Constructed by: Garry Morse
Edited by: Rich Norris
Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
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Theme: Secretly Jealous
Each of today’s themed answers contains a hidden “NV” (sounds like “envy”). Each themed answer comprises two words, the first ending with a letter N and the second starting with a letter V:
- 123A. Word homophonically hidden in the eight longest puzzle answers : ENVY (sounds like “NV”)
- 29A. Sure thing : CERTAIN VICTORY
- 52A. Oath : SOLEMN VOW
- 54A. Titanic undertaking : MAIDEN VOYAGE
- 77A. City NNW of San Diego : MISSION VIEJO
- 80A. Gourmet : BON VIVANT
- 104A. Many a side dish : GREEN VEGETABLE
- 3D. Tanzanian flowering plant : AFRICAN VIOLET
- 58D. Hollywood adaptation : SCREEN VERSION
Bill’s time: 22m 20s
Bill’s errors: 2
BON VIVANT (non vivant!!!!!)
OBO (ONO)
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Lunchbox staples, initially : PBJS
Peanut butter and jelly (PB&J or PBJ).
9. Two-time Argentine president : PERON
Nowadays, President Juan Perón of Argentina is perhaps less well-known than his second wife, Eva Perón of “Evita” fame. Juan and Eva Perón were overthrown in a military coup in 1955, although Juan Perón was returned to power in 1973 after which he served for only nine months before he passed away. Juan was succeeded in office by his third wife, Isabel Perón.
14. Piglike rhino relative : TAPIR
All four species of tapir are endangered. Even though the tapir looks much like a pig, it is more closely related to the horse and the rhinoceros.
19. Sword handle : HAFT
The “haft” of a weapon is its handle or hilt.
21. Texas Revolution battle site : ALAMO
The famous Alamo in San Antonio, Texas was originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero. The mission was founded in 1718 and was the first mission established in the city. The Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836, a thirteen-day siege by the Mexican Army led by President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Only two people defending the Alamo Mission survived the onslaught. One month later, the Texian army got its revenge by attacking and defeating the Mexican Army in the Battle of San Jacinto. During the surprise attack on Santa Anna’s camp, many of the Texian soldiers were heard to cry “Remember the Alamo!”.
27. Pouilly-__: wine : FUISSE
So many French wines are blended to develop the wonderful flavors and complexity that they have. However, Pouilly-Fuissé is made from just Chardonnay grapes, and maybe that’s why it generally sells for less!
32. Sam Spade type : TEC
Private detective Sam Spade is the main character in Dashiell Hammett’s novel “The Maltese Falcon”. Famously, Spade was played by Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 film adaptation directed by John Huston.
35. Low-tech travel guide : AAA MAP
The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.
38. Explorer Ericson : LEIF
Leif Erikson was a Norse explorer and was the first European to land in North America, some 500 years before Christopher Columbus’s landing in 1492. The Norsemen named the area they discovered “Vinland”, which might translate as “Wine Land” or “Pasture Land”. Erikson built a small settlement called Leifsbudir, which archaeologists believe they have found in modern day Newfoundland, at L’Anse aux Meadows. The settlement discovered in Newfoundland is definitely Norse, but there is some dispute over whether it is actually Erikson’s Leifsbudir.
44. “Lou Grant” star : ASNER
“Lou Grant” is a spinoff from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. The title character, played so ably by Ed Asner, had headed up a television newsroom in Minneapolis in the original series. In the spinoff, Grant was the city editor of the fictional “Los Angeles Tribune”. The original show was a sitcom, the spinoff was a drama series.
48. Spikes : LACES
To lace a drink, is to spike it, by adding perhaps some alcohol or other strong substance.
54. Titanic undertaking : MAIDEN VOYAGE
The RMS Titanic set off on her tragic maiden voyage in 1912, sailing from Southampton, England bound for New York City. Regulations only required that the ship have lifeboat capacity for 1,178 people, even though a full complement of passengers and crew was 3,547. When the order was given to abandon ship, the captain adhered to the traditional protocol of “women and children first”. As a result, only 20% of male passengers survived the disaster, compared to 75% of the female passengers. Perhaps more telling is that 61% of those in first class survived, and only 25% of those in third class. The crew fared even worse though, with only 24% making it.
59. Native of Nigeria : IBO
The Igbo (or Ibo) people are an ethnic group living in southeastern Nigeria.
