THEME: THE OK CORRAL (GUNFIGHT AT THE) (28D: With 62-Across, renowned 1881 event that lasted about 30 seconds) — there is a "corral" of sorts in the middle of the grid made out of synonyms of "OK" (WELL, JAKE, FINE, FAIR); two of the gunfighters also make an appearance (DOC HOLLIDAY, IKE CLANTON) (17A: Deputy marshal at 62-Across, 11D: Outlaw at 62-Across)
Word of the Day: MACAO (1A: East Asia gambling locale) —
Macau (/məˈkaʊ/ (listen)), also spelled Macao and officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous region on the western side of the Pearl Riverestuary in East Asia. Macau is bordered by the city of Zhuhai in Mainland China to the north and the Pearl River Delta to the east and south. Hong Kong lies about 64 kilometres (40 mi) to its east across the Delta. With a population of 650,900 living in an area of 30.5 km2 (11.8 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world. A former Portuguese colony, it was returned to Chinese sovereignty on 20 December 1999. (wikipedia)
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This gag is so ridiculous that I like it. Better bonkers than boring. Just the idea that a simple four-sided figure is supposed to be a "CORRAL" is hilarious to me. Like, if you drew that shape on a board and asked people to guess what it is all day long, no one would ever say "CORRAL." "Square! Box! Frame! [ten minutes later] Room? Postage stamp? [three hours later] uh ... Wyoming?" Etc. But the puzzle tells me it's a CORRAL and I'm like "well, look at that, it *is* a CORRAL! Got no livestock or horses in it, but sure!" Themewise, the only part I didn't really like was GUNFIGHT AT. Wish that space could've been used for something else theme-related. The theme is really only about the corral. The shape and the synonyms. "Gunfight" could've easily been incorporated into the clue for THE OK CORRAL, which stand just fine on its own. Instead the revealer—the punchline!—has a clue that starts [See 28-Down...]. Oof. Not elegant. But I don't know what else could've gone is the GUNFIGHT AT space. None of the other participants fit, except MORGAN EARP, who isn't exactly, uh, the famous one. Anyway, despite the revealer issues, I think the theme is a winner.
The fill is rough, though. MACAO (not MACAU!?) at 1-Across tells you things are gonna get Old School right quick. I wouldn't know that place existed without crosswords. And I'm still not sure SALUTERs or SNARLERs or OCHRES (plural?) exist, ouch. ARB is among my least favorite pieces of crosswordese. See also KOD. LUI abutting ÉTÉ is just mal. Gotta have a lot of SANG / FROID to attempt that cruddy French combo. But I've seen much worse grids, and WILLOWY and MONIKER are nice little words. So the puzzle's got problems, but not enough to keep me from basically enjoying it.
Ahh, good to be back after a lovely respite far away.
When I finished this puzzle, I thought, "What's not to like about this?" It has: * A lot of theme. * A big unknown answer to figure out (the outlaw). * A cute and smile-producing literal portrayal of the corral. * A clean grid. * Other than "okay" meanings in the cluing for the corral words. * Some lovely answers: TOEHOLD, WILLOWY, BAOBAB, SANGFROID.
So, to find out what's not to like about this, I of course came here, and lo and behold, it got a relative rave from the Rex. You know what that means, David: You did far better than OKAY! Thank you, sir, for a terrific solving experience!
Not knowing the alternative spelling of MACAu held me up for quite some time. Didn’t care for the cluing for LOB; SNARLER and SALUTERS — ugh. Rex is being kind.
The fires fifty miles north of us made so much ash and smoke early Monday morning that it woke us up at around two. People in the Santa Rosa are describing firestorms -- clouds of sparks descending upon them.
It don’t get much uglier than IGA KOD. Was it worth it? Nah. I genuinely like the four 10-letter themers, but the ‘ring of mediocrity’ was forced and drab at the same time.
Hidden theme inside the central CORRAL (of OKs): CARA, MOM, and EDY (ice cream). Now, write the clue for those? All ok things? LMS, where are you? I thought the Middle East might give some people trouble — side-by-side French words two files away from side-by-side proper nouns (first names). I knew the French but not the names. Survived with crosses. I was amazed that the OK CORRAL theme included neither Earp brother. Silly, fun puzzle. Pretty easy for mid-week.
If the Baobab is what I'm thinking of those are some bizarre trees.
I did not understand that the words forming the corral were synonyms for OK. Jake is quite an outlier in that group. If I don't get the gimmick then it's a DNF in my book.
Whatever @Z is going on about I don't know but I'm glad he posted it as a link so I can choose not to click on it.
Didn't know much about the whole history of thr OK CORRAL, but just enough to the puzzle. If I can believe what I read on the internet, the crosshairs actually never rested on IKE CLANTON during the GUNFIGHT. He was unarmed and ran away from the GUNFIGHT. He later filed murder charges against DOC HOLIDAY and the Earps to no avail since his own testimony was so bad it hurt his own case. The GUNFIGHT actually didn't take place in the OK CORRAL either, It apparently occurred in a 15 x 20 foot vacant lot 6 blocks away. The OK CORRAL was a livery and corral, but the original structure burned down. The reconstructed building looks like it was rectangular, not round.
@Mathgent my aunt had to evacuate her home. Didn't get an update from her yesterday. My now retired firefighter paramedic brother lives in Rohnert Park. I last talked to him on Monday evening when he said he had to go out and put out some sparks on his lawn. Lots of ash had fallen in his neighborhood.
I'm OK, you're OK. Not. What on earth does "sangfroid" have to do with being OK? Or some gunfight that has been beaten to a pulp in our folklore like a dead horse? Contrived and illogical. And not enough in the rest of the grid to compensate for the tortured theme.
Yep, pretty whimsical and random. Unless it was inspired by @LMS's avatar from last Thursday, in which case I like it more.
I've never heard of JAKE meaning OK, and WELL implies better than OK.
@Glimmerglass -- Nice job finding the CORRAL occupants. Read the other way, they constitute a RACY DEMO, MA.
I liked how the clue for INERT evoked yesterday's puzzle. I didn't like how adjacent French words also evoked it.
Speaking of French words, isn't SANGFROID one word, not two?
Pedro was far better than TINO.
My family loves playing a game called Quiddler -- think of it as similar to Scrabble, but with cards rather than tiles. My dad once tried to play CLUCKER (what a hen is), which has become our catchphrase for any word we deem bogus. All to say, seeing SALUTER and SNARLER in the same grid made me laugh out loud. They are both nonsense, but hilarious nonsense.
