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Geraint's beloved / WED 6-22-16 / Airline with flying boats in 1930s-40s / Sired biblically / Hummer's instrument / Shoulder-slung synthesizer / Near-impossible NFL point total / Talismans or curses they protect against / Wrinkly citrus
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Constructor: Fred Piscop
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: blank AND blank — theme clues are [What ___ can anagram to] and the answers are familiar phrases following the "___ AND ___" pattern (so, the AND is not actually part of the anagram—the idea is that the clue word anagrams into two words, and the answers represent some imagined person saying "first word" AND "second word")
Theme answers:
- GIN AND TONIC (17A: What NOTICING can anagram to)
- DATE AND TIME (29A: What MEDITATE can anagram to)
- NEAT AND TRIM (44A: What MARTINET can anagram to)
- KISS AND TELL (59A: What SKILLETS can anagram to)
Dora Spenlow is a character in the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. She is portrayed as beautiful but childish. David, who is employed by her father, the lawyer Mr Spenlow, falls in love with Dora at first sight and marries her. She proves unable to cope with the responsibilities of married life, and is more interested in playing with her dog, Jip, than in acting as David's housekeeper. All this has a profound effect on David, but he still loves her. However, a year into their marriage she suffers a miscarriage, and her health steadily declines until she eventually dies. // Charles Dickens named his daughter Dora Annie Dickens after the character on her birth in 1850, but she died the following year at the age of eight months. (wikipedia)
• • •
BONK held me up too, somehow. Wanted BEAN. And something about the cluing at 28D: Sleep-deprived employee, maybe kept WORKAHOLIC out of consideration for too long. I think the "employee" part is what did it. No, I know the "employee" part is what did it. It is needless. I get that it is supposed to evoke "office" or "workplace," but you could put "person" in there and it's the same. You're a WORKAHOLIC whether you are *my* employee or not. You can be a WORKAHOLIC without being anyone's employee (but your own). WORKAHOLIC relates to work, not to being anyone's employee, specifically. That damn word evoked a relationship that has nothing to do with the answer. [Sleep-deprived guy on subway, perhaps] is just as accurate. I have to go back to watching USA get destroyed by Argentina in the Copa America now. Good night.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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71 comments:
Very easy and anagrams were not problematic.
However-- NEAT AND TRIM seems contrived.
Is RARED the correct word for 67 across?
Liked clue for FOUR.
CrosswordEASE- ENID and UGLI.
Thanks FP
Date and Time is exceedingly common. 130,000,000 hits in Google as a phrase, and the first thing that comes up is a calendar web site so named. "Just tell me the date and time and I'll be there". That kind of thing. Shocked that has eluded you, but we all have our weird blank spots. I would say it is more common than Neat and Trim, and Google says I am right by a huge factor (320,000).
@Fred Piscop is one of the crossworld's heroes, the one-time editor at the Washington Post, and more recently, the savior of the USA Today franchise in light of the recent plagiarism scandal.
@Fred's New York Times puzzle for today was just fine, quite easy as @Rex said ... this all being relative since my generally slower solving speed gave me time to savor the theme (the AHA clue could have been applied self-referentially!) and then apply it productively to complete the puzzle.
I got a kick from the presence of FOUR, SIX, and EIGHT, and the correspondingly creative clues. JAZZ_SINGER reminded me that in the 1946 movie The Jolson Story, starring Larry Parks, the vocals were provided by Al Jolson himself.
BTW, second time in three days we're seeing OHIO. We'll be seeing more of Ohio in a victory parade later today (Wednesday) for the hero of King James Version, and then later this month for the antihero of An Embarrassment of Riches.
Easy for me too. No real obstacles. Cute theme, liked it.
Sorry to hear about Ludyjynn.
@Hartley70 - So sad to hear of LudyJynns passing. I had been wondering where she had gone to. I always enjoyed her comments and remember fondly of "The Koi Caper". I shall miss her.
Agree with Rex on the easy rating, it's a rare Wednesday that I don't have at least one or two write overs. And there was JON as big as life in the NE.