64. Epidemic-fighting agcy. : CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …
70. Actor Stephen : REA
Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.
72. Order to swabs : AVAST!
“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.
73. Donizetti opera “L’elisir __” (“The Elixir of Love”) : D’AMORE
“L’elisir d’amore” is an opera by Donizetti, the title of which translates as “The Elixir of Love”. The opera is performed quite often today, as is the beautiful aria from the work called “Una furtiva lagrima”. “Una furtiva lagrima” translates from Italian as “A single furtive tear”.
77. City NNW of San Diego : MISSION VIEJO
Mission Viejo is a city in Southern California in Orange County. According to FBI data, MIssion Viejo has qualified as the safest city in the US in some years.
80. Gourmet : BON VIVANT
A bon vivant (plural “bons vivants”) is a person who enjoys the best of food and drink, a person with very refined tastes. The term is French, coming from “good living” in that language.
85. Casual tops : POLOS
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer, born Ralph Liftshitz in the Bronx, New York. Lauren started off working as a salesman for Brooks Brothers after spending two years in the US Army. He then opened a necktie store, featuring his own tie designs. The ties were sold under the name “Polo”, which became Lauren’s most famous brand. Other Lauren brands are Purple Label and Black Label.
89. ’60s protest org. : SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.
91. “If I Were a Rich Man” singer : TEVYE
The enduring musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is based on a collection of stories by Sholem Aleichem about Tevye, a milkman living in Tsarist Russia. The musical version of the tales first opened on Broadway in 1964. “Fiddler on the Roof” had such a long run that it became the first musical to reach 3,000 performances.
93. Pal : CRONY
A “crony” is a friend or companion. The term originated as slang in Cambridge University in England in the 1600s. “Crony” is probably derived from the Greek “khronios” meaning “long-lasting”.
94. Longfellow’s bell town : ATRI
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Sicilian’s Tale; The Bell of Atri”, a narrative poem set in the small town of Atri in the Abruzzo region of Italy.
95. Half a fly : TSE
Tsetse flies live on the blood of vertebrate mammals. The name “tsetse” comes from Tswana, a language of southern Africa, and translates simply as “fly”. Tsetse flies are famous for being carriers of the disease known as “sleeping sickness”. Sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite which is passed onto humans when the tsetse fly bites into human skin tissue. If one considers all the diseases transmitted by the insect, then the tsetse fly is responsible for a staggering quarter of a million deaths each year.
96. Like some ancient Celts : GALLIC
The Celts were a very broad group of people across Europe, linked by common languages. The Celts were largely absorbed by other cultures, although a relatively modern revival of the “Celtic identity” is alive and well in the British Isles. Such Celtic peoples today are mainly found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany in France..
99. Dessert square : BROWNIE
Apparently the first brownies were created for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The recipe was developed by a pastry chef at the city’s Palmer House Hotel. The idea was to produce a cake-like dessert that was small enough and dainty enough to be eaten by ladies as part of a boxed lunch.
101. Long John Silver creator’s monogram : RLS
Long John Silver is a character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, and is a pirate with a peg leg.
109. “__ Fideles” : ADESTE
The lovely Christmas hymn “Adeste Fideles” (entitle “O Come, All Ye Faithful” in English) was written by one John Francis Wade in the 13th century. Well, he wrote the original four verses, with four more verses being added over time. A kind blog reader pointed out to me that the English translation is in fact a little “off”. The term “adeste” best translates from Latin as “be present, attend”, rather that “come”. The verb “come” appears later in the lyrics in “venite adoremus”, meaning “come, let us worship”.
113. Oater actor Jack : ELAM
Jack Elam was a movie actor noted for playing the bad guy in Westerns. When Elam was a boy scout, he was accidentally stabbed in the eye with a pencil. The incident left him blind in that eye, and the iris remained skewed to the outside of his face. This gave him a crazed, wide-eyed look that helped add a sense of menace to the characters Elam played.
115. Capital south of Helsinki : RIGA
Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture.
Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, and is by far the country’s biggest urban area. In English we tend to stress the “-sink-” in “Helsinki”, whereas the Finns stress the “Hel-”.
116. Lycée student : ELEVE
The French word “élève” can be translated as “pupil, student”
The “lycée” is the last stage of secondary education in France.
117. Industry leaders : CZARS
The term “czar” (also tsar) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “Caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time.
118. Hieroglyphics bird : IBIS
The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!
