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Turquoise or Topaz / TUES 11-24-20 / Henna and others / Bobs and weaves / Billboard magazine feature
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Hello, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday in November! Hope everyone has been staying safe and will be over Thanksgiving. I’m done with classes for the semester (it seriously flew by — even on Zoom U), which means I’ve only got one semester left of law school. That is seriously mind-boggling (and terrifying) to me! Maybe when I graduate I’ll just move to South Korea and become a full-time BTS fan. (Dad, if you’re reading this, I’m kidding. Mostly.) For your dose of holiday cheer (BTS-related, of course), I recommend this new article from the cover of Esquire about them (and how amazing they are)!
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
I don’t have a ton to say about this puzzle overall. I found the theme to be groan-inducing (literally), though I could appreciate how it might be sort of halfway maybe funny to some? Maybe…? But even if you liked the theme, the middle themer — OH THE HUGE MANATEE — did not really work. Sorry, but that is just too much of a reach to be a play on “Oh, the humanity.” The other two involved a slight change in a word to fit a pun (well → whale and god → cod), but for some reason the theme answer smack dab in the middle of the puzzle involved dropping two letters (the “ge”). That one made me annoyed and may have colored my whole view of the puzzle (or maybe I”m just tired and hangry; yeah, that’s probably it).
- WHALE ILL BE DARNED (19A: "An Orca is actually a dolphin?!")
- OH THE HUGE MANATEE (37A: "Wow, that's a giant sea cow!")
- GREAT COD ALMIGHTY (55A: "This is the best fish I've ever had!")
Ahab was the seventh king of Israel, the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible presents Ahab as a wicked king, particularly for condoning Jezebel's influence on religious policies and his principal role behind Naboth's arbitrary execution. (Wikipedia)
• • •
The puzzle took me longer than a usual Tuesday takes me, and I’m not entirely sure why. I thought it was decently challenging but not a ton more than a normal Tuesday, so I was a little surprised when I saw my time. It just somehow felt like things I usually get immediately took way longer to click for me.
The long downs were nice, for the most part — I especially liked BLIND DATE (10D: It may be a setup) and BAT SIGNAL (36D: Summons in Gotham City), though I’m not sure the clue for AVALANCHE (3D: Deluge) quite works, does it? I think of a deluge as a severe flood, and that doesn't quite match up with AVALANCHE. Overall, my favorite clue/answer was 24A: Column with an angle as OPED. 57A: Light wind? as OBOE was also pretty clever.
The rest of my thoughts on the puzzle are just a jumbled mess of things I didn’t particularly like (maybe I should go make myself some food or something). 41A as TUDE is pretty ugly and not really something people say. I don’t love split clues, and having SASHA (1D) be so far away from OBAMA (61A) seems random to me. I originally put “grasp” instead of CLASP for 17A: Hold on tight, which threw me for a bit. UHUH (33D) and NYNY (54D) seem kind of lazy to me. Also, I had a weirdly hard time coming up with LAWN for 13D: What a sprinkler may sprinkle, even though, looking back, it seems very obvious now. I also had a hard time coming up with SALADS (47D: Make-it-yourself dishes from bars) for some reason — though maybe it’s because salad bars just don’t exist in a time of COVID.
Misc.:
- 5D: CYCLES reminded me of a bike ride the other day where I was feeling so great and fast on the way out, thinking I was just crushing it, and then I turned around to go back and realized I’d been benefitting from a major tailwind… The huge headwind on the way back was not fun at all.
- NCIS (25A: Long-running CBS drama) is one show where I feel like the spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, is actually better than the original.
- It’s nice that this puzzle mentions a Billboard CHART (5A), because that means I can now return to talking about BTS, who just came out with a new album called “BE” that’s going to debut next week at No. 1 on the chart. BTS also has a song called “Life Goes On” that may debut (fingers crossed!) at No. 1 on the Billboard chart next week, as well — you should listen to it!
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106 comments:
“Well I’ll be damned, well I’ll be damned . . “ With Hamilton lyrics in my head, had no chance. Couldn’t see darned. C’mon, man. “BAME” is not a word.
Strong disagree on Oh, the Huge Manatee. I thought that was hilarious and everything else was dumb.
I liked this one a lot. But then, I'm of the "Dad Joke" age - see my post late yesterday.
I solved late Monday, early Tuesday, so have an early post. In addition to the theme groaners, I had several questions about some of the answers.
What is a BLIND DATE RHINO?
Why would you REND an OBAMA ONION?
How do CYCLES USE an OBOE?
Why have ADDS OOZED NANNY?
Do circuses really have AHAB, CREW TAMER?
Maybe you can find more?
OK I got the theme, then for 55 across naturally I put in GOOD GOD ALL MIGHTY. Which worked for a while, then it didn't.
OH, THE HUGE MANATEE kind of falls short of honoring the origin of the phrase, Oh the humanity. Not an uplifting scene, with all the fire and death.
Re AVALANCHE... I met some Japanese fellows, and for some reason the word avalanche came up, which they hadn't heard of. I told them it was a 'tsunami of snow'. They completely didn't understand, and I still don't know why.