I liked this one, but I'm a fan of both of anagrams and Argentina.
I was immediately puzzled by the difference in length between NOTICING and its 11-letter answer. The solution wasn't too difficult, but it was a nice little twist. GIN_AND_TONIC and KISS_AND_TELL were the class theme answers.
The fill was solid. Perhaps it didn't have the sizzle of the new, but the long answers weren't boring. I liked JAZZ_SINGER, WORKAHOLIC, KEYTAR, SMOLDER, and STORM_OUT.
Speaking of anagrams, MICHAEL_SHARP anagrams to CHARISMA_HELP, SPHERICAL_HAM, and HE'S_LIAR_CHAMP. I'm suddenly curious: which anagram of MICHAEL_SHARP involves the most crosswordese? I don't know the answer. Something with ALAR seems likely.
I hope that many young Americans saw Argentina's comprehensive victory and thought to themselves, "I want to play soccer like that." USA soccer needs more technique, creativity, and guile.
@Z - With regards to a comment of yours yesterday. Yes, I'm on the Messi side of the Messi/Ronaldo debate. But, really, that debate is silly. The real debate is who is the greatest player ever: Messi or Maradona? ;)
I also disagree with you saying that defenders can't be stars. I don't want to get into a semantic argument about "star" athletes—"star" is a relative term—but I think it's fair to say that hockey goalies can be stars, baseball pitchers can be stars, and football linebackers, cornerbacks, and safeties can be stars. Among centre-backs, Germany's Franz Beckenbauer was absolutely a star. England's Bobby Moore was a star. Fabio Cannavaro captained Italy to the 2006 World Cup and was a star.
Is Sergio Ramos a star? It depends on how restrictive you want "star" to be. Sergio Ramos is arguably the best at his position, is known worldwide, and plays for the best national team of the past decade (Spain) and one of the largest clubs in the world (Real Madrid). Personally, I still remember his stoppage time header in the 2014 Champions League final. Real Madrid was trailing Athletico Madrid with time running out, when his header tied the game, 1-1. Real Madrid went on to win. It's legitimate to call him a star.
Short and sweet.
If you take the first letters of the theme answer words, you get GAT/DAT/NAT/KAT, so Fred has that rhyming thing down. I learned KEYTAR and like it a lot. And it's kind of cool that HEM_IN is indeed hemmed in. Easy solve, but it whipped my brain into alertness better than caffeine.
I would have liked more clever cluing, as I expect on a Wednesday, but that is easily outweighed by the host of appealing answers. One reason I do crosswords is to keep words and phrases alive in my head by being reminded of them in puzzles. And look at the sumptuous list from today: STORM_OUT, JAZZ_SINGER, BONK, EVOKE, WORKAHOLIC, NEXUS, RARED, and MIRE. A lovely reminder of the beautiful side of English.
One crossing led me to a careless error. BEGAT and BEGOT are alternative past participles of beget. The name crossing is LAMOUR but I had BEGAT in first and LAMAUR looked aceptable so ...
Gerry
I liked the theme, although once I caught on to the AND part it made those squares very easy to fill. "Oh, look, I bet N-D follows that A."
@Martin Abresch - Apparently you didn't read my late footnote from yesterday, yet. As for Messi v Maradona, I'm firmly in the "scoring on a hand ball diminishes the accomplishment" camp and the "don't be a nut job" camp - so I'm all Messi. As for last night - OUCH!
Stymied by BEGaT for BEGOT (39A). And for all I know of Dorothy (24D), she could have been a Lamaur. Tricky cross, but otherwise a wicked fast Wednesday.
I cringed when I first heard the term "workaholic" in the 70s. Thought it would go away once people realized how ridiculous it sounds. But I'm still cringing today.
Nice aha moment. I saw that there were extraneous letters in the themers and knew I was in for a treat.
I really like it when constructors play around with the AND in phrases. It has taken me *forever* to find this puzzle by Joe Dipietro that took AND and changed it to Spanish and – Y.