120. Cold fall : SLEET
Apparently “sleet” is a term used to describe two weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets, smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.
121. Exaggerated on stage : HAMMY
The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is apparently a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.
122. “Eli’s Coming” songwriter : NYRO
Down
1. Harsh treatment, with “the” : SHAFT
“Shafted” isn’t a nice term at all. Someone who has been shafted has been given a raw deal. The term arose in the fifties, playing on the vulgar slang usage of shaft to represent the male organ (a usage that has been around since the early 1700s). The use of the verb “shaft” therefore is a reference to sodomy. We really should stop using the term …
2. World Court site, with “The” : HAGUE
International Court of Justice (ICJ) is commonly referred to as the World Court, and is based in the Hague in the Netherlands. Housed in a building known as the Peace Palace, the ICJ is the main judicial branch of the United Nations. One of the court’s functions is to settle disputes between UN member states. The US no longer accepts the jurisdiction of the ICJ, after the court’s 1986 decision that the US’s covert war against Nicaragua was in violation of international law. The UN Security Council is charged with enforcing ICJ rulings, and so the US used its veto power in the Nicaragua v. United States case.
4. Classic muscle cars : GTOS
The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later was found the DeLorean Motor Company.
5. Introduction : PROEM
A “proem” is a brief introduction, a prelude. The term comes into English via Old French and is ultimately derived from the Greek “prooimion” meaning “prelude”, especially a prelude to music or poetry.
8. Metal marble : STEELIE
A playing marble made from agate is called just that, an agate. Steelies on the other hand, are made from solid steel.
9. Medicare Rx section : PART D
Medicare is divided into four parts:
- A: Hospital Insurance
- B: Medical Insurance
- C: Medicare Advantage Plans
- D: Prescription Drug Plans
10. Lamb pen name : ELIA
Charles Lamb published a famous collection of essays simply entitled “Essays of Elia”. Elia was actually a clerk and co-worker of Charles Lamb, whereas Lamb was the author.
11. Indian musician who influenced Beatle George : RAVI
Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Also, Shankar was the father of the beautiful pop singer Norah Jones.
George Harrison is often referred to as the “quiet Beatle”, although he did have a profound influence on the direction taken by the Fab Four. It was Harrison who first became an admirer of Indian culture and led the rest of the group into the Indian way of life. Harrison went as far as embracing the Hindu religion.
14. Puccini heroine : TOSCA
Unlike so many operas, Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” was a big hit right from day one, when it was first performed in 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. “Tosca” is currently the eighth-most performed opera in America.
15. “West Side Story” girl : ANITA
In Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story”, the female lead character is Maria and her older friend, also in the gang called the Sharks, is Anita.
16. River to Chesapeake Bay : POTOMAC
Chesapeake Bay is on the Atlantic coast and is surrounded by the states of Maryland and Virginia. Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the whole country, with over 150 rivers and streams draining into it, including the Potomac.
28. Pfizer-owned trademark : SEARLE
Searle is mainly a pharmaceutical company, and was founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 1888. The company is famous for introducing the first birth control pill in the late 1950s, as well as the artificial sweetener NutraSweet. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was Searle’s CEO and then President in the seventies and eighties.
31. James’ creator : IAN
James Bond was the creation of writer Ian Fleming. Fleming “stole” the James Bond name from an American ornithologist. The number 007 was “stolen” from the real-life, 16th century English spy called John Dee. Dee would sign his reports to Queen Elizabeth I with a stylized “007” to indicate that the reports were for “her eyes only”. There’s an entertaining miniseries that aired on BBC America called “Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond” that details Ian Fleming’s military career, and draws some nice parallels between Fleming’s experiences and aspirations and those of his hero James Bond. Recommended …
37. Go : HEAD
I’m going to go, going to head.
41. __City: computer game : SIM
SimCity is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. “SimCity” was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.
47. Theater option : LOGE
In most theaters today, “loge” is the name given to the front rows of a mezzanine level. Loge can also be used for box seating.
48. Irish truck : LORRY
On the other side of the Atlantic, a truck is called a “lorry”, a term that probably comes from the English dialectal verb “to lurry” meaning “to drag, tug”.
55. Up-and-down inventor? : OTIS
Elevators (simple hoists) have been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the “safety elevator”, a design that he showcased at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York. At the Fair, Otis would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration, the orders came rolling in.