I enjoyed this. A fun play on words with whimsical results. Even OOZED, which can be a yucky word took on a fun meaning which brings My Fair Lady to mind. YAHOO!
I would have liked THE HUGH MANATEE much better. It would have allowed better clues too, like “Was that Sea Cow in Four Weddings and a Funeral?”
Medium. Pretty much agree with Clare on this one...”groan inducing”....yep.
I must respectfully disagree about the middle themer! I filled it in immediately without a single cross - it's a classic sea mammal pun, and one of my cherished favourites. (I was, however, a bit disappointed that the answer to the first themer wasn't CETACEAN NEEDED. . .)
There's a sight gag in a Simpsons episode from season eight where they're at a zoo standing in front of a directional sign pointing to the various attractions. One of them is "Habitat for Huge Manatees."
OHTHEHUGEMANATEE is gonna last me a while.
The other themers were pretty good, too. But...OHTHEHUGEMANATEE is everything I live for.
Plus, there's a MANATEE in it! Who doesn't love a MANATEE, the big, dumb! cuddly, slo-mo rollicker of the sea?
The rest of the puzzle was fun, too. I felt like there was no gunk, but that could have been the rose-colored MANATEE on my head for all I know.
And BATSIGNAL.
Idle Ponderment: AHAB CREW TAMER? Why, Moby Dick of course! They got TAMEd right to perdition!
Did I mention that I love MANATEEs?
🧠
🎉🎉🎉
OH THE HUGE MANATEE totally works for me. Kinda. At least until January 20.
I enjoyed the puns and thought this a fin (ahem) Tuesday.
Mom and Dad met on a BLIND DATE. She misunderstood his name, Oren, and called him Owen all night. He didn’t correct her ‘cause he just assumed she had a speech impediment. Obviously they worked it all out.
Stay safe, everyone! I’m enjoying the blog... keep on keeping on!
@Monty Boy answers:
What is a BLIND DATE RHINO? One where one participant got a nose job.
Why would you REND an OBAMA ONION? To caramelize it.
How do CYCLES USE an OBOE? Wagner's Ring Cycle uses them in the orchestra's reed section.
Why have ADDS OOZED NANNY? Apparently, audiences like buying products promoted by oozed nannies. And you (or the puzzle) misspelled "ADS"
Do circuses really have AHAB, CREW TAMER? No, but the Pequod did.
This was like bizzaro world for me - not much for the cute puns but the overall fill was solid. It’s a love/hate with these goofy puns - no middle ground - I say no. Did like the marine slant - so there’s that I guess. The world play and cluing here was elegant and sparkled. BLIND DATE, BAT SIGNAL and IT DEPENDS are all wonderful. Limited trivia and nouns. Love JOTS but agree with Clare that TUDE is off. Like the alliterative quality of Lecherous looks - LEERS.
I’ll pass on the theme but take the puzzle. Enjoyable solve and a pleasant start to a Tuesday.
The huge manatee meme has been around for over a decade: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/oh-the-huge-manatee. I for one enjoyed this puzzle, puns and all.
When you fish upon a star any fin is possible.
Dang...I wish the WHALE was a monkey's uncle.
On a serious note.....I LOVE PUNS. A groan now and then is healthy for your fillet of sole.
Good lord...stop me.
Wait....BLIND DATE!. I had one of those. Has anyone had a successful one? My girlfriend set me up. She was dating the handsome star QB and his name was Brock Chester (yeah, that was his real name). Anyway, Brock had a best friend whose girlfriend dumped him and felt he needed a picker upper (that was me)....My date spent the entire night telling me about his ex. He cried....he wailed....I smoked a cigarette....he sobbed some more....I drank....I called a cab. Moral of the story: Stay home and eat ice cream.
Question: Has anyone pardoned the White House turkey this Thanksgiving?
Thank you, Caitlin, for the smile-producing sweet and jaunty solve. The smiles came from the puns, the inclusion of palindromes WES and SEW, and the animal focus which charmed this animal lover, not only the fish, but the NANNY (goat), RHINO, APE, (TOP)DOG, backward RAT, and even the LARVA.
My brain thanks you too, because you woke it up and it started hammering me with:
[That fish saved the day!]
[What the brutal winter created in the Atlantic]
[Did that wriggler just toot?]
[I’ll never forget the night the fish started singing!]
[Big fish big into writing lyrics]
GRUNT IN AID
HERRING FREEZE
IT’S AN EEL WIND
SALMON CHANTED EVENING
BERNIE TARPON
It was great fun figuring out the punned exclamations. I liked all three.
Jeff Chen has the text of the radio broadcast describing the destruction of the Hindenburg in 1937. The reporter exclaimed “Oh, the humanity,” thinking that all aboard had died. Actually 35 of the 97.
Very nice piece of work, clean and crisply clued.
HALLS at 6D reminds me that our local easy-listening radio station is playing nothing but Christmas music until December 25. They started two or three days ago. They have a broad definition of Christmas music, My Favorite Things and Baby It’s Cold Outside qualifying. If only Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer didn’t.