The clue for HOW made me laugh. I have one seriously impressive card trick. Seriously. And after I do it, and the guy is stunned, I can't help myself. I have to give away the trick. I'll even follow him into the kitchen, "Hey – wanna know how I do it?" It's a force bigger than I am.
I'm with @George Barany about the way he dealt with FOUR, SIX, and EIGHT.
@Martin Arbresch – I really liked the first sentence of your post. Something about being a fan of both anagrams and Argentina grabbed me.
Really sorry to hear about our @Ludy.
Fred Piscop of the Split Decisions puzzles that my daughter and I love – really nice treat today. Fun to play around with others: pompom/mom and pop… noon/ on and on. Yeah, right. That's why Fred gets paid the big bucks, people.
I bet he knows his way around a KEYTAR, too.
Monday-easy for me. I enjoyed the one AHA moment when I figured out the first themer, solving the mystery of how a word could "anagram to" something containing a different number of letters. Kinda clever, and it's the kind of theme that, once sussed out, could contribute usefully to the remainder of the solve -- were the puzzle not so easy as to obviate the need for such help. This was one of those days where I felt a little sad about the fact that the potential utility of a theme was essentially wasted.
Watched most of the first half of the match last night but had a hard time staying awake. I didn't have any delusions about the US winning, or even keeping it close, so the only reason I turned it on at all was to watch Argentina play "the beautiful game." But even that wasn't very interesting because the poor US team was able to put up so little resistance.
I'm with @Martin about the Messi-v-Ronaldo debate: It's not even a fair comparison. Ronaldo is a great goal-scorer when he finds himself in the right situation; Messi creates those situations, and then either scores or sets up a teammate to do so. As a (much bigger) fan of the women's game, it reminds me of corresponding debate concerning Abby Wambach (Ronaldo) v Mia Hamm (Messi). Personally, I'm more impressed with assists than goals. I wish soccer scoring would allow for two assists to be awarded per goal, as in hockey, because it is so often the case that the person who got the ball to the player who earned the assist was the one who really deserves all the credit.
Very easy, but a clever job of construction. As easy puzzles go, I liked it.
@Martin Abresch - I assume you are just poking the bear - but the answer is clearly Pele.
DNF today. I have three versions of the bible, and all use 'BEGaT' as the past tense of beget, so I came out really surprised ... THAT's how Dorothy LAMaUR is spelled? More DNFs in June than in March-May combined - and with eight days left.
Googling the phrases, DATE AND TIME gets by far the most hits, followed by GIN AND TONIC. But all four are common enough. I got G&T last, and was surprised it was not broken up four and four the way the others were.
The 1923 Chicago Cardinals lost a game 10-4 in 1923. As far as I know, that's the only time an NFL team finished with 4 points. On the one hand, it could get easier now that returned XP attempts count for 2. On the other hand, with scoring being so easy these days, it would probably take a game played in really bad weather for it to happen again.
I like the crossing of HEM IN with MIRE TREADS with RIMS and EVIL EYES with SMOLDER. I wonder if KAZOOs have ever been used to back up JAZZ SINGERs.
Almost anyone can be a WORKAHOLIC. I immediately thought of new parents who instantly are forced into being WORKAHOLICs. I suppose some parents can hire a nanny of the dominatrix variety who dissuades them from interacting with their children and avoid the work entirely instead of hiring the Mary Poppins variety that helps the parents while still encouraging family interactions.
Got the theme right off the bat...and having the AND saved this puzzle for me. I am not at all a fan of anagrams, so my eyes rolled when I read the first themer, but got happy when I realized the twist.
It did make it super easy to solve, since all I needed was 2 or 3 letters on either side of that AND to make the phrase pop. (eliminating the untold tedium of actually anagram king...)
Well, except for NEATANDTRIM, which is the outlier. And yes, 29A is super common.
Fun puzzle, Mr. Piscop.
I missed yesterday, so did not hear about LudyJynn...I too will miss her posts.
RARED is just wrong.
