LA Times Crossword 17 Sep 20, Thursday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Mike Peluso
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Franglais

Themed answers each comprise two words. The first is a town or river in France, and the second is an English word that sounds like the French name:

  • 62A Hybrid linguistic term that hints at the answers to 17-, 25-, 36- and 51-Across : FRANGLAIS
  • 17A Excursion in a Loire Valley town? : TOURS TOUR
  • 25A Horse of southeastern France? : RHONE ROAN
  • 36A Relative in a Cote d’Azur family? : NICE NIECE
  • 51A Swindle at a French festival? : CANNES CON

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 6m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Lestrade’s rank, in Sherlock Holmes stories: Abbr. : INSP

Inspector Lestrade is a policeman from Scotland Yard who appears in many of the “Sherlock Holmes” stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle pinched “Lestrade” from a friend of his from his university days, a medical student named Joseph Alexandre Lestrade.

9 Music rights org. : ASCAP

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed. BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) provides the same service.

14 Hose color : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

15 Ward of TV’s “FBI” : SELA

Actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently, Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast. And, Ward played Dr. Richard Kimble’s murdered wife in the 1993 film version of “The Fugitive”.

The TV crime drama “FBI” premiered in 2018, and centers on the FBI office in New York City. Star of the show is Canadian actress Missy Peregrym, who plays FBI special agent Maggie Bell.

17 Excursion in a Loire Valley town? : TOURS TOUR

Tours is the largest city in the Centre region of France. Sitting on the Loire river, it is said that the people of Tours speak the “purest” form of French in the whole country. The French spoken by a local is also said to be free of any accent.

The Loire is the longest river in France. It is so long that it drains one-fifth of the nation’s land mass. The Loire rises in the southeast, in the Cevennes mountain range, then heads north then due west, emptying into the Bay of Biscay at the city of Nantes. The Loire Valley is home to some of France’s most famous wine production, and includes the wine regions of Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and Muscadet.

20 Former trucking watchdog agcy. : ICC

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was set up in 1887 to regulate the railroads and later the trucking industry. The ICC was abolished in 1995 and its functions were absorbed by the Surface Transportation Board.

23 National capital on the Cape Verde Peninsula : DAKAR

The Republic of Senegal is a country on the far western coast of Africa. For many years Senegal was a French colony, gaining independence in 1960. The capital of Senegal is Dakar. Dakar is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, thus making it the westernmost capital on the African mainland.

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island nation in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa. The country takes its name from Cap-Vert, a peninsula in Senegal and the most westerly point on the continent. Cape Verde was an uninhabited group of islands when it was colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century.

25 Horse of southeastern France? : RHONE ROAN

The Rhône river rises in Switzerland, passes through Lake Geneva, flows through the southeast of France, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea near Arles.

A roan horse has an even mixture of white and colored hairs on the body with the head, lower legs, mane and tail having a more solid color.

31 Composer Rorem : NED

American composer Ned Rorem is famous for his musical compositions, but also for his book “Paris Diary of Ned Rorem” that was published in 1966. Rorem talks openly about his sexuality in the book, and also about the sexual orientation of others including Noël Coward, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, much to some people’s chagrin.

32 Rome’s __ Veneto : VIA

Via Veneto (actually “Via Vittorio Veneto”) is an upmarket street in Rome, and the address of many of the pricier hotels. It was made famous in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”, and is still the home to Harry’s Bar and Café de Paris, which were both featured in the movie.

36 Relative in a Cote d’Azur family? : NICE NIECE

The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera.

The Côte d’Azur is on the Mediterranean coast of France and stretches from Saint-Tropez in the west and to the Italian border in the east. In English, we often refer to the area as “the French Riviera”. It’s a little crowded for me (okay, “expensive”), especially in the summer.

40 Minute Maid Park player, to fans : ‘STRO

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

Enron Field, as it was known, is a retractable-roof ballpark that was built next to Houston’s old Union Station. Enron paid $100 million to get its name on the field, and then when the world found out what a scam Enron actually was, the Astros bought back the contract for the name, for a mere $2.1 million. The stadium became Astros Field for a few months, until the Coke people paid $170 million for a 28-year contract to rename the stadium Minute Maid Park. A good deal for the Astros, I’d say.

43 Rickety, say : UNSOUND

Something described as rickety is lacking in stability and is liable to fall down. The adjective “rickety” arose in the late 17th century and, unkindly I think, refers to the disorder known as rickets. Rickets is mainly a childhood disease that causes soft bones that can deform.