This plays like Sunday theme answers crammed into a Tuesday grid. The answers are fine – and OH THE HUGE MANATEE is tops – but the clues are sort of weak. The answers would work better as punch lines to more elaborate joke set-ups than the puzzle can afford. Also, maybe there should be a final themer that ties the whole marine animal thing together? (On a Sunday that would be accomplished with the puzzle title.)
But it's still enjoyable.
You nasty boy.
I thought this was a fun puzzle. “Oh, the huge manatee” is funny and clever. I’m not surprised to see a “groan-inducing” take on this cross followed by shout out and a link to a K-Pop boy-band. Let me know when BTS is superimposed on “THE _EA_LE_”; then, I’ll read the article. I like the rest of the write up, and I always enjoy your reviews, Claire – just a little hazing from an old crank. Peace, and Happy Thanksgiving to all.
The middle themer is a very well known pun so I have no problem with it.
Personally, I enjoy the groan-y dad humor and thought the fill was very clean. Very fun puzzle overall.
I totally thought they were going to go with a “porpoise” pun when I saw the dolphin clue so that was my only let-down.
Clare
This puzzle completely won me over with OH, THE HUGE MANATEE.
Panama HATs are Ecuadorian. They got the PANAMA name thanks to the California gold rush. For many people from the east coast of the US, it was easier to sail to Panama, cross the continent there (no canal back then, so it was not an easy trip), and sail up to California than it was to travel across the US. So Panama became a place to ship things from South America for sale, including hats from Ecuador.
Time for Seinfeld. ENJOY THIS CLIP
I actually admired this one - it’s very light on trivia and the other usual suspects (foreign words and phrases, esoterica, made up words, factual errors, . . . ) and even is light on some of the most common crosswordese. I wish we could say that about the majority of the puzzles instead of the other way around.
This is an instance where the constructor/editors should be congratulated - not for some feat of brilliant technique or a super avant-garde theme construction, but congratulated for creating and publishing a smooth, crisp, clean and somewhat challenging Tuesday puzzle.
My experience resembled Clare's: I'm not sure why this took me so much longer than average. It's as if I was solving in slow motion.
I had to come here to have OH THE HUGE MANATEE explained to me. The difference in sound between "hu-" and "huge", together with the fact that you have to pause slightly between "huge" and "manatee", conspired so that I didn't hearing it. So that didn't much work for me. I'm glad it did for others.
Not much else to say about the puzzle; it's fun sitting back and reading the thoughts of others. @Gill I. had me at "Brock Chester", which is hilarious. And I had to look it up: it sounded like something out of Boogie Nights. Turns out I wasn't far off.
Lewis's SALMON CHANTED EVENING cries out to have a joke constructed around it. There's the old "Someone chanted evening" joke my dad used to tell. Some of you comedians ought to be able to come up with something along these lines.
Just an average Tuesday with a punny theme. I did a lot of switching from acrosses to downs, indicating some clever cluing.
Greatest. Tuesday. Ever.
Arched eyebrow at Clare’s AVALANCHE comment. No, they don’t match literally but they are synonymous metaphorically. A deluge of Georgia fund-raising emails. An AVALANCHE of Georgia fund-raising emails. Seriously, there hasn’t been a pause in the political fund-raising emails hitting my inbox.
BTS is taking over the world. Esquire, Teen Vogue, Bloomberg, and BusinessWire all have articles about them posted in the last 24 hours. Not to mention the AVALANCHE of breathless articles about their AMA performances. I believe they outsold everyone in the US in 2019 and their new album is #1 right now. I don’t think they are Beatles in 1964 huge, but that’s probably only because we don’t have the equivalent of Ed Sullivan anymore, so us olds have no way of seeing the tsunami coming.
DNF on a Tuesday because the phrase is "I'll be damned."
Google it. 4.5 million versus a paltry 200k for "darned."
Sat there staring at "BAME" wondering what had gone wrong.
Theme is DOA because of that one letter and a prissy primpy little editor. Get it right or don't print it. It's damned.
Just two proper names: WES (Anderson) and SASHA OBAMA? Haven't seen that in awhile!
This was cute . Best part was nanny state. Be sure to call the police on your neighbors if they have too many people over on Thursday.
Kitshef @ 7:20 AM: I was told it was because T Roosevelt was pictured wearing what the news crew called a “Panama Hat” when he was in Panama viewing the construction of the Canal.
@ Caitlin, I absolutely loved the puz; thx be to the "great cod almighty" for this one!
Started well in the NW, and steadily progressed without any holdups to speak of. Slightly under av. time, but thought I'd gone faster.
Hazy: "NCIS" (always confuse with "CSI"); "nanny state;" "sloe"; "Ahab"; "top dog"; "blind date"; "it depends"; "oboe".
Re-writes: "NCSI"; "grasp", so, I guess a minor hiccup in that area when I saw "cycles" wasn't going to fit.
Fav clues/answers: all the themers; "op-ed"; "tude"; "oozed"; "dos"; "avalanche".