TREADS and RIMS was a fun cross too. Nice puzzle, but the third Monday-difficulty puzzle in a row IMO. This got the POW from Jeff Chen (xwordinfo.com), so I fear that OFL's wish for a "tricky / brilliant" Thursday won't come true.
BONK also is a fun and interesting book by Mary Roach.
Some songs along the same theme:
Ray Noble 'Sweet and lovely'
Frank Sinatra 'Love and marriage'
Kingston Trio 'Scotch and soda'
@Martin Abresh --
Sorry to see that you did not mention Bobby Orr as an example of a "star" defenseman. Not only was he a star defender, but he twice was the NHL's highest scorer. Generally recognized as one of a handful of the best hockey players ever, even though his career was cut short while still in his prime, by a knee injury.
And surely you've seen one of the most famous sports photographs ever -- Orr in a diving mid-air horizontal spread-eagle position as his shot scores the winning overtime goal in the Final game of the 1970 Stanley Cup finals against the Saint Louis Blues.
And guess what -- I was there and in the frame of the picture (albeit out-of-focus, of course), sitting 12 rows directly behind the Bruins' bench. The ironic thing was that this was the only Bruins game I was able to see that year, with tickets impossible to get, unless bought from a scalper for a fortune.
The father of my roommate at the time was an executive with US Steel, and the New England sale manager had the prime corporate season tix for these seats, but due to a last-minute family emergency was unable to attend. So my roommate gets a call a few hours before the game from his dad, saying two tix were available at the will-call window if we wanted to go. Would We?..--- Hah!
One other thing I'll always remember is that it was hotter'n hell in the Old Boston Garden that day...
Anagrams > puns.
On the underside of average for a Wednesday for me.
I am completely fascinated by how the NYT's puzzles get progressively more challenging as the week goes by and how they know just how to determine, for example, the fine line between "Tuesday" and "Wednesday." I do the puzzles on the website which automatically keeps track of my time, and it is a steady uphill trend from Monday to Saturday...and even Sunday, factoring in the size of that puzzle. Sure sometimes I do better on a later day than an earlier day, but on average, there is clearly a stepping up of the challenge from day to day. Do any constructors here know the algorithm for determining a puzzle's daily level of difficulty? It's like they know my brain and what will trip it up just enough to land a time within a "Wednesday" or a "Saturday."
As for "America's soccer team," I've written and deleted various rants several times about how rooting for a team based on geography is A) crass tribalism, and B) is as outdated as the Cold War Olympics when we somehow justified our ideologies by counting up medals.
It's probably a good thing American soccer doesn't catch on here the way it's followed in most other countries (as nationalistic treasures) considering how fierce some American nationalists are these days. "'Murica! Hell yeah!"
At least with NFL teams there is a bit more leeway/freedom in following teams for reasons other than geography. Jerry Seinfeld pointed out that a lot of fans are essentially just rooting for laundry...(and since NFL players move around the league so much, that's a pretty accurate assessment). But I fear many world sports fans replace "laundry" with "ideology" or "tribal culture" when they are rooting for their team. The French/Germans/Brazilians can feel a bit more superior to the world when they win the World Cup...much like, um, New England fans, I guess.
But I wonder, given how our brains are wired, is it possible for tribalism to ever die? One can only Imagine...
/rant
@Chefwen, thanks for pointing out @Hartley70's post yesterday on @LudyJynn's passing. Sounds like she got the worst of both worlds: about 20 years ago my doctors were trying to "force" me to start on Hormone Replacement Therapy, and I balked (presciently), saying I suspected it increased the risk of breast cancer. The doctors argued that I was much more likely to die of heart disease than cancer and HRT would prevent that (hah! Or, as it turned out, cause it!). Anyway, I replied that I had heard of people with heart disease going to sleep one night and waking up dead (so to speak), but cancer is always a long drawn out painful miserable torture, that I had just watched my mother die of, so I'll take heart disease, thank you.
I'll miss @LudyJynn's fun posts.