56. 2015 World Series winning manager Ned : YOST
Ned Yost is the manager of the Kansas City Royals, and a former Major League Baseball catcher. Yost played baseball at high school in Dublin, California, just a few miles from where I am now right now.
61. Trucks with ovine logos : RAMS
Chrysler put ram hood ornaments on all of its Dodge branded vehicles starting in 1933. When the first line of Dodge trucks and vans were introduced in 1981, they were named “Rams” in honor of that hood ornament.
62. Mine, to Mimi : A MOI
“À moi” (literally “to me”) is French for “mine”.
65. Dance runner : DEEJAY
The world’s first radio disk jockey (DJ, deejay) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.
66. King of pop : CAROLE
Carole King is a marvelous singer-songwriter from Manhattan, New York. King started her career writing a string of hit songs with her partner and eventual husband Gerry Goffin (although they later divorced). King’s first composition to get to number one was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, which she wrote at 18 years of age for the Shirelles. Not so long ago, my wife and I saw the stage musical “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”, which tells the story of King’s music and life. I highly recommend “Beautiful” …
69. Tammany Hall Tiger artist : NAST
Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. Nast was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party donkey, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today. Thomas Nast drew some famous cartoons in which he depicted the Tammany Society as a vicious tiger that was killing democracy. Nast’s use of the tiger symbology caught on and was used by other cartoonists to harp at the society.
73. Childless couple’s acronym : DINK
The acronym “DINK” stands for “Dual Income, No Kids”, and describes a couple who are both working for a wage, and have no children. The extended term “DINKER” stands for “Dual Income, No Kids, Early Retirement”. The opposite situation is sometimes referred to as SITCOM, meaning “Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage”!
76. “I’ll take what I can get,” in classifieds : OBO
OBO (or best offer)
77. R&B singer Gray : MACY
Macy Gray is an R&B singer noted for her raspy voice, and a singing style that resembles that of Billie Holliday.
82. U.N. workers’ gp. : ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is an agency now administered by the UN which was established by the League of Nations after WWI. The ILO deals with important issues such as health and safety, discrimination, child labor and forced labor. The organization was recognized for its work in 1969 when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
83. Cru output : VIN
“Cru” is a term used in the French wine industry that means “growth place”. So, “cru” is the name of the location where the grapes are grown, as opposed to the name of a specific vineyard. The terms “premier cru” and “grand cru” are also used, but the usage depends on the specific wine region. Generally it is a classification awarded to specific vineyards denoting their potential for producing great wines. “Grand cru” is reserved for the very best vineyards, with “premier cru” the level just below
87. 1992 Kentucky Derby winner : LIL E TEE
Lil E. Tee was a racehorse who won the 1992 Kentucky Derby in a major upset.
90. Med. man of ’70s TV : DR WELBY
“Marcus Welby, M.D.” is a television series that originally aired from 1969 to 1976. The title role was played by Robert Young.
93. MML ÷ X : CCV
In Roman numerals, MML (2050) divided by X (10) equals CCV (205).
94. NYSE trader : ARB
“Arb” is short for an arbitrageur, one who profits from the purchase of securities in one market and the subsequent sale in another, hence taking advantage of price discrepancies across markets.
102. St.’s second-in-command : LT GOV
In the US, a lieutenant governor is usually the second-in-command to the governor of a state.
103. Sordid : SEAMY
We’ve used “seamy” to mean “the least pleasant, the worst” since the 1600s. The idea comes from the seamed side of a sewn garment being the less attractive.
105. Part of NYSE: Abbr. : EXCH
The roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement. Today, the NYSE is located in National Historic Landmark building with the address 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
106. __ Strip : GAZA
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the boundaries of the strip of land on the Mediterranean around Gaza were fixed in the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement. The boundaries were specifically defined but were not to be recognized as an international border. From 1948, the Gaza Strip was occupied and administered by Egypt, until 1967 when Israel took over occupation following the Six-Day War. In 1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords which handed over administration to the Palestinian Authority, but with Israel retaining control of the Gaza Strip’s airspace, some land borders and its territorial waters. The intent was to further this agreement, but discussions between the parties broke down. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
108. Semester, e.g. : TERM
“Semester” is a German word from the Latin “semestris”, an adjective meaning “of six months”. We use the term in a system that divides an academic year into two roughly equal parts. A trimester system has three parts, and a quarter system has four.