I had a big guffaw at 55A; best answer ever, and I'm going to believe that this was a "pet" fish, like the one we had in a recent puzzle – sorta like the best dog I ever had. LOL
WOTD: "nada"
LOTD: Persain/Farsi
The "Whale" - Burl Ives
Speaking of "juices", I'll never forget the time I got into a health food kick back in the '60s. Bought a juicer and various veggies, including a huge bag of carrots. I kept some of the carrots out and put the rest into the freezer for later. Needless to say, I was sadly disappointed when I thawed them out. :(
y.d. 0
Peace صلح Paz שָׁלוֹם 🕊
@Jack - further research suggests we are both right ... and both wrong. Earliest use of Panama Hat appears to date to the 1830's, so precedes either of our recollections. But the term became more well known following the gold rush, then got another boost from Teddy.
Liked OH THE HUGE MANATEE.
Never heard of BTS.
Some years ago, when Hector was a pup, there was a Sunday puzzle with animal puns and one of the answers was "beaver damn". I had "beaver darn" for a very long time because I wasn't sure if the Times would allow shocking profanity like "damn". Had the same issue, almost, in a minor way with 19A. I guess new standards have been imposed.
I'm with the fans of HUGEMANATEE. It may be old, but not to me.
Has anyone noticed that these all refer to Sea Animals of Unusual Size? We've got a WHALE, a HUGEMANATEE, and a CODALMIGHTY, which has to be a big one. Mini theme.
I liked this fine, but corny puns all have a kernel of humor and are music to my ears, aw shucks. Thanks for the fun, CR. Always like your stuff.
Man gets out of a cab in front of the Fountain Bleu Hotel. Doorman says Mr. Pinza, it's a pleasure to have you back. Man says "Not Pinza, Sam Schwartz, Suits And Coats, Brooklyn, New York." At the front desk he is greeted "Welcome back, Mr. Pinza." "Not Pinza, Sam Schwartz, Suits and Coats, Brooklyn, New York." Bellboy carries his bags to his room and says "Hope you enjoy your stay, Mr. Pinza." "Not Pinza, Sam Schwartz" etc.
Afew minutes later there's a knock on the door and a beautiful woman walks in and removes her coat, revealing her gorgeous unclothed body. " Oh, Ezio, why didn't you tell me you were coming ?" Sam says "Some Enchanted Evening..."
Chill! It's not a competition.
@GILL I. - had the opposite blind date experience. I asked my grad school labmate if anyone in his girlfriend's college suite would like to attend an RPI hockey game (THE sport in Troy, NY in the winter) and a just-jilted undergrad girlfriend was willing to go on the blind date. We were married 2 years later and still are for 47 more.
Hey All !
Add me to the awesome OHTHEHUGEMANATEE group! That one got a genuine laugh out loud from me! May be old, but I hadn't heard it before, so on fresh ears it was rather funny. The other two are the ones that fell short to me. Po-TAE-to, po-TAH-to.
Three 16 long themers, quite unusual. Did notice the extra-wide grid immediately, so the ole brain still functioning. Fill was pretty DARN good, too. Brava Caitlin!
@Anoa Bob
IT DEPENDS is not a POC, right? IT DEPEND isn't a thing. Mind you, it does enable a POC in DOS, but it's not a twofer. Or does it DEPEND? Har.
ORING YesterPuz, ONION rings today. What are the puzs trying to say? :-)
@Monty Boy 1:30
ASIAN CLASP AIDE - Gripper Helper from Japan?
RODE UBER ATONE - Made up for because one used Lyft?
BLINDDATE RHINO - Har, let's not go there!!
No F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I loved, loved, loved 66A. Bob and weave. Heh.
Husband and I met on a blind date. My girlfriend wanted me to come visit her at college, said she had the coolest, best-looking, smartest guy set up for me. Then she phoned me and said, uh, cool, good-looking, smart guy bailed, but there's this other guy, and, well, he has a really nice personality...
We've been married for 48 years now. He's way cooler, better-looking, and smarter than anyone.
I'm know I've said many times that I've never met a pun I didn't like. Well, there's a first time for everything.
GREAT COD ALMIGHTY -- These are truly the most awful puns I've ever seen!!!!
OTOH, the cluing is pretty interesting for a Tuesday and the puzzle has some 'TUDE. It was actually fun to solve.
I love the clue for OOZED (64A). It reminds me of that wonderful line from "My Fair Lady":
Oozing charm from every pore
He oiled his way around the floor.
Alan Jay Lerner really does have a way with words. An underestimated lyricist, I'd maintain.
I too met my wife on a blind date.
OH THE HUGE MANATEE was really fun! And yes @Hazel, it's been around on the internet for quite a while so the jump was not hard sound-wise for me to make (and the people that are complaining so hard I think need to lighten up on the hate- there's no need to pun-ish anyone over this).
BATSIGNAL was unique and fun fill, though TAR I had as MAR and I could not for the life of me figure out the circus performer- a MAMER? Other than that it just felt like pretty solid, straightforward fill. Good job to Caitlin Reid!
Agreed
Comments here often decry entries that recall the not-so-good events in history. You will not find ADOLPH as a grid entry, and if an entry is racially offensive even obliquely, rest assured that many will post complaints here. So today we find a pun derived from a horrible event that resulted in loss of life but the majority of comments seem to approve of the pun. Go figure.