In today's puzzle, I had about a million writeovers at 61D, kept trying to make it a Roman Numeral. When I wound up with vIX, I said, "that's not a correct Roman Numeral, what's it supposed to be, ten minus four backwards or, ...??? The commentariat is going to tear this puzzle to pieces." Then, when I revisited the crossing for that first letter and realized that the anagram didn't contain a "v": "Oh, never mind". Such a dumb mistake I won't even say anything about our English professor "flat-out" not knowing DORA. And also I think DATE AND TIME is a setting on every electronic device in the world, Including my toothbrush.
Fun easy puzzle. Now I'll go to the farmers market and get some cukes...gotta make pickles.
Shouldn't the answer to 67A be "reAred" - not "rared"? Although rared is a word, I don't think it jives with the 67A clue; reared does.
Two, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT,
HOW do we appreciate?
Bi, TRI, TETRA, Penta,
Several minutes were well-SPENTa.
Relieved that UGLI didn't EVOKE INKi
The ALARMing Finnish would be Helsinky.
EDUCE >> EVOKE, but otherwisw aDORAble.
Very sorry to hear about @LudyJynn.
Sorry to hear about Ludyjynn, she'll be missed here, always enjoyed her thoughts and comments.
Agree with the multitude that this one was easy but fun.
Don't care much for MIRE without its quag however, hesitated there. Not sure why @Rex is upset about the clue for WORKAHOLIC, the employee thing let us know it was "work" related. Agree that NEATANDTRIM was kind of out there.
@Lobster11 - I'll agree that its always Messi in any soccer debate in which the name Pele is not invoked. The guy is an amazing talent, a delight to watch, and the complete teammate. I follow the women's game a bit too - favorite is Carli Lloyd with her Jersey Girl attitude on the pitch that drives her coaches nuts, and her knack of reliably scoring goals when you absolutely positively need them.
Geraint? Really? And he was in love with a city in Oklahoma?
I had NO gO at first, which made the anagram hard to see -- once I cleared that up, the rest was just filling in the blanks.
@George_Barany, are you following this plagiarism thing? Timothy Parker has started showing every day as the "author" of the crossword in the Boston Globe. Does that mean that he's been cleared, that all is forgiven, or just that the paper doesn't care?
This was sweeeet. Nice and Easy. I liken puzzles to things I love to eat. This was a banana split. Cherry on top.
PAN AM Clipper flying boat....Why can't we have luxury like that anymore?
Messi, hands down. I was a huge fan of Maradona until the idiot got all caught up in drugs and ruined his career. Not at all shocking since soccer is fraught with stupidity and greed. I still love to watch it though and I root for teams of countries I've lived in. You get to know the players and watch them perform magic - even while cheating.
@David Krost
Note from a Rexite emeritus:
Many years ago it was acknowledged that Google hits were not a definitive defense, for example, DATE AND TIME ARE NOT A THING returns "About 1,690,000,000 results (0.47 seconds)" --- 10x your results ;)
Hey All !
Had a fun AND jolly time with this puz. Don't know how Rex never heard of DATE AND TIME. It's as common as Fish AND Chips. Sorry, Rex! :-)
KEYTAR a new one on me. Spelled LAMOUR as LAMOre first. A Q short of a pangram. Mostly dreckless fill. Agree with RARED as being odd.
Fan of anagrams, do the Jumble every day, so this puz tickled the ole funny brain. :-) Liked the extra-ness of the AND being in there. Not an UGLI puz!
STORM AND OUT
RooMonster
DarrinV
A new twist to an old theme made this an enjoyable solve. Especially liked KISS AND TELL.
Discovered that, although I know who Dorothy LAMOUR is, I didn't know how to spell her last name. Which explains the trouble I had in the center of the grid. Also learned what a KEYTAR is.
So, as Isac Nye once said, this one was NICE AND EASY.
"Rared up" isn't a thing. Should be reared up...
Mr Piscop is a smooth operator...smooth theme, smooth fill. This went down like a cream mint. It was easy for a Wednesday, but you have to admire the skill.