I always thought idling referred to what you do with the throttle, and not what's going on with the transmission. Out of gear could be in neutral (or in park on an automatic).
Macau is the gambling capital of the world. Not Vegas. I believe that Macau's monthly gaming revenue runs around 2.5x the level for all of Nevada. Both Macau and Macao are official spellings. So nothing obscure about the place or the spelling
Once I had DOCHOLLIDAY I skipped to THEOKCORRAL, then naturally filled in SHOOTOUTAT for 28D and just couldn't imagine that being wrong...Struggled for far too long on an otherwise enjoyable Wednesday.
I don't think we have an IGA in NYC, so I had to guess at the I that crosses IKE CLANTON. Never heard of the guy. How can DOC HOLLIDAY and the OK CORRAL be so familiar when he's not? Oh well -- an easy enough guess.
I wasn't too annoyed today by the tiny little circles since they were very easy to ignore. I don't think much of the WELL/FAIR/FINE/JAKE grouping, but they were irrelevant to the solve. A pleasant and easy puzzle; I'd rate it "OK".
This was over way too fast. I was up far earlier than usual this am., and now I've read the papers, done the puzzle, read Rex and the blog and it's still too early to make the phone calls on my list.
But this was cute and fun. I, of course, forgot to look at the circled letters, which means I missed the CORRAL. And no way would I have seen the guns and crosshairs without @Z's help. I got hung up CAJUN, JAKE, AND SALUTER for a few minutes, but otherwise, easy-peasy. Why I always go for Mohito before MIMOSA is beyond me as these are always our bareboat ceremonial starts, finishes, and in-betweens. I've never even had a mohito. Go figure. I liked WILLOWY, and if I'm not in gear, than my engine is idling.
I like the little circles today and the big one they make. Maybe @Nancy will too. This cowboy/western theme feels 1950's comfy for a Wednesday and I always appreciate a puzzle that is packed with theme. The visual puts it over the top for me every time. Nice one, David!
MACAu was my first answer. I changed it when the happy song wouldn't play. I had never noticed an O version before.
What a strange puzzle that I actually enjoyed. I thought I knew all the wild west shows - I certainly watched a gazillion of them growing up and yet my cowboy ignorance reared its horse head at IKE CLANTON. I really don't know who he is. I don't know IGA and when I got to 49A I wanted Banks to be Eubie. Ergo, whoever was the outlaw had a name that ended in U...I also had the private as a SoLdier for a while. That whole eastern section held me up something fierce. Did anyone else have MOBILE instead of RATTLE? No, probably not. Don't know why JAKE is OK. Was he sick at one time? Would have truly smiled if Annie Oakley had made the cut. Or maybe Kitty. @mathgent...It's awful here in Sacramento. We had/have the Yuba fires north of us and the Napa/Santa Rosa fires wafting up here thanks to the Delta sending its ashes and smoke in this direction. I went out this morning to get the newspaper and almost fell over with the smell of smoke. Another year of California burning. We leave for Albuquerque on Sat. and I can't wait to get out of Dodge City.
UGH!!! you beat me to it. How Sharp could not mention that given his own self serving description as a "TCM addict" is beyond me. I mean, how can he not know a Mitchum movie?!!!!
@Abalani500,
Save your breath. the great and powerful Sharp has spoken. If Mike says it's obscure or old school, you'd better get onboard; else you're likely the worst sort of person. You know, the kind that doesn't agree with him. LOL
@two Ponies, Your instinctive revulsion to something @Z would think worthy is spot on. But do yourself a favor, click the link. It is hysterical. That a grown man, frankly that anyone who has reached the age of reason could believe the performance he links to has any merit--intellectual, or artistic-- is almost fantastic. I can scarcely believe anyone could view it with out howling in laugher. It is risible.
@Malsdemare. You probably haven't had a mohito because it's a MOJITO. It means little wet one in Cuban speak. The Cubans add a little ito/ita or ica/ico to the ends of words to make them sound cute and small. My sisters name is Marta and everyone called her Martica. From that, her name by everyone in the family, is Tica. I know, TMI. Just another TMI...If you're still awake and so inclined try the new French Mojito with a big drop of Remy Martin VSOP.
I hope all of you Californians will be safe -- @GILL and @mathgent and @Aketi's aunt and so many more. GILL -- maybe you can move up your Albuquerque escape date and get your lungs out of the smoke sooner. The mind just boggles at what's happening in CA right now. And that following so quickly on the tragedies in Puerto Rico and St Martin and Houston. It's all heartbreaking. The people who say climate scientists are wrong turn out to be right. Climate scientists have been much too optimistic in their predictions of when the worst catastrophes would happen. It's not decades from now. It's now.
Should have knocked this one out quickly but like one other commentor, I had shootout instead of GUNFIGHT. I was well into my second cup of coffee before the big palm slap to my forehead occurred.
@Nancy 10:03, thanks for stating what should be painfully obvious to any sentient being but clearly isn’t.
@Anon 10 a.m, don’t think Bat M was at the shootout but no time to check right now.
3 fires in Butte County California where I live. Smoke is wretched but we’re safe, at least so far. To all my fellow Californians on this blog, hang in there.
@gill. My drink of choice is Chardonnay. Well drinks go down so easy! that I deliberately avoid them. There are rare evening when we will pull the Limoncello from the freezer and I need to be held back from just tipping the bottle into my mouth. So while a mojito (thanks for catching that) sounds delightful, I'll refrain.
Thank you @Nancy for expressing so well all our thoughts and concerns for people everywhere who are being slammed with some horrendous natural (and man-made) disasters. I watch the hurricanes unfold, the fires rage, and thank my stars I live in Tornado alley. Our natural disaster this year is drought, but our house stands, our well pumps, our solar panels power us up, our septic keeps our waste out of our basement. Stay safe, everyone.
As the Cubs take on Houston this afternoon, I am just delighted to see Ernie Banks, Mr Cub, in the puzzle. Post season baseball is like the gunfight at the OK Corral! Love your write up, you always make me smile. Go Cubs Go!
Took a while to get a TOEHOLD on this puzzle, especially since I thought that DOCH was the beginning of some Russian name. But as soon as DOC HOLLIDAY showed his face, the rest fell into place almost as quickly as the GUNFIGHT itself.
A LOT to like about the theme and fill. Nice that the OK synonyms forming the CORRAL have other meanings as well. Congrats, Mr. Kahn.
But don't understand how ARB is a Wall St. trader.
@rosebud -- Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Cubs may end up playing Houston in the World Series, but first they need to get past Washington today and then the Dodgers. :)
I'd been bothered by that off-center X in the middle of the corral. Thanks to @Z for explaining it -- I like the puzzle a lot better now.