I'm not sure that I would rate this puzzle as a good puzzle for new solvers.
LMS: What a nice story about your parents first date. Your father sounds like a wonderful person.
@bocamp
-0 today. Still -1 (p.g.) for y.d.
Where's @Pamela? Hope she's okay.
So I got HUGE MANATEE. And I don't see the rest of the answer yet. So I take a break. And I'm on a social media platform looking at a post from a month ago. And there it is: a manatee photoshopped into a black and white still photo of the Hindenburg. And the caption is OH THE HUGE MANATEE.
I don't know what this means. Except the universe is weird. And the middle themer is an actual extant meme. And it sure made the rest of the solve easy for me.
As a dad slowly but surely venturing into dad-joke land, this puzzle was right up my alley. Started as straightforward as could be, but by the end there was some lovely clueing, and, as I said, I’m always in the mood for bad puns!
My parents met on a blind date. She was a senior in high school he was in college. They were married for over sixty years.
I didn't mind the puzzle and the very groan-worthy puns, but I had to come here for the translation of HUGE MANATEE.
I don't think I've seen many puzzles with no abbreviations and very little crosswordese. Not even an oreo or an oleo!
Interested to learn (or possibly relearn) that Jezebel's husband was AHAB.
Bravos all around: nice puzzle , good write up (from an almost attorney), and delightful commentariat (@gill, @nancy, @lewis, and even @lms plus the usual mix of voices). I am having second thoughts about skipping Tuesday.
Too soon?
OK, so it’s really corny pun day. All righty then. I have to agree with Clare that these were bordering on cringeworthy, especially the MANATEE, but at the same time cute, clever and smile inducing. Somehow it worked and ended up being an almost perfect Tuesday. I think a new solver would have a really good time with this one. Good job finding the balance today Caitlin.
@LMS (5:23) I believe your avatar today will go to the TOP of your all-time greatest hits. Priceless!!
Just like @Adam12 I gleefully wrote in "damned" and it took way too long to see that was incorrect!
I also found this much longer than a typical Tuesday, although it wasn't unreasonably difficult for the day.
my
Also agree with several of the "it should have been obvious" comments. Maybe it's my screen-bleary eyes ;-D
-- CS
The puzzle was harder than an average Tuesday for me and listening to BTS would give me PTSD. Too much saccharine in that pop for my taste.
In my previous post, I mistakenly added the following answers to my "Hazy" list instead of "Favs": "top dog"; "blind date"; "it depends"; "oboe".
Once again, I failed to see the theme for the themers (thx @Joe)
@Meghan 4:21 AM
Good one! 1:05 in.
___
Another Habitat for Huge Manatees.
@Loren Muse Smith 5:23 AM
Cute anecdote, and you stay safe, too. :)
@Geezer 7:29 AM
Ha ha!
@Z 7:42 AM
Great "avalanche" / "deluge" illustrations!
@JonB3 8:27 AM 👍 / @MarthaCatherine 9:00 AM 👍
@TTrimble 9:53 AM 👍
I finally bagged both Sat. & Sun. at -1
Same sentiments re: @Pamela 🙏
___
@JonP 9:53 AM
Good one! These seeming coincidences happen to me frequently. Weird universe, indeed, but for the most part, fun. :)
___
My aunt Ida took me to a performance by lion "tamer" Clyde Beatty in Portland ('52). The memory is hazy, but I do recall that he was attacked by one of the lions. Newspaper article here.
Peace صلح Paz שָׁלוֹם 🕊
Ok, I'll admit, I didn't get the middle pun, and now that I know it, I think it's a total riot.
They met on a blind date, and everything went perfectly. it was a Sam and Janet evening.
We need to ban anyone expressing their musical preferences on this blog.
Puzzle + Clare + comments = a delightful TRIAD this morning. I enjoyed the light-hearted theme and the not-your-usual-Tuesday challenge to fill the grid. Favorite entry: BAT SIGNAL.
It's been fun reading the comments about BLIND DATEs (nicely paralleled in the grid by "IT DEPENDS"). I had one, as a college freshman, accompanying a friend as a favor to a nearby men's college to be the date for her boyfriend's roommate. Him: a wolfish frat brother; me: shy, dorky, prudish. A nightmare.
@goldbug 3:12 - I'm filing your comment under "Things I've Learned from This Blog," namely that there's a category of sea animal puns. Truly, I had no idea. I love your "cetacean" suggestion.
@Loren 5:23 - Oren - Owen: hilarious and very dear.
"Oh the huge manatee" is a very longstanding and widespread meme, to the point that I'm surprised anyone under 40 doesn't know it. That was the one I got first. Had to work through the others with crosses.
Only had trouble with the north section of the grid. Rest fell into place in one pass each of across and down. I liked it. It was an easier Friday.
Yup.
+1
@GILL (6:28) It’s the turkey doing the pardoning this year. The list is long but not distinguished.
@TJS (8:20) I heard a similar story involving a minister who resembled country-western singer Conway Twitty. The punch line was “Hello Darlin.”