46 “Queen Sugar” creator DuVernay : AVA

Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on her husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

“Queen Sugar” is a TV drama that is based on a 2014 novel of the same name by Natalie Baszile. It’s all about three estranged siblings who reunite to save their family’s failing sugarcane farm in Louisiana.

47 Clear dishes from : BUS

A busboy is a person who assists a waiter, mainly by clearing tables. The verb “to bus” arose in the early 1900s and is probably a reference to the wheeled cart that was used to carry dishes.

50 More work : UTOPIA

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia” published in 1516 to describe an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

Sir Thomas More was an English lawyer and author who served as the Lord High Chancellor during the reign of Henry VIII. Famously, More opposed the separation of the English realm from the Roman Catholic Church, and refused to swear allegiance to the king as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. He was convicted of treason, and beheaded.

51 Swindle at a French festival? : CANNES CON

Cannes is a city on the French Riviera that is noted as host of the Cannes Film Festival. The decision to host an annual film festival was adopted by the city just before WWII. However, the festival had to wait for the end of the war for its launch in 1946.

58 Day-__ : GLO

“Dayglo” is a registered trademark used for an ink or paint that glows when exposed to a black light in a darkened room. When Dayglo paint is viewed in daylight the colors can look particularly vivid because they respond to the UV light that is present in sunlight.

59 “Dust-colored,” in Hindustani : KHAKI

“Khaki” is an Urdu word that translates literally as “dusty”. The word was adopted for its current use as the name of a fabric by the British cavalry in India in the mid-1800s.

“Hindustan” is a historical name for the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.

62 Hybrid linguistic term that hints at the answers to 17-, 25-, 36- and 51-Across : FRANGLAIS

We imported the French term “franglais” into English. The term was coined in France by those objecting to a perceived overuse of English terms in French, e.g. “le week-end”, “le brunch”, “le parking”. We tend to use “Franglais” in English in a humorous sense, describing the use of English terms to fill gaps in one’s knowledge of French, e.g. “Je suis tired” instead of “Je suis fatigué”.

66 “Desperate Housewives” character : BREE

The “Desperate Housewives” character Bree Van de Kamp is played by Marcia Cross.

The TV drama “Desperate Housewives” ran for eight seasons. During pre-production, the show was called “Wisteria Lane” and then “The Secret Lives of Housewives”. The “desperate housewives” lived on the fictional Wisteria Lane in the fictional town of Fairview in the fictional Eagle State. That’s a lot of fiction …

67 Set of beliefs : CREDO

A creed or credo is a confession of faith, or a system of belief or principles. “Credo” is Latin for “I believe”.

68 Old-time dagger : SNEE

A “snee” is a type of dagger formerly used by Scottish highlanders.

Down

2 Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius : ECOCARS

The Leaf is an electric car made by Nissan that was introduced in 2010. The model name is an acronym standing for “leading environmentally-friendly affordable car”.

The Toyota Prius is still the most fuel-efficient, gasoline-powered car sold in the US, according to the EPA. The name “Prius” is a Latin word meaning “ahead, leading”. In the US we pronounce the name “pree-us”, but across the Atlantic it’s pronounced “pry-us”. According to Toyota, the plural of “Prius” is “Prii”.

3 River through Reno : TRUCKEE

The Truckee River is the only outlet of the magnificent Lake Tahoe in the High Sierra of California/Nevada. The Truckee River flows northeast through Reno, Nevada and empties into Pyramid Lake.

4 Scand. locale : EUR

Strictly speaking, Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe that covers the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The broader region that includes Finland and Iceland is referred to locally as “the Nordic countries”.

6 Synthetic rubber used in waders : NEOPRENE

Neoprene is the trade name given by DuPont to polychloroprene, a synthetic rubber made by polymerizing chloroprene. Neoprene is perhaps most-readily associated with the manufacture of wetsuits. The version used in wetsuits is foamed neoprene, a material containing gas cells that provide heat insulation.

8 “Islands in the Stream” duettist : PARTON

Dolly Parton is a country music singer-songwriter, as well as an actress. Parton has written over 3,000 songs, my favorite of which is “I Will Always Love You”, which was a huge hit for herself and for Whitney Houston.

“Islands in the Stream” is a 1983 duet recorded by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and written by the Bee Gees. The song’s title was taken from a 1970 Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name.

10 Man-goat of myth : SATYR

The satyrs of Greek mythology came with a very high sex drive. They are the “rude” male subjects drawn on the side of old Greek vases. The nubile maidens known as nymphs were often an object of attention for the satyrs.

11 Tough mutt : CUR

The original use of the term “mutt” was for a foolish person, and was probably short for “muttonhead”. The usage evolved into today’s “mongrel dog”.