It was awfully easy, though -- once I got to 17A, which sent me to 62A, and then to the circles, I filled in the whole corral, and that made it easy to get everything else.
@Z, thanks also for the Eminem link. I've been hearing about that -- have to go watch it now.
Started right out with Macao and everything else fell in quickly. Always enjoy a puzzle that allows me to work out answers I don’t know (baobab) or hardly know (Ike Clanton, who’s so little known that autocorrect keeps trying to rename him Clayton). Fun, enjoyable, all jake.
IIRC there were 3 Earp brothers at the famous gunfight, and either MORGAN or VIRGIL EARP would have fit in the logical place across the corral from IKE CLANTON. He was the patriarch of the Clanton gang, for those wondering, but I think it was only his sons and others of the gang that were active participants in the battle itself.
Enjoyed the puzzle greatly. 'Everything's JAKE' is old-ish phrase - something I'm pretty sure Burt Lancaster's character in 'Atlantic City' gave in response to being asked how he was doing.
28A is factually wrong. MESCALINE is the hallucinogen in peyote. MESCAL is spirit that, like tequila, is derived from agave. Second wrong answer in a 7-day period ("ex-da" for Giuliani and Christie -- neither of whom was ever a DA -- being the first).
ARB is a shorthand name for an arbitrageur, one who takes advantage of small pricing inefficiencies in the stock market (Wall Street, e. g.) to capture risk-free profits.
Overall, I liked this one a lot, but it played above average in Wednesday difficulty for me. But shouldn't there be a rule against putting two foreign language clues from the same foreign language next to each other? LUI and ETE aren't too hard, but they shouldn't be together like that, especially with a sports proper noun like ERNIE crossing them.
MACAO is not obscure. James Bond has found himself there in more than one movie, after all. ;-)
Back in '94 I gambled in a casino there and won pretty big at a game sort of like roulette with dice by playing under the rule "Assume the house is cheating." I can't say for sure they were cheating, but I can say I won consistently when I applied that rule. For example, if there was a lot of money on the "odd" bet, I would bet "even". I won again and again that way, until people noticed and started following my bets. The party was over at that point.
This puz was pretty much OK, at my house. Yo and welcome back, @Lewis … and primo comment bullets! [@RP: day-um, dude … If ever there was gonna be a day when the write-up shoulda had bullets, it woulda been today.]
M&A's OK bullets…
* Wrote in MACAO -- with an O -- offa nuthin. Remember it was spelled thataway, in some security clearance form I had to fill out while in the military. Evidently MACAO was someplace that was a NONO for folks with high clearances to go visit. That always made M&A curious, about MACAO.
* Great weeject stacks in the NE/SW. Hard to pick a fave. The NE was what masked bloggers like to call "The KO-D Corral". But, then, the SW serves up BAT A LA BLT.
* staff weeject pick: ARB. Close as we get, to sightin the star of the show. [Wyatt ARB.]
* Don't recall ever havin run across SANG FROID before. French … figures. Would make a cool lyric for a tune, tho: "Ohhh … papa sang froid, and mama sang jung … in that old psycho ward back home … "
* honrable weeject mention to: LUI. Duck bro of HUI and DUI, as y'all well know.
* Wonky-desperate-superb grid layout, with the slightly off-center corral circles. As magnificent beast @Z pointed out at 5:somethin AM [shudder]: got yer pistols and crosshairs, drawn in with the shady squares, too boot. Nice.
* Lotsa theme-touchin stuff in this puz. Would've expected more desperation, to accommodate that central snarl. Yet, U got BANANA, ANGST, MAKEOUT, RATTLE, CAJUN, WILLOWY, MONIKER all rollin around in the OK Corral dust. What a constructioneerin feat. Rodeo. And thUmbsUp.
MESCALl is another name for peyote. In fact my dictionary says mescaline is derived from "mescal buttons." Tequila is derived from agave, but another name for that plant or drink is mezcal (always with the z).
Somehow my original post got lost. My dictionary refers to "MESCAL buttons" which we call peyote buttons as a source for mescaline. Tequila is derived from agave, a different plant from the peyote cactus, but in Mexico mezcal (with the z) refers to the drink or the raw liquor made from agave.
Hey All ! An OK CORRALed puz. Didn't have me BOLTing away. Although had some ANGST with the ARB answer, as that was a WOE. Also, that BAOBAB tree HANGed me up from a TOEHOLD in the SW.
We've had MACAO as spelled in previous NYT puzs, so not sure why it buggered so many. However, SANG FROID was BANANAs. Have heard of SANG dial from the movie The DaVinci Code. :-)
Managed to MAKE OUT the puz with just one writeover, REUNIte-REUNIFY.
So a FINE puz, that didn't give me any ANGST or an I LOST. (Plus plenty of usable write-ups words!)
Yesterday we had a comment on the blog trying to lure anyone here addicted to gambling (a friend's sister has that malady and it is not OK!) and today the puzzle itself has MACAO (which was my one writeover, as MAlay went in first. OTOH and COCO cleaned that up.)
I like that SANGFROID means you likely won't get RATTLEd and perhaps not ADDLEd either.
I was worried that the "peyote" clue for MESCAL was wrong because I associate MESCAL with the drink and "peyote" with chewing, but the dictionary online accepts them as synonymous.
Thanks, David Kahn, for a Wednesday puzzle that's better than FAIR or OK.
@ Adam 12:35 — [raises hand sheepishly] GenX’er/Generation Jones here. I have/had really old parents.
Used as a lyric in a somewhat famous old song: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pVrVOF1jF1g “Everything’s rosy, everything’s JAKE, but just how much can a good girl take...”
Where's the indication in the clue for 60D that the answer is in French? The English word is sangfroid if we just start permitting constructors to split words willy-nilly in the grid all hell is going to break loose.
Glad to see BAOBABs getting some love in this enjoyable puzzle. The clue “Thick-trunked tree” is true enough (some are 25 m. around) but there is so much more to marvel at: their extraordinary shape, and the fact that their branching pattern is such that they often look like they have miniature baobabs sitting on their branches with even smaller versions of themselves on the branches of the miniatures. I’ve had the pleasure of spending quality time with baobabs in a half dozen countries and they never get old (though some live for 1500 years!).
Easy for me. Had WaneS before WILTS but that was about it for bumps. I did need to stare for a few nanoseconds at the answers in the circles before the theme pun dawned on me.
Liked it, or what @Rex said.
Anyone looking for a very tough Kahn puzzle should try the March 28, 1998 Sat.