Aah, the lovely DORA! When I was ten and an indulged only child, a baby sister muscled her way into my life. Being mindful of sibling rivalry, my parents told me I could name her. They were unaware that I had just finished reading "David Copperfield" and, like David, had fallen under the spell of DORA. That was my choice, my ONLY choice. I held out for as long as a spoiled ten year old can, but eventually I had to accept that everyone else was calling her Jane. To this day she's sometimes Dora in my mind and she knows it.
Adding to the guys' soccer debate, you're all wrong. Kristine Lilly is the greatest player of all time. RAMOS, who's he?!
@WmC being a student in Boston at that time was to live in hockey mania. The Beanpot excitement was over the top and Bobby Orr was King. Those seats of yours were a gift from God, oops I mean US Steel, and you were two lucky fellas!
It's nice to see how many of us looked forward to @LudyJynn's unique voice.
YES, ACUTE! = Cute and easy. I'm with @Tita on the "Thank goodness for the ANDs" to make the anagramming easier for us.
I liked the "headline" across the center: MIRE BEGOT UGLI. No kidding.
timeanddate.com is the most useful place on the web. At least if you have to calculate deadlines and due dates, and I often do.
Very Easy puzzle, because you've seen one AND and then when one of those letters comes up in a new themer, you have three letters already.
My only problem: KEYTAR. I have no idea what it is. But I figured INKY had to be right, so that was my last entry.
there is no problem with the WORKAHOLIC clue. clues are not all-inclusive synonyms. never have been. the clue is frequently simply an example of the answer, and employment is a common example of work. eg, a crossing word HAWKS is far more commonly applied to fiscal and monetary policy or birds than the military. there are many other HAWKS.
this sounds like a hawkish critic looking for something to criticize. i would complain more about NONO in the same line as NANO.
since i don't try for time, i see if i can get theme answers w/o crosses. todays was a good one for that - gave some meta-fun to an easy one. neat and trim was the only one that wasn't obvious. by far the least common of the four.
DATE AND TIME is no problem at all for me. NEAT AND TRIM, on the other hand...
And for those who do the ipad mini puzzle how did the completely wrong Presidents Bush clue get in there?
Whoops! Rared, according to the dictionary, is the past tense of rare, and does not fit the clue.
Anagrams < Puns << Root Canal
Anagrams + Ampersandwichs <<< Puns << Root Canal
I second the mention of BEGAT/BEGOT. In the King James Version, arguably the most well-known English version of the Bible, it's always BEGAT. BEGOT only occurs as part of BEGOTten.
"RARED" up? Don't think you.
I can never see the word BONK without thinking of the original StarTrek episode called Miri, which was banned in Great Britain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rSIXFlOPeH4
A typical Wednesday for me, maybe on the easy side. I got GIN AND TONIC but held off trying to figure out the next theme until I knew if they would all be alcoHOLIC-ly related. 25D was briefly IN D.C. but RIMS cured that.
I associate RARED with RARin' to go. Dictionary.com shows it comes from "rear" as a verb, so okay with me. And you might be RARin' to go if you are a WORK-AHorse, which is what I had at 28D until I noticed the A. AH, well.
Thanks, Fred Piscop and congratulations on NYTimes puzzle # 150!
@Be Careful Grasshopper
If you Google "Date and time" - with the quotation marks - you get 139 million hits.
If you Google "Date and time are not a thing" - with the quotation marks - you get zero hits.
Putting the quotation marks makes Google search for the exact phrase, not just pages that have any of the words in the phrase.
This puzzle was definitely head-and-shoulders [HUSHED ORDEALS] above the quality of offerings for the past few days.
Anagrams + X&Y phrases: double the fun. It is tough to find ones that anagram into single words, which made me appreciate it even more.
The fill was exemplary as well, clear indication of the true professional Fred Piscop is (I almost wrote Joe Piscopo -- sorry, Fred).
Cheers!
PS. Leapy, fun, fun, fun! HelsINKy-dinky-doo.
Signed: Sami
When Pan Am got into financial difficulties they sold the building in 1981 to Met Life for 400 million.