Yikes, these are bad groaners even to a Dad-bod, Dad-humor guy like me. Not a fan.
Clare is pretty kind. From his perch, Rex would have exsalmoned the puzzle, smelt a rat and given it a turbot-char(ged) carp-ing from the depths of his sole. On porpoise.
(Like I said...yikes.)
Loved it! Every one of the themers made me laugh out loud. After the first one I couldn't wait to see what was next. Zero complaints.
I met both of my wives, and all 7 of my baby-mammas on blind dates.
Cling, clamp, clasp.
YOU CANNOT BE SEAHORSE!
har. Too big a stretch? … yeah … was hopin so … thanx.
16x15-er puzgrid. More pun for yer moneybucks. Liked it.
staff weeject pick: SHE. Kinda admired how they snuck an extra seashore clue in, there.
sparklers included: BATSIGNAL [BTS-related?]. AVALANCHE. BLINDDATE [yo, @Muse darlin]. TOPDOG. ITDEPENDS. CYCLES. JUICES. SALADS [neat clue]. RHINO. UHUH [neat U's].
Thanx for the fishy fun, Caitlin darlin.
Thanx for the BTS Signals, Clare the Near-LawPerson. Happy Thanksgivin'.
Masked & Anemone5Us
**gruntz**
Count me in both the small group of successful blind-daters (married with children) and the large group of pun lovers (especially OHTHEHUGEMANATEE)..
I might crab a bit that Clare’s write-up smelt like a fan-girl letter. Still, she only manta show the her sole porpoise these days is to promote BTS. I’ll support her tilapia goner.
Quick return of NCIS to the NYTXW, but sans Mr. Gibbs today.
without going to the dictionary, a deluge is water cascading from above. a deluge of snow, from above, is an AVALANCHE. ok by me.
OH THE HUGE MANATEE is the best of the bunch, if only because it's a cockeyed reference to Hiaasen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Came_the_Manatee
Re 27A, CAGE. I’m just now getting to the blog for yesterday’s puzzle, and I see that there were all kinds of complaints about 12D, IRON CAGE. The problem is that the term is legitimate and has a specific meaning in European history. When the Anabaptists arose in the 16th century (the so-called radical reformation) many were pacifists and separatists (and many in later manifestations eventually made their way to America). Most practiced some form of what is called a primitive communism. Some were militant and attempted to create a kingdom of God on earth. In northern Germany, in the town of Muenster, they took over the town in the latter half of the 16th century, establishing a rigid regime with a community of goods and even polygamy. This terrified regional authorities, Catholic and Protestant alike, and eventually their regime was overcome by a prince. The leaders of these anabaptists, John of Leyden and others, were tortured and slowly killed, and their bodies were placed in iron cages suspended from the cathedral at Muenster, where the bodies rotted and were pecked at by fowl, as a sort of example to any who might want to follow their example. Eventually what was left of their bodies was removed, in the 17th century, but the cages remained, and are today a tourist attraction.
The term “iron cage” was so widely known in popular culture that the famous German sociologist Max Weber, writing mainly in the early 20th century, adopted it without explanation. In his famous work on the “Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism,” in 1900, he argued that originally capitalism was a sort of protestant form of world-renunciation (oddly like medieval or Catholic monasticism), where protestants, instead of seeking after more and more material goods, actually worked like crazy and didn’t spend anything, thus acquiring huge amounts of wealth (as in “a penny saved is a penny earned,” attributed I think to B. Franklin). Later capitalism evolved from a system one freely pursued as an evocation into what Weber called “an iron cage,” something one was in and could not get out of it. Both Weber and the earlier Karl Marx were excellent in describing this system. About 1970 the modern scholar Arthur Mitzman wrote a study entitled *The Iron Cage: An Historical Interpretation of Max Weber*.
My apologies for posting this so late.
Anon. i.e. Poggius
OWED THE HUMANITY
(A fan of a pun has fun in a pan)
Beware O'SPAMA on YAHOO
but this is I believe so true:
Don't you have a nutty TUDE
or you'll be a fatty dude
WHILE ILL BE WARNED,
if you visit Bruce's
go easy on the JUICES.
AVA's LUNCH is best
when it passes breakfast test.
Eat your SALADS with the LADS
don't do NADA like the GRADS.
If you want a GREAT BOD
don't just trust ALMIGHTY's job.
“Bare” is NOT “nude.”
Loved the “level headed Rudy” avatar.
Best wishes Clare as you enter last semester: I once heard college prof say that there’s only one thing more pitiful than an incoming freshman...an outgoing senior.
@fiddleneck
Dictionaries think it is.
Another missed opportunity to include a female clue. 8D-Performer Marie whose career spanned 10 decades. (ROSE)
@ Gill Wait a minute, you were in What Really Happened to the Class of '65?
Thank you Claire for explaining the middle Theme answer. I could not figure it out altho the other two were immediate.