San Francisco can smell the fire very distinctly, and Santa Rosa is an hour's drive away. @Linda Vale: It was my favorite Star Trek episode (circa 1969). @anon 9:54: Sad, but true. What's it got do with a crossword blog?
@Fred. I have no idea what that video has to do with a crossword blog. Ask @Z. He's the guy who brought it up. I was just commenting on it. And by the way, not to you. As you'll note my comment was addressed to Two Ponies. I assume you're disoriented by the smoke. but please, do try and keep up.
also MESCAL is unreal. its like someone's parent was listening in on a phone conversation with their teenage child and heard every other word and had some info about this twittering business thats all the rage and then made this puzzle
And another thing...you'll notice the small time difference between posts that dare to question me, such as that of Fred Romagnolo, and my witty response. This is because I have nothing better to do than monitor this blog closely in order to save it from dangerous lefties like Z and to belittle and/or condescend to anyone who gets in the way. Carry on folks, I'll be watching.
Anon 3:48, 3:51 & 3:54 (& maybe 2:01 & 3:31 too) -- You probably think you're just the cutest & funniest poster on the blog, but it's obvious you don't even have a sense of humor. Basically, you're an asshole. You're the very DEF of an asshole.
Excellent writeups today from @Lewis and @M&A,thank you gents.
Lovely puzzle although ILOST it in the LUI/ETE corner. But I could see Mr. Kahn was going for something big here, and because I had so much fun solving this, and especially because of BAOBAB and SANG FROID, all is forgiven.
@Northern Californians near the fires, please stay safe tonight. My brother says the winds are expected to increase and there may be new evacuations. I hope not.
This was the 3rd puzzle (the championship 4th puzzle will run on Saturday 10/21 I believe) at the Westchester tournament in Pleasantville (benefits the Pleasantville Fund for Learning, pffl.org)
Time being a factor, I had no idea what was going on with the circled squares, and when OKCORRAL clearly wouldn't fit I was wondering if something wacky was going on (nope).
Possible sign of doing too many puzzles: from the E for "Cool, in dated slang" I tried HEP for a little while before DEF.
@give it a rest etc, I'm anon 3:31. Would you consider reconsidering that post? If I understand things correctly, Fred misunderstood matters and compounded his error by sticking his snoot into what was in effect and aside to Two Ponies. Please point out my error, and I'll happily refrain from postimg. Asshole.
Sorry, Anon 3:31. I guess you shouldn't have been included in the Anon list. If you reread my post you'll see I wasn't sure of you. But that's the problem with anonymous posts. You can't tell any of them apart.
Beyond gambling, Macau / Macao is where European contact with China began. Impossible not to be aware of it if you know anything at all about early maritime globalism.
OK, OK, OK. I'm posting a day early 'cause tomorrow Mr. Waiting is having a heart procedure up in San Jose, and I'm his designated driver back to the hotel. We leave about 5 am.
I enjoyed the puzzle and @Rex' review! Maybe he's taking MESCAL. Didn't know IKE, but the crosses made it fair game. Momentarily had hEp before DEF. My only write over. WELL, WELL.
See you late on Thursday.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords and the 4 am alarm
Nice puzzle. Although I never heard of JAKE meaning OK. It sounds like something Murray or Jermaine would say on Flight of the Conchords. The constructor squeezed in a lot long revealers in this one (20A, 11D, 28D, 62A). That alone makes this one more than just OK. @D,LIW: Hope all goes well for Mr. W.
One w/o having hEp before DEF. IKECLANTON a gimme, especially with the K giving it away. I’m going to bet that most CORRALs are/were rectangular in shape as a matter of easier construction. INIDLE I don’t like so much; a car out of gear is IN neutral, or you could put your brain oNIDLE as many drivers apparently do.
WELL, no doubt about yeah baby LARA Logan, SHES FINE.
So the SCENE was set for the GUNFIGHTAT OKCORRAL. FAIR puz.
All you guys that didn't know JAKE means OK have apparently never seen The Sting, one of the all-time great movies. In it, Gondorff asks Hooker if he's had any trouble with hitmen; he replies "Nah, everything's JAKE." It's '30s old Old School, for sure, but it's legit.
I didn't realize that the dentist was actually formally deputized. I thought he was just a crony of Earp's (Some say THEY were the outlaws). Of course, my main association with the event is via the STTOS episode "Spectre of the Gun."
Yeah, MACA(u)O is old school?? It's only recently gotten on the map for being a gaming mecca. Cost me a writeover, but it's not O.S.
I solved from N-E-W-S, so at first didn't get the connection with the circled words until finally putting in FINE; aha! moment ensued.
For DOD I could choose Julie Christie as Dr. Zhivago's love LARA, or even MONIKER Lewinski (har!). But since a Jeopardy! clue just appeared about her, I'll pick the lovely Roma Downey of Touched By an ANGEL. Wouldn't mind a MAKEOUT session with her.
Nice little Wednesday romp; as OFL said, some fill problems but not too bad. Score it a birdie.
Larousse (the French equivalent of Merriam-Webster) spells sang-froid with a hyphen, not as one undivided word: http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/sang-froid/70836
Merriam-Webster (the American equivalent of Larousse) does spell sangfroid as one undivided word: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sangfroid
Nifty puzzle with a triple-barreled theme (participants in the GUNFIGHT, the CORRAL, and the OK variants forming the CORRAL), and some pretty nice other entries.
I like it when a constructor shows some mojo in attempting a different sort of theme, given that themes seem necessary. Good for this guy.
I originally spelled 1A MACAu, but it become clear that the last letter was an 'O', and so I just closed the 'U'. I don't count that as a write-over. Other than that, a clean solve of a puzzle that I totally enjoyed.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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listen)), also spelled Macao and officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous region on the western side of the Pearl River estuary in East Asia. Macau is bordered by the city of Zhuhai in Mainland China to the north and the Pearl River Delta to the east and south. Hong Kong lies about 64 kilometres (40 mi) to its east across the Delta. With a population of 650,900 living in an area of 30.5 km2 (11.8 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world. A former Portuguese colony, it was returned to Chinese sovereignty on 20 December 1999. (wikipedia)
94 comments:
Don’t forget the guns and crosshairs in the grid design.
Ahh, good to be back after a lovely respite far away.
When I finished this puzzle, I thought, "What's not to like about this?" It has:
* A lot of theme.
* A big unknown answer to figure out (the outlaw).
* A cute and smile-producing literal portrayal of the corral.
* A clean grid.
* Other than "okay" meanings in the cluing for the corral words.
