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Substitute for "subs" / THU 12-21-23 / Queue before Q / Some fluffy slippers / "The Good Dinosaur" dinosaur / Receptionist-turned-administrator on "The Office" / Maker of Max Throat Care drops
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Constructor: David Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Medium (maybe Easy-Medium, but I had more trouble than I should have picking up the theme)
Theme answers:
Sometimes you should just skip right to the revealer. Just scan the clues for the [blah blah blah dot dot dot or a punny hint to 17-, 24-, blah blah blah- and blah blah blah-Down] clue. It's possible you will save yourself a lot of time and hardship that way. Then again, some of the fun of solving is trying to suss out the damned theme *before* the revealer tells you what it is. And some of the fun is having the revealer actually *reveal* what the hell is going on, like a big "Ta-Da!," after you've been going at it for a while with no clue. If speed is your goal, seems worth just scanning for the revealer and seeing if you can get a jump start. I never do that, though some days I kinda sorta wish I did. If I'd seen today's revealer early, I would've filled it in (as I did when I eventually got there) with absolutely no help from crosses. Then I could've had some idea, as I filled in the extra-letter answers, what the HELL they were doing. My actual experience was much more clunky and embarrassing. Since I only ever really see what's right in front of me—I don't bounce around the grid, I always work off answers I have unless/until I get stuck—I have trouble sometimes seeing Bigger Picture things. Like today, as I was trying to assess what the hell the little extra bits were doing in those *asterisked* Downs, I never thought about linking the bottom of the grid with the top. Miles apart, they are, and mentally I just was Not putting them together. So I'm out there trying to spell things like "ZE ... RE ... NO ... ZERENO? Pfff, probably not." Looking at the grid now, I can't believe I didn't just look at BLA and then ZE and think "hey, it's BLAZE." My favorite show as a child was "Electric Company," so this short of [word part] + [word part] = [word] should've been second nature for me!
My actual experience involved stumbling my way through the grid until I finally hit the revealer, which, as I say, was a gimme—maybe the biggest gimme in the grid. But even with GO DOWN IN / FLAMES telling me what the trick was, I didn't see it immediately. I was thinking: "How is BLA "flames"? Or ZE or RE? These letters are nonsense, both on their own and when combi-" At some point my eye must've caught the BLA-ZE thing, and it was then that I had my genuine AHA (just one for me, not the plural promised by the grid) (30D: Moments of discovery). Once you have the revealer and understand what's going on, those circled/shaded squares don't have a chance. I filled them in immediately:
- BLASTING / FREEZE (3D: *What iodine might do / 45D: *Liberated) [STING and FREE are the correct answers for their respective clues; they appear inside BLA/ZE, which changes both answers to different, unclued words: BLASTING and FREEZE]
- FILAMENTS / SPARE (5D: *Expresses regret about / 52D: *Place to be pampered)
- INFERTILE / CHINO (7D: *Blank, e.g., in Scrabble / 53D: *X, to a sorority sister)
Lara Christine Von Seelen (known professionally as Lara Spencer; born June 19, 1969) is an American television presenter. She is best known for being the co-anchor for ABC's Good Morning America. She is also a correspondent for Nightline and ABC News. She was the host of the syndicated entertainment newsmagazine The Insider from 2004 to 2011 and was a regular contributor to CBS's The Early Show. She was the national correspondent for Good Morning America and spent several years as a lifestyle reporter for WABC-TV. She hosted Antiques Roadshow on PBS for the 2004 and 2005 seasons and Antiques Roadshow FYI, a spin-off of Antiques Roadshow, during 2005. She hosts the show Flea Market Flip on both HGTV and the Great American Country channel. In April 2018, she announced she would be only appearing on GMA three days a week to focus on her television producing. (wikipedia)
• • •
["I could show you incredible things ..." "... you look like my next mistake"]
I don't have much to say about the fill. It's there, it's solid, I didn't trip on or groan at any of it. Closest I came to groaning was CRATE UP. Maybe I groaned, but if I did, it was pretty weak, as groans go. Really liked some of the misdirection, particularly [Brown in strips] for CHARLIE. I struggled most in the NW, early on, when I had MNOP instead of LGBT (1A: Queue before Q) and had no idea who the "Good Dinosaur" was (ARLO). I also really struggled to make sense of 67A: Substitute for "subs" (HEROS). Something about the phrasing, the use of "substitute" (???) took me away from sandwiches. Also, the plural HEROS will always look wrong. Since that answer crossed not one but *two* circled/shaded answers, yikes, I was (however briefly) worried. No real complaints today about the fill. I have teeny cluing quibbles here and there, but they hardly matter. This one really hums, and the revealer really revealed, and even though I felt dumb for much of the time I was solving, I had a great time.