Big surprise at the second commenter liking it so well and not the others
Claire,After listening to part of the BTS video I can see why you like them, but NCIS La better than the original??It doesn't have any coherence. It doesn't seem to even pretend to actually be part of the navy or marines or whatever. It's just some sort of random crime drama with weird characters, none of whom have the charm of most in the original NCIS.
NCIS New Orleans is pretty good. It has good music.
Nice stories, folks, and always glad to hear from @LMS. Come back soon, girl! Tell us more about your life, because I always like to read about it, and always crack up. Loud guffaws early in the morning? Our Muse causes them almost every time.
The thing about Panama hats is the good ones are expensive, even more expensive than most Stetsons. Mine is more expensive than any of my others -- but I could wear it to the fanciest hotel or restaurant in the city, in season. Made in Ecuador, of course.
I went on a sorta blind date once -- my office mate suggested I call her, though we had never met. Successful, it its way, but true love did not ensue. But I fell in love with the woman who became my wife the first time I saw her -- she had called me because I had an ad up looking for a flat to move into, and thought we might want to look together, on a strictly Platonic basis of course. Very common in SF in those days. I told her the next day, we could not look for a place together because I had fallen in love with her! (Three daughters, four grandchildren are the result).
Like others, wanted DAmNED in 19A and spent a long time trying to figure out what was wrong with BLOW and AIDE before seeing BARE over BAmE. And also wanted Good before GREAT in 55A. And will admit to OHTHEHUGEMANATEE not dawning on me as a pun for quite awhile. Even wanted downpours before AVALANCHE (tho did wonder whether I could only have one). A little annoyed that you can clue RHINO without any indication that it's short for rhinoceros, but fine. And also wondered why it wasn't boom or blue instead of boom or blues, or booms and blues. BABY can be before any of those, so why 'boom or blues'? And yes, nice seeing OOZED clued favorably. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
@Whatsername....You taking words out of my mouth again????? :-)
@Manta Ray....I was a year behind that group...but yeah, I knew all the people mentioned in the book. I was only at Pali High for a year (thank the gods that be). Didn't surprise me in the least that Brock took his own life and that most of the people in the book turned out to be quite crazy in later life. So many that attended that high school led privileged lives; Mommy and Daddy made sure their little snookums got a baby blue mustang when they turned 16; parties galore; skipping class all the time to go surfing at Sunset beach. My mom had the opportunity to teach at The American School of Madrid...she packed us up lickety split and I spent 8 years living the vida loca (but sane) in wonderful Spain. The rest is history...as they say.
Wow! Another hand up for BLINDDATE to wedhood ...20 years later, but there ya go.
Also had a nightmare BLINDDATE (as a favor, mind you) in college - with a boy, so I guess it was predestined to fail. Aaaanyway...CliffsNotes version: He wore a navy blue with white spots (of unknown origin) sweater and orange corduroys. To a formal. From then on, he was only ever known as "Pumpkin Pants". Anything else is gravy.
@GILL I 628am Can't choose just one thing I love most about your post, so I won't. (Hilarious!) I will add that Mrs. Sloth voiced the same question about the WH turkey (the actual bird one). I just figured that there were much more "important" things to do. *sigh*
@Z 742am No Ed Sullivan? What about a little thing called "social media", dude? And still never heard of them before Clare brought them up in a post a while back. Talk about being old and out of it! Maybe it's a character flaw, but I can't unthink BTK whenever they're mentioned.
@LMS I could swear my iPad screen (and the room) `grew brighter when I saw your post. Hope all is well and you can post more regularly again soon! I love your parents, too! 🤣
Thanks Gill for the additional story.
@Frantic....HAH! I would've switched gears right then and there, too, if ever I had dated "pumpkins Pants."
@Masked and Anonymous 11:35 AM
Maybe so, but got a smile out of me. :)
@old timer 1:15 PM 👍
___
Amy Reynaldo's comments on today's puzzle, here at "Diary of a Crossword Fiend".
-1
Peace صلح Paz שָׁלוֹם 🕊
Lol I did the same thing!
If this puzzle was a haiku, I'd have to fault for mixing up its seasons, with Christmas songs and a Panama HAT. But it's find in a puzzle, so I don't know why that thought even came into my head.
I liked the puns fine, including the HUGE MANATEE. @Clare, when you say you have to change two letters, you're including the E, which is silent, so you can leave it in.
As for finding it slow, I think that's the shape of the grid; the four corners are barely connected to the rest of the puzzle, and the E and W boxes and central diagonals aren't much better -- so I, at least, had to keep finding a new place to start.
For those complaining about BAmE, hey it's a crossword -- so check the crosses and it will be clear enough.
I had siDE before TUDE; is that a British usage?a
Now off to attempt the runtpuz.
@JC66. Dictionaries never wrote poetry.
I think 'White house girl,' as a clue for Sasha Obama is odd. I'm offended. She is in her Sophmore year at UM this fall, but she's staying home due to COVID, with Michelle, Barack and her sister Malia, who is a Senior at Harvard. Yes, she was a girl when she lived in the White House, but a house 'girl'...that just really rubbed me wrong, and I'm not so super sensitive all the time.