* Some lovely answers: TOEHOLD, WILLOWY, BAOBAB, SANGFROID.
So, to find out what's not to like about this, I of course came here, and lo and behold, it got a relative rave from the Rex. You know what that means, David: You did far better than OKAY! Thank you, sir, for a terrific solving experience!
I agree. Nice job Mr Shortz.
Not knowing the alternative spelling of MACAu held me up for quite some time. Didn’t care for the cluing for LOB; SNARLER and SALUTERS — ugh. Rex is being kind.
Played very fast for me. Lots of downs done today.
I know we all hate rap and politics, but I’m going to just leave this here.
I enjoyed it, although it played too easy for me. (However, I do not have the effete - I mean discriminating - tastes of the carping critics.)
Have been to Macau/Macao. Was aware of the variations of its spelling (unrelated to my visits).
It's not exactly rare for non-Latin names to have multiple English spellings. How do you spell Gadhafi/Qaddafi/Gaddafi?
I don't know what makes Rex say that "Macao" is "old school."
Needs more Val Kilmer.
Not enough crunch, but otherwise very pleasant.
The fires fifty miles north of us made so much ash and smoke early Monday morning that it woke us up at around two. People in the Santa Rosa are describing firestorms -- clouds of sparks descending upon them.
It don’t get much uglier than IGA KOD. Was it worth it? Nah. I genuinely like the four 10-letter themers, but the ‘ring of mediocrity’ was forced and drab at the same time.
Mini-tree theme? WILLOWy, ASHe, BAOBAB, BANANA, MIMOSA.
Hidden theme inside the central CORRAL (of OKs): CARA, MOM, and EDY (ice cream). Now, write the clue for those? All ok things? LMS, where are you? I thought the Middle East might give some people trouble — side-by-side French words two files away from side-by-side proper nouns (first names). I knew the French but not the names. Survived with crosses. I was amazed that the OK CORRAL theme included neither Earp brother. Silly, fun puzzle. Pretty easy for mid-week.
What did we learn yesterday? Krypton!
If the Baobab is what I'm thinking of those are some bizarre trees.
I did not understand that the words forming the corral were synonyms
for OK. Jake is quite an outlier in that group. If I don't get the gimmick then it's a DNF in my book.
Whatever @Z is going on about I don't know but I'm glad he posted it as a link so I can choose not to click on it.
Didn't know much about the whole history of thr OK CORRAL, but just enough to the puzzle. If I can believe what I read on the internet, the crosshairs actually never rested on IKE CLANTON during the GUNFIGHT. He was unarmed and ran away from the GUNFIGHT. He later filed murder charges against DOC HOLIDAY and the Earps to no avail since his own testimony was so bad it hurt his own case. The GUNFIGHT actually didn't take place in the OK CORRAL either, It apparently occurred in a 15 x 20 foot vacant lot 6 blocks away. The OK CORRAL was a livery and corral, but the original structure burned down. The reconstructed building looks like it was rectangular, not round.
@Mathgent my aunt had to evacuate her home. Didn't get an update from her yesterday. My now retired firefighter paramedic brother lives in Rohnert Park. I last talked to him on Monday evening when he said he had to go out and put out some sparks on his lawn. Lots of ash had fallen in his neighborhood.
I'm OK, you're OK. Not. What on earth does "sangfroid" have to do with being OK? Or some gunfight that has been beaten to a pulp in our folklore like a dead horse? Contrived and illogical. And not enough in the rest of the grid to compensate for the tortured theme.
There was a 1952 film called Macao starring Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum.
Yep, pretty whimsical and random. Unless it was inspired by @LMS's avatar from last Thursday, in which case I like it more.
I've never heard of JAKE meaning OK, and WELL implies better than OK.
@Glimmerglass -- Nice job finding the CORRAL occupants. Read the other way, they constitute a RACY DEMO, MA.
I liked how the clue for INERT evoked yesterday's puzzle. I didn't like how adjacent French words also evoked it.
Speaking of French words, isn't SANGFROID one word, not two?
Pedro was far better than TINO.
My family loves playing a game called Quiddler -- think of it as similar to Scrabble, but with cards rather than tiles. My dad once tried to play CLUCKER (what a hen is), which has become our catchphrase for any word we deem bogus. All to say, seeing SALUTER and SNARLER in the same grid made me laugh out loud. They are both nonsense, but hilarious nonsense.
This was better than OK, but not by ALOT.
@SirH --
Re: Sang Froid
Sang => Blood
Froid => Cold
@SirH (again) --
Oops, posted before finishing. Yes, sangfroid (in French) is just one word.
IN IDLE can't be right.
I always thought idling referred to what you do with the throttle, and not what's going on with the transmission. Out of gear could be in neutral (or in park on an automatic).
Macau is the gambling capital of the world. Not Vegas. I believe that Macau's monthly gaming revenue runs around 2.5x the level for all of Nevada. Both Macau and Macao are official spellings. So nothing obscure about the place or the spelling
Once I had DOCHOLLIDAY I skipped to THEOKCORRAL, then naturally filled in SHOOTOUTAT for 28D and just couldn't imagine that being wrong...Struggled for far too long on an otherwise enjoyable Wednesday.
I learned about the gunfight from watching an episode of Star Trek when I was a kid.
I don't think we have an IGA in NYC, so I had to guess at the I that crosses IKE CLANTON. Never heard of the guy. How can DOC HOLLIDAY and the OK CORRAL be so familiar when he's not? Oh well -- an easy enough guess.
I wasn't too annoyed today by the tiny little circles since they were very easy to ignore. I don't think much of the WELL/FAIR/FINE/JAKE grouping, but they were irrelevant to the solve. A pleasant and easy puzzle; I'd rate it "OK".
This was over way too fast. I was up far earlier than usual this am., and now I've read the papers, done the puzzle, read Rex and the blog and it's still too early to make the phone calls on my list.
But this was cute and fun. I, of course, forgot to look at the circled letters, which means I missed the CORRAL. And no way would I have seen the guns and crosshairs without @Z's help. I got hung up CAJUN, JAKE, AND SALUTER for a few minutes, but otherwise, easy-peasy. Why I always go for Mohito before MIMOSA is beyond me as these are always our bareboat ceremonial starts, finishes, and in-betweens. I've never even had a mohito. Go figure. I liked WILLOWY, and if I'm not in gear, than my engine is idling.
Now what do I do?
I like the little circles today and the big one they make. Maybe @Nancy will too. This cowboy/western theme feels 1950's comfy for a Wednesday and I always appreciate a puzzle that is packed with theme. The visual puts it over the top for me every time. Nice one, David!