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| [from Charles Schulz Museum] |
Time for more Holiday Pet Pics! Three cats, three dogs, let's go!
First the cats, who all seem so serene...
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| [Beaniford J. Fuzzybritches aka Bean, a handsome addition to any flat surface (thanks, Timmy)] [Hey, my first cat was named Timmy] [Actually, he wasn't ours, he just came around with dead things from time to time and let you pet him. He was a drooler. This is no comment on you, Timmy!] |
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| [Cleo and Zoe are helping! (thanks, Nancy)] |
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| [Taschi is also golden, please look at him! (thanks, Nick)] |
And then the dogs, who are also serene, in their own, doglike ways
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| [Don't give up, Duffel! You're so close! We're sorry we doubted your ability to use scissors! (thanks, anonymous)] |
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| [Sit somewhere else, bub. This chair is for Lulu, the wee half poodle / half mystery dog baby (thanks, Bonnie)] |
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| [Like me, Olive is unsure about the edibility of gingerbread houses. Smart girl! (thanks, Maggie)] |
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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71 comments:
Easy-Medium, although I didn't get the theme until I got here. I did realize that the clues only fit the unshaded part of the answer. But I loved the clue/answer at 7D, where "Blank, e.g., in Scrabble" describes a TILE whose meaning you have to INFER.
Overwrites:
@Rex 1A "Queue before Q" was MNOP before it was LGBT
A "Reefer" is a kind of truck, so I had SemiS at before SHIPS at 27A
TOP THat before THIS at 56A
A red hot puzzle! Full of spark, ignited the imagination, lit my fire ...
Solved the whole thing without understanding the extra letters at top and bottom until I came here. Fun nevertheless, but took it to next level. First got traction in SE and then NE with the revealer, filled across the bottom and then moved up to the NW. great puzzle! Faster than my normal Thursday time despite being tricky.
All I can say is that it's a good thing that David and Caleb Madison aren't a couple, lest they spend all their post holiday time RECARVING and REFRYing their turkeys in a recursive loop, down to the last morsel.
What's left of uniclues after the flames:
3d. What iodine should be
5d. Expresses regret about the Belgian Grand Prix
7d. Ceramic meditation exercise?
Raising my hand for Lmno before LGBT.
Also boatS before SHIPS.
Glad you chose to share Lizzo and Taylor over LMFAO "Party Anthem" The latter ain't so good, kinda struggling to approach bland.
We saw ARLO the dinosaur a few weeks ago didn't we? Didn't help me any. I'll be over on the Group W Bench with Beanie. Happy he got to be in the blog for a good puzzle :) (My first cat was Limpopo--named for the greasy, green river of Kipling fame--a stray that adopted first our porch, then us. He didn't drool; Bean does).
I thought this was a pretty good puzzle while solving. But somehow now that I see it's Steinberg, I'm a little disappointed. He has set his personal bar so high, I just expect more.
LARA and RIAN are for regular folks. The elite have to do better.
@Karl Grouch – your 7d is very good.
like others, I solved the puzzle without understanding the shaded letters. Finally saw that the answers to the clues fit into the unshaded squares only, and that the shaded add-ons formed new words. But did not see fire and blaze and inferno until I came here.
Wonderful puzzle - seamless theme with a splashy reveal and overall fill that is silky smooth. The elegance of the build is pretty remarkable.
The UNHIP?
There’s not much here to bitch about - EGGY, BDAY etc are borderline but who cares. Definitely a TOP THIS effort.
Highly enjoyable Thursday solve.