12 Japanese carrier that sponsors a major LPGA event : ANA

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline, one that is now larger in size than the nation’s flag carrier Japan Airlines (JAL).

The ANA Inspiration is one of the five major championships of women’s professional golf. The tournament was co-founded in 1972 by entertainer Dinah Shore, and is still sometimes referred to as “the Dinah Shore”.

13 Box score abbr. : PTS

Points (pts.)

In the world of sports, a box score lists the score of a game as well as achievements of the competing teams and team members.

18 Low clouds : STRATI

Stratus (plural “strati”) clouds are very common, and as they are wider than they are tall and flat along the bottom, we might just see them as haze in a featureless sky above us. Stratus clouds are basically the same as fog, but some distance above the ground. Indeed, many stratus clouds are formed when morning fog lifts into the air as the ground heats up.

22 “__ of Us”: Joan Osborne hit : ONE

Joan Osborne is a blues singer who is best known for her 1995 hit “One of Us”, a song dealing with one’s relationship with God.

28 Velvet feature : NAP

Velvet can be described as a three-dimensional fabric as opposed to a flat fabric. Velvet weaving is a complex process, involving the production of two thicknesses at the same time. The two thicknesses are separated with a blade, which leaves the characteristic nap or pile on one side of each of the resulting fabrics.

30 London’s Old __ : VIC

The Old Vic is a very famous theater (or should I say “theatre”?) in London. It was previously known as the Royal Coburg Theatre and then the Royal Victorian Theatre (giving it the current name “The Old Vic”). The theater owes a lot of its fame and standing to the fact that it housed the National Theater of Great Britain after it was founded in 1963 by Sir Laurence Olivier. Today the National Theater has new, modern premises, but the Old Vic Theatre Company still garners a lot of attention.

34 Serengeti bovine : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch meaning “wild beast”.

The Serengeti is a region in Africa located in northern Tanzania and southwest Kenya. The name “Serengeti” comes from the Maasai language and means “Endless Plains”.

38 Richmond winter hrs. : EST

Eastern Standard Time (EST)

The city of Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The original town was named in 1737 after the English town of Richmond that is now part of London. British planter William Byrd II thought that view of the James River was reminiscent of the view of the River Thames from England’s Richmond Hill.

39 Sounding like a dove : COOING

Taxonomically, doves and pigeons are the only members of the order Columbidae. The terms “dove” and “pigeon” are often used interchangeably. Scientifically speaking, dove species tend to be smaller than pigeon species. Colloquially though, many refer to doves as the white or nearly white species in the family.

40 Cul-de-__ : SAC

Even though “cul-de-sac” can indeed mean “bottom-of-the-bag” in French, the term “cul-de-sac” is of English origin (the use of “cul” in French is actually quite rude). The term was introduced in aristocratic circles at a time when it was considered very fashionable to speak French. Dead-end streets in France are usually signposted with just a symbol and no accompanying words, but if words are included they are “voie sans issue”, meaning “way without exit”.

41 FDR power program : TVA

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has to be one of America’s great success stories when it comes to economic development. Created in 1933, the TVA spearheaded economic development in the Tennessee Valley at the height of the Great Depression. Central to the success was the federally-funded construction of flood-control and electricity-generation facilities.

44 Falls for lovers? : NIAGARA

For well over a century now, the twin cities of Niagara Falls, New York and Niagara Falls, Ontario have been popular spots for honeymooners. Niagara Falls got a boost as a honeymoon destination in 1953 with the release of “Niagara”, a film noir starring Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotton.

47 1800s Mexican leader Juárez : BENITO

Benito Juárez served five times as President of Mexico, taking office for the first time in 1858, and leaving office for the last time in 1872. A number of locations across the country, and beyond, have been named in his honor, including the city of Ciudad Juárez that sits just across the US-Mexico border from El Paso.

48 Flash drive port : USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and deal with electrical power through those connections.

53 Longtime Utah senator Hatch : ORRIN

Orrin Hatch is a former Republican Senator from Utah. Hatch is also quite the musician, and plays the piano, violin and organ. He has composed various compositions, including a song called “Heal Our Land” that was played at the 2005 inauguration of President George W. Bush.

57 Massachusetts motto starter : ENSE …

The motto of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is “Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem”, a Latin phrase that can be translated as “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty”. The quotation is from a passage written by English politician Algernon Sidney who was executed for treason by King Charles II.