MACAu was my first answer. I changed it when the happy song wouldn't play. I had never noticed an O version before.
If you had never worked a crossword before, this puzzle would be extremely difficult. Lots of crosswordese. Not a fan.
What a strange puzzle that I actually enjoyed. I thought I knew all the wild west shows - I certainly watched a gazillion of them growing up and yet my cowboy ignorance reared its horse head at IKE CLANTON. I really don't know who he is. I don't know IGA and when I got to 49A I wanted Banks to be Eubie. Ergo, whoever was the outlaw had a name that ended in U...I also had the private as a SoLdier for a while. That whole eastern section held me up something fierce. Did anyone else have MOBILE instead of RATTLE? No, probably not.
Don't know why JAKE is OK. Was he sick at one time?
Would have truly smiled if Annie Oakley had made the cut. Or maybe Kitty.
@mathgent...It's awful here in Sacramento. We had/have the Yuba fires north of us and the Napa/Santa Rosa fires wafting up here thanks to the Delta sending its ashes and smoke in this direction. I went out this morning to get the newspaper and almost fell over with the smell of smoke. Another year of California burning. We leave for Albuquerque on Sat. and I can't wait to get out of Dodge City.
@Anon 8:27,
UGH!!! you beat me to it. How Sharp could not mention that given his own self serving description as a "TCM addict" is beyond me. I mean, how can he not know a Mitchum movie?!!!!
@Abalani500,
Save your breath. the great and powerful Sharp has spoken. If Mike says it's obscure or old school, you'd better get onboard; else you're likely the worst sort of person. You know, the kind that doesn't agree with him. LOL
@two Ponies,
Your instinctive revulsion to something @Z would think worthy is spot on. But do yourself a favor, click the link. It is hysterical.
That a grown man, frankly that anyone who has reached the age of reason could believe the performance he links to has any merit--intellectual, or artistic-- is almost fantastic.
I can scarcely believe anyone could view it with out howling in laugher. It is risible.
Constructor missed a good clue for 61A. Bat Masterson was also st the OK Corral.
@Malsdemare. You probably haven't had a mohito because it's a MOJITO. It means little wet one in Cuban speak. The Cubans add a little ito/ita or ica/ico to the ends of words to make them sound cute and small. My sisters name is Marta and everyone called her Martica. From that, her name by everyone in the family, is Tica. I know, TMI.
Just another TMI...If you're still awake and so inclined try the new French Mojito with a big drop of Remy Martin VSOP.
I hope all of you Californians will be safe -- @GILL and @mathgent and @Aketi's aunt and so many more. GILL -- maybe you can move up your Albuquerque escape date and get your lungs out of the smoke sooner. The mind just boggles at what's happening in CA right now. And that following so quickly on the tragedies in Puerto Rico and St Martin and Houston. It's all heartbreaking. The people who say climate scientists are wrong turn out to be right. Climate scientists have been much too optimistic in their predictions of when the worst catastrophes would happen. It's not decades from now. It's now.
Or at least he'd been in Tombstone and knew Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.
Fun , easy themer.
MONIKER and TOEHOLD made me smile.This year's ARMY-NAVY game promises to be thrilling.
Thanks DJK
Should have knocked this one out quickly but like one other commentor, I had shootout instead of GUNFIGHT. I was well into my second cup of coffee before the big palm slap to my forehead occurred.
@Nancy 10:03, thanks for stating what should be painfully obvious to any sentient being but clearly isn’t.
@Anon 10 a.m, don’t think Bat M was at the shootout but no time to check right now.
3 fires in Butte County California where I live. Smoke is wretched but we’re safe, at least so far. To all my fellow Californians on this blog, hang in there.
@gill. My drink of choice is Chardonnay. Well drinks go down so easy! that I deliberately avoid them. There are rare evening when we will pull the Limoncello from the freezer and I need to be held back from just tipping the bottle into my mouth. So while a mojito (thanks for catching that) sounds delightful, I'll refrain.
Thank you @Nancy for expressing so well all our thoughts and concerns for people everywhere who are being slammed with some horrendous natural (and man-made) disasters. I watch the hurricanes unfold, the fires rage, and thank my stars I live in Tornado alley. Our natural disaster this year is drought, but our house stands, our well pumps, our solar panels power us up, our septic keeps our waste out of our basement. Stay safe, everyone.
As the Cubs take on Houston this afternoon, I am just delighted to see Ernie Banks, Mr Cub, in the puzzle. Post season baseball is like the gunfight at the OK Corral! Love your write up, you always make me smile. Go Cubs Go!
Took a while to get a TOEHOLD on this puzzle, especially since I thought that DOCH was the beginning of some Russian name. But as soon as DOC HOLLIDAY showed his face, the rest fell into place almost as quickly as the GUNFIGHT itself.
A LOT to like about the theme and fill. Nice that the OK synonyms forming the CORRAL have other meanings as well. Congrats, Mr. Kahn.
But don't understand how ARB is a Wall St. trader.
@rosebud -- Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Cubs may end up playing Houston in the World Series, but first they need to get past Washington today and then the Dodgers.
:)
I'd been bothered by that off-center X in the middle of the corral. Thanks to @Z for explaining it -- I like the puzzle a lot better now.
It was awfully easy, though -- once I got to 17A, which sent me to 62A, and then to the circles, I filled in the whole corral, and that made it easy to get everything else.
@Z, thanks also for the Eminem link. I've been hearing about that -- have to go watch it now.
Started right out with Macao and everything else fell in quickly. Always enjoy a puzzle that allows me to work out answers I don’t know (baobab) or hardly know (Ike Clanton, who’s so little known that autocorrect keeps trying to rename him Clayton). Fun, enjoyable, all jake.
IIRC there were 3 Earp brothers at the famous gunfight, and either MORGAN or VIRGIL EARP would have fit in the logical place across the corral from IKE CLANTON. He was the patriarch of the Clanton gang, for those wondering, but I think it was only his sons and others of the gang that were active participants in the battle itself.
Enjoyed the puzzle greatly. 'Everything's JAKE' is old-ish phrase - something I'm pretty sure Burt Lancaster's character in 'Atlantic City' gave in response to being asked how he was doing.
RT
28A is factually wrong. MESCALINE is the hallucinogen in peyote. MESCAL is spirit that, like tequila, is derived from agave. Second wrong answer in a 7-day period ("ex-da" for Giuliani and Christie -- neither of whom was ever a DA -- being the first).
too tough for me!!!
Seeing David Kahn's name tells you things are going to get Old School right quick. FIFY.