I never go around MIRRORs
Got to the revealer early enough in the solve, which spared me a lot of the “WOE is this?” that Rex fought his way through. I thought the puzzle was mostly fair and enjoyable. LMFAO isn’t really inferable / recognizable as a “band name”, so maybe they get dinged a few points for that (in fact, that whole “name the band that recorded this song from 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago” category of clues, which show up several times a week, are really annoying - usually just more dark matter in the grid. Shortz and crew use them a lot though).
I guess AIR POPS is technically cooking something (close enough for CrossWorld) - It does seem a little weird to consider that and microwaving something as “cooking” though. So, pretty much nothing but nits today, for which I am grateful.
My getting the theme went exactly like Rex’s - finally spotting the BLA … ZE after wondering for the longest what ZE - RE -NO could possibly be. I had gotten the revealer very quickly as I work the acrosses and downs along the top first. Got GO DOWN IN FLAMES off the O and D of SOLO and BDAY. I was actually a little disappointed at getting it so quickly because I like to try to figure out the theme as I go. But no worries, I couldn’t figure out the shaded parts until almost the end.
My big mistake was putting in repENTS instead of LAMENTS for “expresses regret about.” By then, I knew the separated shaded parts had to be FI - RE so I spent a long time trying to figure out what FIre pENTS were. Some kind of flame-breathing serpents of mythology? I didn’t know LARA, wasn’t seeing CRATE UP at all, and thought the irrigation structure could be a Dip? Finally saw ALOFT and figured it out.
A few excellent clues - the misdirection that Rex mentioned for CHARLIE (“Brown in strips”) totally fooled me, and “It might get the word out” for ERASER was brilliant. “Squeeze together” was nice for GROUP HUG, and I also liked GLASS EYES for “socket inserts” - it makes it sound like this is a very common, ordinary thing - we all have our morning routine of showering, brushing our teeth and inserting our GLASS EYES into our sockets.
Hand uo for thinking mnop before LGBT. If that had turned out to be correct, I was ready for a Rexrant (which I would have agreed with) about starting off your puzzle with such weak tea. Glad We were all wrong.
I’ve been traveling for work and fun in Asia, so solving at odd times and not visiting the blog much. So I missed out on the call for Xmas pet pics. Annabelle is very mad at me for failing to send a cute pic of her (and for being gone so long). Next year.
Another dupe in the WaPo/LAT grid today (with very similar cluing). Happens much more frequently than I would expect. It appears to happen more frequently with “actual words” than standard crosswordese (like Pope Leo or stuff like that), which seems kind of counterintuitive, but that’s just my unscientific observation and it’s based on a small sample size.
I got the theme early, and it definitely helped a lot bu I still don’t get what CHARLIE is.
There are many puzzles that one finishes first, then looks back on and appreciates. This puzzle, I was impressed and appreciative while I was doing it! Thanks David
Guilty of MNOP here, which messed up the NW; fortunately the NE gave way fairly easily and provided the revealer. Once I got down to CHI and SPA, it all clicked and I finished in a literal minute
Charlie Brown, Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts crowd.
Snoopy is his sidekick….
Loved this one, and lives up to David’s standards. Based on his notes, sounds like we won’t be getting many more puzzles from him in the future. Wishing him luck and happiness, but bummed.
Like SSJ and Wander, I did hit the revealer clue early, and yes, it went with just a few crosses. But there was still work to do to fully, suss the entire theme, 5 answers in the 3 theme columns. Echo Rex’s appreciation for how cleanly those are constructed and the skill required.
Bravo!
Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle!
No puzzle for me today but after checking out the beauteous kitties and pups, I saw mention that David Steinberg is hanging up his constructing tools. I know I’m not alone in feeling tremendous regret at this news and the knowledge that I won’t get to enjoy any more of his brilliant work. He is retiring at the ripe old age of 27 and debuted his first puzzle in 2011, which means I’ve done every single one of them. David if you’re reading this, thank you so much for all the fun and head scratching and satisfying solves. You will be sorely missed. Wishing you the very best in your chosen future.
Challenging but enjoyable, and agree the more you look at it the more impressive the architecture, only ever designed gag puzzles / little gifty things but done just enough to be able to kinda imagine how hard it must have been to make this all work. Well done.
Hey All !
Yes, tough puz to fill cleanly. Thought 1A was MNOP, thinking, "Really? Not such a good way to start a puz." Silly me, should've known Steinberg wouldn't do that.