110. First name in legal fiction : ERLE
I must have read all of the “Perry Mason” books when I was in college. I think they kept me sane when I was facing the pressure of exams. Author Erle Stanley Gardner was himself a lawyer, although he didn’t get into the profession the easy way. Gardner went to law school, but got himself suspended after a month. So, he became a self-taught attorney and opened his own law office in Merced, California. Understandably, he gave up the law once his novels became successful.
Complete List of Clues and Answers
Across
1. Plush carpet : SHAG
5. Lunchbox staples, initially : PBJS
9. Two-time Argentine president : PERON
14. Piglike rhino relative : TAPIR
19. Sword handle : HAFT
20. Beat but good : ROUT
21. Texas Revolution battle site : ALAMO
22. All-page link : ON ONE
23. Field: Pref. : AGRO-
24. Scrape in the sandbox : OWIE
25. Hold fast, as one’s attention : RIVET
26. Get behind, as a desk : SIT AT
27. Pouilly-__: wine : FUISSE
29. Sure thing : CERTAIN VICTORY
32. Sam Spade type : TEC
33. Wrote to, nowadays : EMAILED
35. Low-tech travel guide : AAA MAP
36. “You can’t fool me!” : AHA!
38. Explorer Ericson : LEIF
39. Washroom item : BASIN
43. Nine months, for some tots : AGE
44. “Lou Grant” star : ASNER
46. Wash. neighbor : ORE
47. Language of many mottos : LATIN
48. Spikes : LACES
50. Reduce in importance : DEVALUE
52. Oath : SOLEMN VOW
54. Titanic undertaking : MAIDEN VOYAGE
57. Really gets to : IRKS
59. Native of Nigeria : IBO
60. Sloppy kiss : WET ONE
61. Cause of a close shave : RAZOR
64. Epidemic-fighting agcy. : CDC
67. Belief sys. : REL
68. Investment descriptor that should sound alarms : NO-RISK
69. For instance : NAMELY
70. Actor Stephen : REA
71. Suffix with stamp : -EDE
72. Order to swabs : AVAST!
73. Donizetti opera “L’elisir __” (“The Elixir of Love”) : D’AMORE
74. Poet’s adverb : E’ER
75. Emotion indicator, often : TONE
77. City NNW of San Diego : MISSION VIEJO
80. Gourmet : BON VIVANT
84. Hardly fleeting : ETERNAL
85. Casual tops : POLOS
88. Work well together : CLICK
89. ’60s protest org. : SDS
91. “If I Were a Rich Man” singer : TEVYE
92. Pasta ending : -INI
93. Pal : CRONY
94. Longfellow’s bell town : ATRI
95. Half a fly : TSE
96. Like some ancient Celts : GALLIC
99. Dessert square : BROWNIE
101. Long John Silver creator’s monogram : RLS
104. Many a side dish : GREEN VEGETABLE
109. “__ Fideles” : ADESTE
111. Little bits : IOTAS
112. Base lines : X-AXES
113. Oater actor Jack : ELAM
115. Capital south of Helsinki : RIGA
116. Lycée student : ELEVE
117. Industry leaders : CZARS
118. Hieroglyphics bird : IBIS
119. Rise in a big way : LOOM
120. Cold fall : SLEET
121. Exaggerated on stage : HAMMY
122. “Eli’s Coming” songwriter : NYRO
123. Word homophonically hidden in the eight longest puzzle answers : ENVY (sounds like “NV”)
Down
1. Harsh treatment, with “the” : SHAFT
2. World Court site, with “The” : HAGUE
3. Tanzanian flowering plant : AFRICAN VIOLET
4. Classic muscle cars : GTOS
5. Introduction : PROEM
6. Acknowledge applause : BOW
7. Better, as gossip : JUICIER
8. Metal marble : STEELIE
9. Medicare Rx section : PART D
10. Lamb pen name : ELIA
11. Indian musician who influenced Beatle George : RAVI
12. Symbolic warning : OMEN
13. Homework shirker’s punishment : NO TV
14. Puccini heroine : TOSCA
15. “West Side Story” girl : ANITA
16. River to Chesapeake Bay : POTOMAC
17. Hitting the roof : IN A RAGE
18. Enters again : RETYPES
28. Pfizer-owned trademark : SEARLE
30. One crying foul? : REF
31. James’ creator : IAN
34. Skin-treatment plant : ALOE VERA
37. Go : HEAD
39. Field unit : BALE
40. Dined : ATE
41. __City: computer game : SIM
42. Vacation spot : INN
44. Look up to : ADMIRE
45. Wet floor : SEABED
47. Theater option : LOGE
48. Irish truck : LORRY
49. Parrot’s cry : AWK!
51. Not yet interlaced, as yarn : UNWOVEN
52. Putted into the hole : SANK
53. Like some bad weather : VIOLENT
55. Up-and-down inventor? : OTIS
56. 2015 World Series winning manager Ned : YOST
