint.
When in Mexico, I prefer Pacifico and Sol to Corona, mainly to be different because all three are similar, though not great. Bohemia, otoh, IS great.
Hey @Cathy. I sign in as @Spacey suggested. Down here in Syndiland, it is relatively unimportant to have a profiled identity with avatar, but it's nice to see your name up top. Same goes for you @Ron Diego.
Seems like I am te only the only poster who had a write-over, BROS over BudS. Thought it was a good Monday puzzle. Used to go to Mexico, mostly Baja, a lot, but can't say I remember SOL. In those days I demonstrated my worldliness by ordering Tres Equis, which was supposedly unavailable north of the border due to a higher alcohol content. . Ah, that was a long time ago, but the memories are happy.
See the spellcasters have invaded Syndieland- at least this one was short winded! Wonder why/how they pick on Rex's blog- or do you suppose they are everywhere, like Big Brother?
Holy smokes!
What's with all the spell creepers?
This puzzle was so so. Didn't care for esos and esta. Funny I parsed solcer veza thinking maybe solcer was Mexican for seltzer until I caught the theme. Doi.
While on a cruise to Mexico , coronas were 6 bucks. Sol 3 bucks. Guess what I was drinking! Hubby was drinking martinis. So the sols helped the bar bill!
@Rondo- Awesome you opened up for Johnny Cash and June Carter! I had the pleasure of waiting on the family in Lake Tahoe quite a few years ago. Never got to meet Johnny or June, but listened to the whole concert backstage:)
So I'm posting this with@Spacecrafts suggestion with my name. Fingers crossed!
Happy there wasn't a ring of fire around my house after the 4th of July!
Cathy ( just in cause)
Yippee!!
The abandoned ones and their spellcasters have weirded me out today.
@Cathy = nice refs to The Man in Black. If you've never heard his cover of Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down", you should look it up. He knew he was on the way out. Haunting.
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