Is his TOP THIS entry a challenge? 😁
GLASS EYES unusual to see.
Big open corners, again, tough to fill cleanly, especially with all sorts of Themers running through them. Does end up having sort of isolated sections, but that's slideable.
Nice puz, David.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Steinberg became one of my favorite constructors when I started solving several years ago, but I had no idea he was so young. 27 years old with 111 publishes, wow... So long David, good luck on your new ventures, and thanks for all the AHI TUNA!
The pet pics are like single-panel comics. I wonder if Rex spends the entire day thinking of captions... :)
If this is the last David Steinberg puzzle, it’s a worthy finish to a great career.
I got all the letters but never understood the trick. So I had some frustration, but figured I was missing something (clearly). Mr Steinberg is operating in rarefied air as a constructor. We'll miss him, dang!
I entered ANYLETTER for 7-Down which threw me off big time.
Oh no…say it ain’t so David S!
When I saw the constructor’s name today I smiled because I knew I was in for a crunchy romp of rollicking fun. He did not disappoint! I found the revealer quickly and used it to fill in FI, RE, INFER, NO, then BLA and ZE helped me with changing my mnop to LGBT and that finally helped me crack the NW corner and finish. What fun, and so many clever clues!
@Southside, your comment about AIRPOPS and cooking reminded me of running into a neighbor at the grocery…I said, “whatcha cookin’ tonight”? She said…”Well, these days I’d call what I do as “assembling” dinner, not so much cooking.” I got a kick out of that, because, while I STILL do “create” some things, I’ve fallen into what she called assembly. I might not use the microwave, but it’s “assembly” nonetheless.
Thought the theme was kinda bad mispronounciations, like "IN for TILE" or "feeL LAMENTS". Was very pleased when it turned out better than that.
Charlie Brown - he’s a “Brown in [comic] strips”
Oh. And might I add…HARUMPH to Connections today. I got it after a “so-called” error, but thought that the group I ended with was highly suspect also….
The first mistake I avoided: "It's David Steinberg, and David Steinberg would never in a million years put the oh-so-obvious MNOP at 1A!" So I didn't write it in.
LAMBASTES eventually gave me LGBT, but I still didn't have a clue as to what was going on at 3D. For one thing, I didn't know ARLO. What on earth was that third letter of AR-O and that 2nd letter of B-A? And why?
I thought of GO DOWN IN FLAMES just from the clue -- without even looking at the grid. I saw the INFER and thought of INFERNO. But where was the NO?
Most perplexing of all? I have never known anyone in a sorority that had CHINO as a letter.
Three AHAS followed in quick succession. There, at the bottom of the grid, were the last letters of the FLAMES of all three themers. You are SO slow, Nancy, sometimes!
Clever and crunchy. Those of you who knew the pop culture answers of ARLO, LARA, PAM and LMFAO (there's a duo that calls itself that??!!) will have had an easier time than I did. But this provided just the challenge I most enjoy on Thursdays.
I'm confused why this puzzle gets a pass on the basis of "clean architecture" while so many similar Thursday puzzles get called out for going for a gimmick. This puzzle was chopped up into quadrants and had way too many three-letter clues, proper nouns, and outdated references. Not sure why the positive bias is here when so many similar puzzles have "gone down in flames" in previous reviews... If this is really head and shoulders above the rest, I guess I just don't see it.
A work of construction art for sure. For me, solving it was a series of partial AHAS, first getting the reveal, then spotting BLAZE, finally being able to use FI...RE and INFER...NO to finish up. Along the way, there were quite a few obstacles, the biggest being my misunderstanding that the theme Downs were two-word phrases, MIRRORing how the reveal spanned the divide. It took me until the final moments to see that there were two separate words going DOWN IN FLAMES. Fun to solve!
Do-over: You guessed it: mnop. No idea: ARLO, LMFAO, LARA, PAM. Nice: LAMBASTE + BLASTING; GROUP HUG.
@David Steinberg - Thank you for hours of pleasurable brain-racking and best wishes for your future work!
Needed themer to complete, so: good puzzle.
The partial and split nature of the theme answers though, seemed sort of lacking in logic in that respect.