58. Hollywood adaptation : SCREEN VERSION
61. Trucks with ovine logos : RAMS
62. Mine, to Mimi : A MOI
63. Refines one’s aim : ZEROES IN
65. Dance runner : DEEJAY
66. King of pop : CAROLE
68. Smallish iPods : NANOS
69. Tammany Hall Tiger artist : NAST
73. Childless couple’s acronym : DINK
76. “I’ll take what I can get,” in classifieds : OBO
77. R&B singer Gray : MACY
78. Authenticated : VETTED
79. Riles up : IRES
81. DVD predecessor : VCR
82. U.N. workers’ gp. : ILO
83. Cru output : VIN
85. Tot’s toes : PIGGIES
86. Hot : ON A ROLL
87. 1992 Kentucky Derby winner : LIL E TEE
89. Entered on tiptoe : STOLE IN
90. Med. man of ’70s TV : DR WELBY
93. MML ÷ X : CCV
94. NYSE trader : ARB
97. Go : LEAVE
98. A metro area may be shown in one : INSET
99. Low in pitch : BASSY
100. Playground dispute words : I AM SO!
102. St.’s second-in-command : LT GOV
103. Sordid : SEAMY
105. Part of NYSE: Abbr. : EXCH
106. __ Strip : GAZA
107. Final __ : EXAM
108. Semester, e.g. : TERM
110. First name in legal fiction : ERLE
114. Tune : AIR
I’ll be back in a little while with my comments on this puzzle, but a piece of news I found out: WSJ puzzles will be becoming pay-only.
All I can say, personally, is that when it comes to pass, I’ll be done with those puzzles. Not so much the idea that they’re doing it, but the idea that I have very limited funds and if I throw money towards subscribing to a paper to be able to do crosswords, it’s going to be the New York Times long before them (and yes I think somehow this is going to blow up in their faces in terms of crossword interest in general). Not to mention, their poor interface in general…
From what I can tell, they haven’t set anything in terms of what it’s going to look like or when, but thought I’d throw that bit of news out there since there’s a handful of interested parties that have been doing them.
28:17, no errors. I think a couple of clues are incorrect, but I have a time constraint and will check back later …
@Glenn … Bad news, but thanks for letting me know. I didn’t really want their damned old mug, anyway … 🙂
Thanks for all of the supportive comments over the past couple of days as I battle away at the ACPT competition. Thanks especially to Glenn for checking on my progress online. This is my third visit to the ACPT, and it’s an event that I readily recommend to crossword puzzle fans. I’ve learned this year (for next year!) that’s it’s really important to practice solving with pencil and paper, and learning to do so quickly, if you want to place well. Man, there are a lot of speedy solvers out there!
You’re welcome to all that have been commenting about it.
@Bill
Definitely. It’s one of my motivations behind what I’m trying to do – in general trying to be good enough to complete anything set before me (I physically can’t write that fast)…but I want to go to the ACPT one time, and just be able to say I finished them all (of course, if you look at the standings you’ll see a lot that don’t). I think meeting the people would be the more fun part of it, but gotta at least be respectable. 🙂
My experience so far, Glenn, is that if you go to ACPT once, you get hooked. Would love to see you there one day!
79 minutes on this one! Ouch. I’d put 1:19, but then Dave would think I finished in just over a minute 🙂
Finally finished with one (2) error(s) – I just had to guess a vowel at ELEVE/LILETEE and I guessed wrong.
Many many missteps – e.g. semper (ADESTE) “Fideles”, Maria before ANITA, Oslo before RIGA, and tacks before LACES for “Spikes”. Sheesh. This was a tough enough puzzle, but I made it much tougher on myself. One of very few times that I have had time to correct my own errors, but I did today except that one letter.
Disappointing news regarding the WSJ puzzles. However, in order to subscribe to the NYT puzzles, you don’t have to subscribe to the paper itself. You can just subscribe to the puzzles which is like $40/year or something like 11 cents/day. Maybe the WSJ will offer something like that….