The scuttlebutt around New York was they should have sold the airplanes and kept the building.
Today the building is worth around 350 billion, according to Google.
You got some Jumble in my Crossword!
...okay, to be fair, I actually kind of appreciated the meta-game I got out of this. Once I got the first theme answer and grokked the gimmick, I immediately set to solving the other theme answers without the benefit of crosssings. Then I backfilled the rest, which took about 2 more minutes. Not what I want from a puzzle every day, but I enjoyed it well enough.
I also appreciated that an anagram-themed puzzle included EVIAN as an answer.
Fairly easy once I realized 39A was 'Begot' and not 'Begat' (even though the latter is more often used in the Bible...)
"jibes"
ANDagrams©
Ack! So much hate for a regionalism and, to a lesser extent, an expression. My father grew up in east Texas, and never completely lost his accent or use of dialectic expressions. Which was fine, except when he said 'form' for 'farm', and 'cord' for 'card, and I think a few others that won't come to mind, and by which I never ceased to be confused. I'm not sure whether it worked the other way, those weren't words he often used. 'RARED up' sounds perfectly normal to my ear, though I know, of course, that the term is 'reared up', and was surprised to see it appear to be the correct answer, without some caveat in the clue. I'm guessing it's not unusual in the South and Mid-west in general. Anyone else?
Similarly, I thought of NEATANDTRIM as soon as I saw a few letters. I know I heard it growing up, perhaps with particular regard to a visit to the hair salon or barber, as in 'There, all neat and trim'. For some reason the Net is being pretty silent on both. The 'rared up' is simply termed either a regionalism or an 'older usage', which seems to have a citation from 1833.
@Hartley - please add me to the chorus. I, too, was saddened to read the news, and my deepest condolences go out to you on losing a friend. I believe she was a birder, or at least a bird-watcher, and therefore a woman after my own heart. It sounds as though she was a good person, and that is always a loss to the world. ---A while back I had my one 'exchange' with her, here. In response to a question she had regarding the puzzle, I told her of a favorite composition of mine, by Vivaldi. She graciously thanked me, and also wrote that Vivaldi was her favorite classical composer. A kind, anonymous poster responded with an embedded performance of the piece. Now I know at least how to cut and paste a URL, so here is another version of that piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmI6kW2Eo6o
'
other's? ET TU, Rec?
Irony has headed its ugly rear.
To all those saying RARED is wrong: please use a dictionary. The verb rare is correct. It means "To rear, rise up, start backwards."
I am writing in to say that the term is 'reared up' on hind legs etc. Can't find 'rared up'. Is this an alternative spelling?
Loved the theme, thanks to the extra spaces turning into "and" in each answer. I am not good at anagrams. Have to look at them pretty carefully, but once I knew I was only looking for short words in the long one, it came quickly.
I agree with two other previous comments. "RARED is just wrong." The word is not in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and the word that refers to animals standing on their hind legs is REARED.
I am also going to quibble with 6 across --shouldn't it be embedded? -- as, a certain war zone correspondent is embedded. Or to state this differently, one may EMBED a journalist with a military unit, but the correspondent is EMBEDDED.
Soccer? I am delighted that Ireland beat Italy, and for some reason I cannot put my finger on, happy that Russia has gone home.
Sorry that one of the regulars has passed. The comments will be missed.
Margaret
My horse expected an apple but I fed her some NAN instead. She was so angry she RARED up.
Sorry. The Pan Am building is worth around 3.5 billion, not 350.
@Beatrice, the Vivaldi is a lovely idea, thank you.
Margaret said:
"I agree with two other previous comments. "RARED is just wrong." The word is not in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and the word that refers to animals standing on their hind legs is REARED."
Try an unabridged dictionary. RARED is correct.
Here's a portion of the definition of the verb RARE from the OED together with the samples it provides of this usage:
2. intr. orig. U.S. regional (chiefly south. and south Midland).
Thesaurus »
Categories »
a. Of an animal: to rise up, esp. on the hind legs. Freq. with up, back.