Thanks, Rex for the heads up on the Variety “Inside the New York Times’ Big Bet on Games.” I spent so much time looking for you that I gotta run & do the puzzle now - see you later (still loving the pet parade :)
This puzzle was hot. Had firmly committed to MNOP so the northwest was the last to fall and be replaced by LGBT.
By the way, Taylor Swift is messing up her reputation with her carbon footprint by flying to Kansas City every other week, so expect a tree planting song soon. RE-ARBUM, AMICA MEA.
Tee-Hee: LMFAO?
- Let me fart aloud often. (For old people and middle school boys.)
- Let's meet for an orange. (For dating vegetarians.)
- Little miss fancies an orangutan. (For those hating on a female primatologist.)
- Level mean flagrantly angry orderlies. (For nurse punchers.)
Uniclues:
1 Law-enforcement-themed footwear for Los Angeles-based drag queens in 2010.
2 Final scene in a low-budget horror film starring Martin Sheen's son and written by the cast of Two and a Half Men who ended up stuck with two years of Ashton Kutcher all because somebody can't walk away from a line of coke.
3 This Apple is terrible, e.g.
4 Egotist's love-in locale.
5 Nor'easter.
6 Interest unable to keep up with inflation and taxation.
7 My current journey toward veganism.
1 LGBT FBI UGGS
2 AIRPOPS CHARLIE
3 LAMBASTE LAPTOP
4 GROUP HUG MIRROR
5 BLASTING FREEZE
6 CD'S LOOT
7 YEARLY SOYBEANS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Don Juan type rakishly brags about wooing local gingers. I DID AREA IRISH.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Karl Grouch 6:41 AM
I bow to the master. Nice work.
I just read an article explaining the fact that the female lion generally does the hunting for the pride. They're faster, for one thing. And just as lethal.
Good luck, David. Let us know what you're going into.
When I read in his notes on WordPlay that David Steinberg was going to stop constructing puzzles, I teared up as I would at the loss of a dear friend. His puzzles WERE dear friends; when I saw his name on one I leaped for joy inside, knowing it would be a piece of beauty. It would have superb cluing, be scrubbed of junk, and if it had a theme it would wow me – every time.
Let me say something else about David that I know from experience. He is a superb editor, actually working WITH the puzzlemaker, allowing everything he can that is submitted, and when he has to make changes, they always make the puzzle better. Even more importantly than that, he is a mensch – kind, good listener, always in your corner, supportive.
David, while I will miss your sublime creations, my sadness is easily outweighed by my respect for you and the smiles in my heart that have come from my interactions with you. Thank you for making my world, and I’m sure the world of many, a sweeter place, for so many years.
I too had 'any letter,' and though ALOFT soon showed me that it was wrong, I still had those wrong letters filled in, which made it a little harder to see things. One of those things was the revealer; I really had no idea what was going on until I bot to the bottom, where SPA and CHI were so obvious I looked back to the top, got FIRE, and then the revealer. FREE was not quite as obvious,as it could have been FREEd, and I didn't have much in the NW--I got BLAZE from the ZE, which opened it up.
Wash. setting for USA was pretty good, too. I so much wanted PST there that I questioned UNHIP.
@wanderlust, did your puzzle have "socket inserts?" In the paper--at least the one delivered to my PORCH this morning--GLASS EYES was clued as "People don't see through them."
Yes, as some of you know, I’m on vacation. As a rule, I don’t post comments while away, but how could I not after David’s announcement?
(I’ll be back to regular posting a week from Saturday…)
My first Thursday that wasn't just rated "Easy". Movin up 😎. The millennial-pandering and picking up on the theme helped me a lot.
I actually liked Good Dinosaur but completely forgot his name at first. Also filled in MNOP immediately upon starting.
Didn't know LAMBASTE had that E at the end so my one "try every letter" square was for EGGY
@Beezer I got connections today with no mistakes but I never would've gotten Blue category in a million years.
Here's my prediction, David. One night -- maybe two years from now, maybe five or six -- you'll be lying in bed and a puzzle idea will leap unbidden into your head. You will know it to be the very best idea that you or anyone else has had for a puzzle theme in, like, forever. Sleep will be impossible. You will jackknife out of bed, grab a notepad, and scribble furiously. The next day you will do your day job conscientiously and with all the required commitment, but you will be champing at the bit for the workday to be over so you can get back to your puzzle idea to polish and complete it.