Bill – I remember you saying something similar last year about needing practice solving with pencil and paper. I guess the allure of doing them electronically is tough to overcome…
Best –
@Jeff
The WSJ might (they just said they were going to “pay-wall” the puzzles soon), but I’d seriously doubt they’d do anything short of a subscription to the paper proper. Besides, if they went this route, they’d have to seriously upgrade their online interface, their commenting/blogging, and the ability to get puzzles in offline formats (PDF, PUZ). Then they’d likely even put their whole catalog of ever-published puzzles online. (As I understand it, this is what the NYT offers for their puzzle subscription, not just access to current puzzles, but much more than that.) Obviously, the WSJ wouldn’t be able to offer *as much* of a catalog, so the price point would have to be much lower. I’d do something like $5 or $10 a year for a puzzle subscription, if they’d offer it, but a whole paper subscription would be something I’d seriously avoid, as I’m sure most would. And again, if there’s a preference, I’d throw the $40 to the NYT in a heart beat (and actually I wish I could right now) compared to the same towards the WSJ.
Just the nature of the beast. I’m sure their interest will go way down from a lot of the folks like me who both have limited time and resources.
Just for fun I looked up Bill’s comments from last April 4th – ie last year’s tourney. Start using pencil and paper!!! 🙂 :
Bill Butler says:
April 4, 2016 at 12:29 am
@Glenn
Thanks for all the cheer-leading and score-keeping for my run at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I had a great time, helped along by a better performance than last year. I learned a lot, and am now hooked. I fully intend to turn up again in 2017. It was great meeting some of the folks who actually read the LAXCrossword.com blog here (and my NYTCrossword.com blog). One big lesson for me this year is that solving with pencil and paper is way slower than solving with a keyboard. I am definitely going to be practicing solving with paper over the coming twelve months, and learning to write clearly and speedily.
I’m now off to Washington, D.C. to meet up with my two brothers who are flying in from Ireland for 9/10 days. Three retired Irishmen descending on the nation’s capital … dearie, dearie me …
Thanks for reminding about the promise that I made to myself last year, and maybe this year I’ll do something about it! Being efficient with pen and paper is essential, that’s for sure. Maybe I’ve finally learned my lesson.
@Jeff
Since you did that, I had to look up the stats from both (added 2015, obviously puzzle #7 hasn’t been posted):
Bill’s been improving. Way to go! 🙂
My newspaper has last week’s puzzle. Fastest time I’ve ever had on a Sunday!
You mean it wasn’t GAELIC????
Sheesh, got the whole thing except that.
LIEETEE looked weird, but Nyquist, Fusaichi Pegasus, Chateaugay,
Gallahadion do too.
Hrumph.
Good puzzle, laughed at some funny clues.
31:06, amazingly no errors. Happy Sunday…
Okay, so I had a couple of nits to pick with this one, plus a question. First nit: the crossword app on the LAT web site left out the division sign between “MML” and “X”. Second nit: it seems that the clue for “VCR” ought to be “DVR predecessor” rather than “DVD predecessor”. And, finally, the question: how does “All-page link” give you ON ONE? I don’t understand the context, I guess …
Dave –
Let me see if I can give you an answer that I can fit “All ON ONE page”….Only thing I can think of.
Hi folks!
Jeff, thanks for digging up Bill’s post from a year ago — fun to see!
Bill, I guess now you really DO have to put pencil to paper!!! ?
Pretty good Sunday puzzle, but I do agree, Dave, that “all – page” clue was pretty lame. I got stuck here and there along the southern border: weird horse name, and could NOT get BROWNIE!!! I kept thinking of something frozen — maybe I was craving ice cream sandwiches — finally read the clue correctly, on the third try…?
Sweet dreams~~™???
obo number 76 down sunday’s puzzle
Had a tough time on this one. Didn’t get to time and didn’t get to sit with this for a protracted period. Got 2 errors, but then couldn’t work out the lower left (17 letters) due to various things. Mainly, just stuff I didn’t know and couldn’t work out, like most of my LAT DNFs lately. Unfortunately, my time would be pretty shameful if I did get it on this one.
(Of course, I’m wondering how much using the red paper is affecting things, especially on a smaller 21×21 grid like this one. But we’ll see, especially once I get to use higher-contrasting colors out of this flyer paper).