@JMichael --
ARB is a shorthand name for an arbitrageur, one who takes advantage of small pricing inefficiencies in the stock market (Wall Street, e. g.) to capture risk-free profits.
@Jberg,
If you don't mind sharing it, I'd love your take on the Eminem performance.
Overall, I liked this one a lot, but it played above average in Wednesday difficulty for me.
But shouldn't there be a rule against putting two foreign language clues from the same foreign language next to each other? LUI and ETE aren't too hard, but they shouldn't be together like that, especially with a sports proper noun like ERNIE crossing them.
MACAO is not obscure. James Bond has found himself there in more than one movie, after all. ;-)
Back in '94 I gambled in a casino there and won pretty big at a game sort of like roulette with dice by playing under the rule "Assume the house is cheating." I can't say for sure they were cheating, but I can say I won consistently when I applied that rule. For example, if there was a lot of money on the "odd" bet, I would bet "even". I won again and again that way, until people noticed and started following my bets. The party was over at that point.
This puz was pretty much OK, at my house. Yo and welcome back, @Lewis … and primo comment bullets! [@RP: day-um, dude … If ever there was gonna be a day when the write-up shoulda had bullets, it woulda been today.]
M&A's OK bullets…
* Wrote in MACAO -- with an O -- offa nuthin. Remember it was spelled thataway, in some security clearance form I had to fill out while in the military. Evidently MACAO was someplace that was a NONO for folks with high clearances to go visit. That always made M&A curious, about MACAO.
* Great weeject stacks in the NE/SW. Hard to pick a fave. The NE was what masked bloggers like to call "The KO-D Corral". But, then, the SW serves up BAT A LA BLT.
* staff weeject pick: ARB. Close as we get, to sightin the star of the show. [Wyatt ARB.]
* Don't recall ever havin run across SANG FROID before. French … figures. Would make a cool lyric for a tune, tho: "Ohhh … papa sang froid, and mama sang jung … in that old psycho ward back home … "
* honrable weeject mention to: LUI. Duck bro of HUI and DUI, as y'all well know.
* Wonky-desperate-superb grid layout, with the slightly off-center corral circles. As magnificent beast @Z pointed out at 5:somethin AM [shudder]: got yer pistols and crosshairs, drawn in with the shady squares, too boot. Nice.
* Lotsa theme-touchin stuff in this puz. Would've expected more desperation, to accommodate that central snarl. Yet, U got BANANA, ANGST, MAKEOUT, RATTLE, CAJUN, WILLOWY, MONIKER all rollin around in the OK Corral dust. What a constructioneerin feat. Rodeo. And thUmbsUp.
Thanx, Mr. Kahn. Fun xword shootout.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
MESCALl is another name for peyote. In fact my dictionary says mescaline is derived from "mescal buttons." Tequila is derived from agave, but another name for that plant or drink is mezcal (always with the z).
I thought the puzzle was kinda cute.
That is, MESCAL is another name for peyote.
Somehow my original post got lost. My dictionary refers to "MESCAL buttons" which we call peyote buttons as a source for mescaline. Tequila is derived from agave, a different plant from the peyote cactus, but in Mexico mezcal (with the z) refers to the drink or the raw liquor made from agave.
Am I am I the only one who remembered it as "Showdown at the OK Corral?" It fit too.
Who under the age of 90 has ever used JAKE to mean OK?
Hey All !
An OK CORRALed puz. Didn't have me BOLTing away. Although had some ANGST with the ARB answer, as that was a WOE. Also, that BAOBAB tree HANGed me up from a TOEHOLD in the SW.
We've had MACAO as spelled in previous NYT puzs, so not sure why it buggered so many. However, SANG FROID was BANANAs. Have heard of SANG dial from the movie The DaVinci Code. :-)
Managed to MAKE OUT the puz with just one writeover, REUNIte-REUNIFY.
So a FINE puz, that didn't give me any ANGST or an I LOST. (Plus plenty of usable write-ups words!)
GEESE SCENE
RooMonster
DarrinV
Yesterday we had a comment on the blog trying to lure anyone here addicted to gambling (a friend's sister has that malady and it is not OK!) and today the puzzle itself has MACAO (which was my one writeover, as MAlay went in first. OTOH and COCO cleaned that up.)
I like that SANGFROID means you likely won't get RATTLEd and perhaps not ADDLEd either.
I was worried that the "peyote" clue for MESCAL was wrong because I associate MESCAL with the drink and "peyote" with chewing, but the dictionary online accepts them as synonymous.
Thanks, David Kahn, for a Wednesday puzzle that's better than FAIR or OK.
@ Adam 12:35 — [raises hand sheepishly] GenX’er/Generation Jones here. I have/had really old parents.
Used as a lyric in a somewhat famous old song: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pVrVOF1jF1g
“Everything’s rosy, everything’s JAKE, but just how much can a good girl take...”
Where's the indication in the clue for 60D that the answer is in French? The English word is sangfroid if we just start permitting constructors to split words willy-nilly in the grid all hell is going to break loose.
Glad to see BAOBABs getting some love in this enjoyable puzzle. The clue “Thick-trunked tree” is true enough (some are 25 m. around) but there is so much more to marvel at: their extraordinary shape, and the fact that their branching pattern is such that they often look like they have miniature baobabs sitting on their branches with even smaller versions of themselves on the branches of the miniatures. I’ve had the pleasure of spending quality time with baobabs in a half dozen countries and they never get old (though some live for 1500 years!).
Easy for me. Had WaneS before WILTS but that was about it for bumps. I did need to stare for a few nanoseconds at the answers in the circles before the theme pun dawned on me.
Liked it, or what @Rex said.
Anyone looking for a very tough Kahn puzzle should try the March 28, 1998 Sat.
@Nancy, thanks for your thoughtful post.
San Francisco can smell the fire very distinctly, and Santa Rosa is an hour's drive away. @Linda Vale: It was my favorite Star Trek episode (circa 1969). @anon 9:54: Sad, but true. What's it got do with a crossword blog?
Our beloved Giants: worst record in MLB. Alas!
@Fred. I have no idea what that video has to do with a crossword blog. Ask @Z. He's the guy who brought it up. I was just commenting on it. And by the way, not to you. As you'll note my comment was addressed to Two Ponies. I assume you're disoriented by the smoke. but please, do try and keep up.