You have the devious and inventive mind of a born crossword puzzle creator, David, and I doubt you'll be able to walk away from it entirely. Even if you want to:)
Who did GOD OWN IN FLAMES? Answer must be Satan, given the FLAMES/HELL crossing.
I saw a remarkable woman today. She had the GLASSEYESt GLASSEYES I've ever seen. But she made me mad when she told me to "Sit down and shut up." So I did as she said, but you better believe that I GLARESAT.
Why is knowing a lot about Chief Justice Warren like an adverb for an anniversary? They're both YEARLY.
I experienced the solve and reveal pretty much like @Rex, and appreciated the puzzle as much as he did. I wish David Steinberg would try to TOPTHIS, but ... Thanks for a a lot of great puzzles, David.
Easy. I too started out with mnop. I also had to change pst to USA (nice misdirection). The NE gave me the theme and let me fill in the bottom squares. It was pretty whooshy after that. I did not know LMFAO and HELL as clued. I should probably pay more attention to pop music, but I won’t…that said ERAS was a gimme.
Fun and breezy with a lot of sparkle, liked it a bunch! Apparently this may be David’s last puzzle? Way to finish!
Yes, “socket inserts” was the app clue for GLASS EYES. Wow, I kind of like “people don’t see through them” better, though it’s kind of dark! (In more ways than one, I guess.)
David’s grids are always a delightful way to spend a morning and today Rex nailed how I felt solving. Stubbed my toe on ?APTOP for waaay toooo looooong before that final letter dropped into place. Same uneasy sensation I felt when I got to the edge of that valley hidden in Connections……even knowing something doesn’t help if you’re unable to dredge it from the mental OOZE.
Thanks for the VF link Rex; fascinating read.
David Steinberg puzzles are always a challenge and a pleasure.So elegantly put together. My favorite constructor.
Best of luck in your future endeavors, David. Know that we will all miss you & hope like @Nancy said, we will see you again :)
In 5 down, if you remove the letters I N T you are left with FLAMES. So IN was going down in FLAMES. Surely this was no accident, right David?
Hands up for MNOP and SAILS before SHIPS. "Reefer" sounds like a sailing thing.
[Spelling Bee: Wed -2, no streak this week.]
I second this.Steinberg is da bomb.
How fun to see my Cleo and Zoe in the blog! I am loving all the festive pet pictures.
Sorry to hear that David Steinberg is hanging up his constructing hat. He's become one of my favorite constructors (I agree with Rex that he's Patrick Berry-esque, which is the highest compliment). Best wishes to him in devoting his energies to his editing endeavors, and hoping that he gets the constructing bug once in a while in the future!
yep. Went temporarily down in flames/thru HELL with my first entry of: MNOP.
Luv the theme. Different. Aw contrayer, it certainly did not "fail spectacularly", as per what 9-Down's clue would imply.
staff weeject pick: WEE.
Day-um nice E/W puzgrid symmetry look. Totally torched it.
What what? Steinberg is hangin up his gridwork? Nooo. Maybe he'll be back (at least occasionally) someday, after he gets bored with (or retires from) the real world workplace. U can't stop gettin them fresh/weird ideas for crossword themes, after all. M&A gets at least one (usually of the weird persuasion), every time he takes a shower.
Don't throw away yer graph paper just yet, Davidmeister.
some fave stuff included: GLASSEYES & clue. CHARLIE & clue. GROUPHUG & clue. Lulu's pic and questionable ancestry. Tryin to remember all the LGBT letters and the order they go in.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Steinberg dude. Don't say goodbye … say ZE RE NO.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
GODOWNINFLAMES was practically the first thing I filled in and I completed the puzzle with no errors, but the theme eluded me. Happy to see I have company there. I blame a failure to properly understand "IN" as used here, and that's my own fault, darn it.
Some clever clues and some nice misdirects. Here I am working on a LAPTOP and that was one of my last answers. Didn't know ARLO or LMFAO as a duo, and all the Taylor Swift info that OFL got into is totally lost on me. Some day I'll catch up on all the pop culture I've missed, but today is not that day.