1833 Sketches & Eccentricities D. Crockett vii. 92 He just rared up upon his hind legs.
1898 H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 100 Break 'em with a curb an' they rare an' fall back on you.
1925 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 38 356 Jack jest slipped around the oak right quick and the municorn stove his horn into hit and he just rared and plunged.
1984 G. Story It never pays to laugh too Much 79 To get a horse to rare up on his hind legs like a circus horse was something the Montgomerys seemed to fancy.
1998 B. Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible (1999) ii. 117 You go blind, and then it [sc. a cobra] can just rare back and bite you any old time it feels like it.
2006 Deseret (Salt Lake City) Morning News (Nexis) 10 June Richins injured her leg when her horse rared up and then rolled over her.
FLORA DORA
Drinking GINANDTONIC, looking NEATANDTRIM, SMOLDERing to vent,
DECKED out with UGLI EVILEYES, I knew she’d KISSANDTELL
about HOW her DATEANDTIME with him EMBED she SPENT -
she’d AWAKEN and STORMOUT, having that MANMADE so well.
--- EVIAN OVINE HAWKS
Oh no!:
http://www.startribune.com/proposed-demolition-of-burma-shave-home-decried/388078172/
I did have a minute after all (couldn't sleep). I liked it, and give it a birdie. Dear me, the well-read Fearless one can't remember DORA? Then he also does not recall David's long-time friend--and eventually, wife--Agnes.
The question of the legitimacy of RARED strikes me as being precisely the same question that was raised a few days ago regarding “runagate.” Some people will say, with the clarity of the true believer, “I can show you the definition and where it’s been used, therefore it’s legitimate.” Others, with equal insistence, will say “it’s regional dialect, or archaic, so it requires some indication of variant or non-standard use in the clue.” Different crossword philosophies. I am in the latter camp. I could tell which word was needed, but thought it was inappropriately clued.
Have to call this puzzle NEATANDTRIM.
A little too easy for Wednesday, not as interesting as yesterday's, but nice.
And all this time I've thought it was and had to be "reared up." My language lesson for the day. Good to learn something even if not likely ever to be used or useful except in an xword.
Tom Morehouse is the name of my avatar.
Many Orbital Periods ago I went to "school" in the PANAM building - a Katharine Gibbs course for college grads (esp. English majors) that taught office skills so we could get a job. Used to eat lunch in the adjoining Grand Central Station on the mezzanine.
I, too, said NONO as I filled in RARED and BEGOT. However, I've become used to the trickery of words that cross (skyey anyone?), so in they went.
A fairly "easy for a Wednesday" solve until I was MIREd in the SW by putting in pLant instead of FLORA. The 'ole ERASEr saved the day once again. Using my trusty pencil saves me from getting all INKY. Which was the name of the cat I got for my 5th birthday. Still have a photo of her (and moi) on my fridge. Guess what color she was?
My mom was a WORKAHOLIC. And gardener, baker, housekeeper extraordinaire, seamstress. wicked scrabble fiend, and creator of a safe haven for all my friends. When she retired they hired an attorney, an accountant, and a secretary to take her place. She died too young, but honestly, she packed 150 years worth of life into those 59 years. Agree with @Ellen - cancer is not the way to go.
And one last note - doesn't Rex have a watch? I mean, he does time his crosswords. Doesn't your dentist remind you of the DATEANDTTIME of your next appt?
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
KAZOO, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT, what do we appreciate? ANDagrams (thanks @ed) apparently.
I am forever asking for the DATEANDTIME of bid openings. Not weak or unsnappy in my line.
Classic yeah baby Dorothy LAMOUR. Did she ever wear anything but a sarong? Or go without?
What does NUTWOOD anagram to? DOWNANDOUT. CLAMOUR (Brit.)? RUMANDCOLA. NUTPICK? NIPANDTUCK. ILL (or LIL) LOBSTERER? LIEBERANDSTOLLER. Easy enough with an on-line anagram solver. Not a bad puz for someone who does the hilarious Jumble every day.
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