I thought this was a fun, clever puzzle. My own blog tends to see the lighter side and not be as critical, but I appreciate Rex's point of view also.
personaally offended by 43 D
that is not what DEF means
at all
in the slightest
casually fuming over here
also MESCAL is unreal. its like someone's parent was listening in on a phone conversation with their teenage child and heard every other word and had some info about this twittering business thats all the rage and then made this puzzle
And another thing...you'll notice the small time difference between posts that dare to question me, such as that of Fred Romagnolo, and my witty response. This is because I have nothing better to do than monitor this blog closely in order to save it from dangerous lefties like Z and to belittle and/or condescend to anyone who gets in the way. Carry on folks, I'll be watching.
Anon 3:48, 3:51 & 3:54 (& maybe 2:01 & 3:31 too) -- You probably think you're just the cutest & funniest poster on the blog, but it's obvious you don't even have a sense of humor. Basically, you're an asshole. You're the very DEF of an asshole.
Excellent writeups today from @Lewis and @M&A,thank you gents.
Lovely puzzle although ILOST it in the LUI/ETE corner. But I could see Mr. Kahn was going for something big here, and because I had so much fun solving this, and especially because of BAOBAB and SANG FROID, all is forgiven.
@Nancy, amen.
Hey! Its supposed to be SHOOTOUTATTHEOKCORRAL not GUNFIGHTATTHEOKCORRAL!
Unacceptable!
Rex really should have posted this video:
http://wikipdq.wikia.com/wiki/File:O.K._Chorale_-_PDQ_Bach_Organ_Duet?file=O.K._Chorale_-_PDQ_Bach_Organ_Duet
@Northern Californians near the fires, please stay safe tonight. My brother says the winds are expected to increase and there may be new evacuations. I hope not.
This was the 3rd puzzle (the championship 4th puzzle will run on Saturday 10/21 I believe) at the Westchester tournament in Pleasantville (benefits the Pleasantville Fund for Learning, pffl.org)
Time being a factor, I had no idea what was going on with the circled squares, and when OKCORRAL clearly wouldn't fit I was wondering if something wacky was going on (nope).
Possible sign of doing too many puzzles: from the E for "Cool, in dated slang" I tried HEP for a little while before DEF.
@give it a rest etc,
I'm anon 3:31.
Would you consider reconsidering that post? If I understand things correctly, Fred misunderstood matters and compounded his error by sticking his snoot into what was in effect and aside to Two Ponies.
Please point out my error, and I'll happily refrain from postimg. Asshole.
Sorry, Anon 3:31. I guess you shouldn't have been included in the Anon list. If you reread my post you'll see I wasn't sure of you. But that's the problem with anonymous posts. You can't tell any of them apart.
thank you!!!
And of course, you're right. Let me apologize for being given too quick on television trigger.
Ugh... just plain old too quick on the trigger.
@Wm. C. thanks for the mini stock market lesson. I didn't know that.
Easy but dull.
Beyond gambling, Macau / Macao is where European contact with China began. Impossible not to be aware of it if you know anything at all about early maritime globalism.
@give it a rest
im 3:48 and 3:51 but not 3:54
what the fuck did i do to you dude? go outside take a breather
"Shoot out at" was initially my fill for "Gun fight at".
OK, OK, OK. I'm posting a day early 'cause tomorrow Mr. Waiting is having a heart procedure up in San Jose, and I'm his designated driver back to the hotel. We leave about 5 am.
I enjoyed the puzzle and @Rex' review! Maybe he's taking MESCAL. Didn't know IKE, but the crosses made it fair game. Momentarily had hEp before DEF. My only write over. WELL, WELL.
See you late on Thursday.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords and the 4 am alarm
LAYS ALOT
WILLOWY LARA is oh so FINE,
SHE’S a FAIR ANGEL, nobody cuter,
SHE RATTLEs and ADDLES my mind,
WELL, when we MAKEOUT, I SALUTER.
--- TINO ANGST
Nice puzzle. Although I never heard of JAKE meaning OK. It sounds like something Murray or Jermaine would say on Flight of the Conchords. The constructor squeezed in a lot long revealers in this one (20A, 11D, 28D, 62A). That alone makes this one more than just OK. @D,LIW: Hope all goes well for Mr. W.
One w/o having hEp before DEF. IKECLANTON a gimme, especially with the K giving it away. I’m going to bet that most CORRALs are/were rectangular in shape as a matter of easier construction. INIDLE I don’t like so much; a car out of gear is IN neutral, or you could put your brain oNIDLE as many drivers apparently do.
WELL, no doubt about yeah baby LARA Logan, SHES FINE.
So the SCENE was set for the GUNFIGHTAT OKCORRAL. FAIR puz.
Well wishes for Mr. W.
All you guys that didn't know JAKE means OK have apparently never seen The Sting, one of the all-time great movies. In it, Gondorff asks Hooker if he's had any trouble with hitmen; he replies "Nah, everything's JAKE." It's '30s old Old School, for sure, but it's legit.
I didn't realize that the dentist was actually formally deputized. I thought he was just a crony of Earp's (Some say THEY were the outlaws). Of course, my main association with the event is via the STTOS episode "Spectre of the Gun."
Yeah, MACA(u)O is old school?? It's only recently gotten on the map for being a gaming mecca. Cost me a writeover, but it's not O.S.
I solved from N-E-W-S, so at first didn't get the connection with the circled words until finally putting in FINE; aha! moment ensued.
For DOD I could choose Julie Christie as Dr. Zhivago's love LARA, or even MONIKER Lewinski (har!). But since a Jeopardy! clue just appeared about her, I'll pick the lovely Roma Downey of Touched By an ANGEL. Wouldn't mind a MAKEOUT session with her.
Nice little Wednesday romp; as OFL said, some fill problems but not too bad. Score it a birdie.
Larousse (the French equivalent of Merriam-Webster) spells sang-froid with a hyphen, not as one undivided word: http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/sang-froid/70836
Merriam-Webster (the American equivalent of Larousse) does spell sangfroid as one undivided word: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sangfroid
Nifty puzzle with a triple-barreled theme (participants in the GUNFIGHT, the CORRAL, and the OK variants forming the CORRAL), and some pretty nice other entries.
I like it when a constructor shows some mojo in attempting a different sort of theme, given that themes seem necessary. Good for this guy.
I originally spelled 1A MACAu, but it become clear that the last letter was an 'O', and so I just closed the 'U'. I don't count that as a write-over. Other than that, a clean solve of a puzzle that I totally enjoyed.
Hand up for SHOOTOUT before GUNFIGHT. An ANGEL showed me the error of my ways, though, so little harm done.
This puzzle was FINE, JAKE, WELL-done and more than FAIR. Mostly clean fill. The minimal junk was worth the fun theme. Way to go, David!
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