Nice tricky Thursday, DS. You Definitely Stumped me again, but thanks for a fair amount of mysterious fun.
@dgd from late yesterday-First, thanks for the PABLO. I knew you could do it. As for ROLF as an old friend, I think this word showed up a couple of decades after I started solving, so not it my past list of classic crosswordese. I'm still looking for ADIT (mine entrance) and ATLE (salt tree), and any sightings by solvers would be much appreciated.
@DuckReconMajor…there are CATEGORIES!? Yikes. I need to look at THAT! 🤣
I did SOLVE…but not “perfectly.” I’ll live.
@DuckReconMajor…I just SAW the blue. Yeah…me too!
Following up on the Taylor Swift theme, “Blank Spaces” includes the lines “I love the players, and you love the game!” A fitting farewell from a master puzzlemaker indeed.
Well, David certainly is not GOing DOWN INFLAMES! Best wishes to one of my favorite constructors.
Alice
Thx David, what a blast; so far, anyways! 😊
Very hard (downs-o).
Checked out everything except 1 & 2D. All good; so happy to have gotten this far.
What I have for the above is lambaste & grow snug. Not quite ready to submit, tho, as BWS & AST are sticking in the craw.
Have spent nearly 4 hrs, so will take a bit more time to rework those two. 🤔
Got the gist of the theme early on with GO DOWN IN FLAMES, but took quite a while to grok BLAZE, INFERNO & FIRE, and that the answers lie withIN.
So, time to bear DOWN on the two in question. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@Gary J (1037) I hear ya about Taylor Swift jetting across the country, but the last I heard she has moved in to the KELCE abode in Kansas City. Since ended her tour a few weeks ago, I think she has been staying put.
@Beezer: what was the connection glitch today? Email me if you want
Oh, curses! I just posted a comment, addressing Gary J and Beezer, forgetting I was on my phone and it showed me as anonymous. Sorry about that.
This puzzle must have really been in my wheelhouse. I set a personal best for a Thursday with this one.
Wahoo!
Changed the 'w' to 'U' and saw GROUP HUG immediately.
Most satisfying solve ever! :)
Finished in just N. of 4 hrs. Whew & phew!!
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@whatsername…Gah! I think I know who you are (how to contact but couldn’t plug in…gah! ! Ok. I’d tell you to contact my email (on blog)l BUT! With connections it all depends on order of solve so I’m afraid to say ANYTHING here! Feel free to email ME!
Happy national crossword puzzle day everyone!!!
I generally skip the Thursday puzzles because they are just gimmicky. Sometimes (rarely) the gimmicks work. More often, like this, they are a waste of time. I'm at the point of skipping the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles because they're too easy, leaving Friday, Saturday and the Sunday acrostic. If there is one.
Theme? Oh please. What a stretch
I looked at the 1a clue and said, "Already with this? They must really be hurting in the inbox!" Then I just happened to see the byline: Oh no, DS is NOT going to kick his puzzle off with a letter string. He's just not. So I wrote in LGBT and called it a gimme. My faith was rewarded.
This was actually, for David, a pretty easy solve. I started in the east and was on a TREK westward when I saw the clue for 53d. Well, that's CHI, but there were two more squares...darkened. Hmm. So I looked at the starred clues and assigned only the white squares to the answers, and pretty soon the whole thing emerged. After that it was cleanup.
One-letter overwrite: I thought the workplace inequity was a gAYGAP. Hey, it fit with 1a! My only groan (minor) was TBAR. TOPTHIS, constructors! Eagle.
Wordle birdie.
I did the obvious at 1A instead of what @Spacey did. Kept me in knots for a while. (Tho I did get, pretty much right away, that the down answers did not include the letters in the shaded squares.)
The rest of the puzzle went quite smoothly, as a DS puzzle often does for me. So, scratching my head at the end of the solve, I decided to figure out the shaded-square trick. Oh. I get it. LGBT, not MNOP. Of course.
So I had a lot of triumph points at the end.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
STALL AMOR?
HELL, LARA can't TOPTHIS,
once YEARLY WEE GO to town,
on my B'DAY don't sTOPTHIS,
ISAY PAY UP or GODOWN.
--- CHARLIE CRANE
A DS puz always good.
Wordle birdie after BBBBB start.
DS has still got it.
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