@Roo, IT DEPENDS on who you ask, but the acid test I always use in these tricky, is it a POC or not situations is to ask if the word or phrase in question is a base word or phrase, one where its meaning, or grammatical correctness here, would be lost if the S were removed. So I agree with your not-a-POC call.
Hey Andrew C., aren’t you the guy who forced nursing homes to accept Covid-19 positive cases thereby killing tens of thousands of seniors ? Might want to sit this one out.
I'm also a fan of OH, THE HUGE MANATEE. Yes, it was a bit of a reach but the others were just plain gimmes.
The title "Whatever Happened to the Class of 1965?" rings a strong bell, but I don't remember if I read the book, a review of the book, or just remember the catchy title. In any event, I don't remember anything about it -- including what school it was, or even what state the school was in. And I certainly wouldn't remember the name of anyone in the class. The book was published 45 years ago!!!
So how did Manta Ray figure out that @GILL was in that Class (or right below that class)? I re-read Gill's posts and I see no hint other than the name of her date, Brock Chester. Did you Google Brock, @Manta Ray? If not, how did you figure it out? Could you have gone to this school??
@GILL -- Sure sounds like a class with a lot of disturbed people in it. You probably got out in the nick of time.
I actually did Google "Whatever Really Happened to the Class of 1965?" by Michael Medved and David Wallechinsky, after the post by @Manta Ray and the follow-up by @Gill I., particularly after the mention that the popular jock Brock Chester wound up taking his life. I was very uncomfortable with my initial response, where I found the name "Brock Chester" funny and close to sounding like parody, a la National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook (which, as an aside, was, in its original version, close to genius).
No, this Brock Chester was of course a flesh-and-blood human being who died tragically, and apparently many of those people mentioned in the book were scarred by not living up to initial expectations of their parents, their selves, and so on. They were privileged kids in 1965, but with emphasis on *kids*.
Not particularly a fan of Michael Medved, but the reviews I saw of this book suggest there was some restraint in editorializing and indulging in authorial narration and judgment of these lives (the authors were members of that class).
Ooh ooh me too on the whole BTS thing! If the new single doesn't debut at number one I'm going to kill myself!!!
Busy all day just did Wednesday's puzzle then read or skimmed comments here.
A very fine Tuesday. And as people say here worst review by Clare ever, meaning of the last few that I can maybe sorta think of.
94 comments. Puns galore, answers combined numerous ways (great puzzle for that). And nobody mentions one that Bill had:
BLOW AIDE
I’m such a sucker for puns that I loved this puzzle. I can’t help it! I’m one of those who doesn’t groan, but laughs or stays quietly entertained. Food puns are my favorite but animals are second in line. I realize today’s work isn’t the epitome of what people have decided to be the ideal crossword puzzle, but I think in a different era or different paradigm it would be appreciated.
Not bad. I liked OHTHEHUGEMANATEE the best. If you say it out loud it really works. The other two clunked a bit. It would have been nice to have one more element - another themer or a crackerjack revealer. Like a prize at the bottom of the box. Alas there is no such surprise. It’s not a DUD. It doesn’t BLOW. But all it gets is a CEE.
OH BABY
LADS, IWISH that my BLINDDATE
will inspire ALMIGHTY AWE.
[LEERS]
I'LLBEDARNED and ain't SHE GREAT?
YAHOO! BARE NIPs! SHE wears no BRA.
--- ART HUES
I suppose ITDEPENDS on if you like this type of play on words. OHTHEHUGEMANATEE is one of the best in a long while, IMO. And 16 wide to boot.
Anything in the corners? YES LAD, there is.
If not SASHA OBAMA, then maybe SASHA Alexander. Yeah BABY.
Not one for the AGES but no DUD.
You know how sometimes you just can't get an answer, leave the puz for a while, and then come back and it's pretty obvious? That's my story today, and I'm sticking with it.
Don't people like to laugh? Why the groans (only) at puns all the time. Knot tied up in laughter over this, but had a baby whale of a good time.
Diana, LIW
Have we not had enough to groan about in 2020? No joy from the theme, but really nice long downs; they steal the show. BATSIGNAL shines.
SASHA OBAMA wins DOD; honorable mention to Jennifer Grey as BABY and Fran Drescher as the NANNY. Writeovers: CLing to CLASP and mAR to TAR.
I guess I'm old enough that "DARNED" is still familiar to me. Language since then has gotten a lot "stronger" (read: actually weaker) since then. Now we seem to be in the middle of an AVALANCHE of F-bombs, even from the mouths of women. Unheard-of, in my day. We are devolving, not evolving.
No fill quibbles; IWISH the puns had been a little tighter. Par.
BTW - regarding UHUH - I can never tell if it should be "un" or "uh" or "uh un" or "un uh" - the spelling just doesn't spell it out. IMO
Lady Di
Really like the energetic tone of this puzzle, both its spirited theme and its pepped-up fill.
Consider YAHOO, AWED, TUDE, ALARM, among others. The grid OOZEs JUICES that add to the fun of the solve
This puzzle is definitely not a DUD.
@thfenn 1:18PM :
The clue for rhino is spot on correct.
The word zoo is short for zoological Park.
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