59 Louisville-based fast-food company : KFC

The famous “Colonel” of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fame was Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur from Henryville, Indiana. Although not really a “Colonel”, Sanders did indeed serve in the military. He enlisted in the Army as a private in 1906 at the age of 16, lying about his age. He spent the whole of his time in the Army as a soldier in Cuba. It was much later, in the 1930s, that Sanders went into the restaurant business making his specialty deep-fried chicken. By 1935 his reputation as a “character” had grown, so much so that Governor Ruby Laffoon of Kentucky gave Sanders the honorary title of “Kentucky Colonel”. Later in the fifties, Sanders developed his trademark look with the white suit, string tie, mustache and goatee. When Sanders was 65 however, his business failed and in stepped Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s. Thomas simplified the Sanders menu, cutting it back from over a hundred items to just fried chicken and salads. That was enough to launch KFC into the fast food business. Sanders sold the US franchise in 1964 for just $2 million and moved to Canada to grow KFC north of the border. He died in 1980 and is buried in Louisville, Kentucky. The Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices is indeed a trade secret. Apparently there is only one copy of the recipe, a handwritten piece of paper, written in pencil and signed by Colonel Sanders. Since 2009, the piece of paper has been locked in a computerized vault surrounded with motion detectors and security cameras.

61 Nolan Ryan, notably : ACE

In baseball, the best starting pitcher on a team is known as an ace. There is a suggestion that the use of “ace” in this context is a reference to 19th-century star pitcher Asa Brainard, whose nickname was “Ace”.

Nolan Ryan is famous for having more career strikeouts that any other baseball pitcher. However, he also holds the record for the most career walks and wild pitches. Another record that Ryan holds is the most no-hitters, a total of seven over his career.

63 Dumbbell abbr. : LBS

The unit of mass that we know today as a pound is descended from the old Roman unit of weight known as a “libra”. That “libra” connection is why we abbreviate “pound” to “lb”. The name “pound” comes from the Latin “pondo” meaning “weight”. Our term “ounce” (abbreviated to “oz.”) comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a Roman “libra”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Big bash : FETE
5 Lestrade’s rank, in Sherlock Holmes stories: Abbr. : INSP
9 Music rights org. : ASCAP
14 Hose color : ECRU
15 Ward of TV’s “FBI” : SELA
16 Rattle : DAUNT
17 Excursion in a Loire Valley town? : TOURS TOUR
19 Others, to Pablo : OTRAS
20 Former trucking watchdog agcy. : ICC
21 Newscast attention-getter : TOP STORY
23 National capital on the Cape Verde Peninsula : DAKAR
25 Horse of southeastern France? : RHONE ROAN
29 Improve, as a highway : REPAVE
31 Composer Rorem : NED
32 Rome’s __ Veneto : VIA
33 Going down : SETTING
35 Way off the highway : RAMP
36 Relative in a Cote d’Azur family? : NICE NIECE
40 Minute Maid Park player, to fans : ‘STRO
43 Rickety, say : UNSOUND
46 “Queen Sugar” creator DuVernay : AVA
47 Clear dishes from : BUS
50 More work : UTOPIA
51 Swindle at a French festival? : CANNES CON
54 “Because __ so!!” : I SAID
56 Relieve : UNBURDEN
58 Day-__ : GLO
59 “Dust-colored,” in Hindustani : KHAKI
62 Hybrid linguistic term that hints at the answers to 17-, 25-, 36- and 51-Across : FRANGLAIS
64 Aspect of a problem : FACET
65 Accommodates : FITS
66 “Desperate Housewives” character : BREE
67 Set of beliefs : CREDO
68 Old-time dagger : SNEE
69 Lip : SASS

Down

1 Reeking : FETID
2 Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius : ECOCARS
3 River through Reno : TRUCKEE
4 Scand. locale : EUR
5 Ratio phrase : IS TO
6 Synthetic rubber used in waders : NEOPRENE
7 Winter weather aftermath : SLUSH
8 “Islands in the Stream” duettist : PARTON
9 Loved : ADORED
10 Man-goat of myth : SATYR
11 Tough mutt : CUR
12 Japanese carrier that sponsors a major LPGA event : ANA
13 Box score abbr. : PTS
18 Low clouds : STRATI
22 “__ of Us”: Joan Osborne hit : ONE
24 City addr. info : APT NO
26 Eggs : OVA
27 Point : AIM
28 Velvet feature : NAP
30 London’s Old __ : VIC
34 Serengeti bovine : GNU
35 Enlists again : RE-UPS
37 Flood : INUNDATE
38 Richmond winter hrs. : EST
39 Sounding like a dove : COOING
40 Cul-de-__ : SAC
41 FDR power program : TVA
42 Was a candidate : RAN
44 Falls for lovers? : NIAGARA
45 Newsstand buys : DAILIES
47 1800s Mexican leader Juárez : BENITO
48 Flash drive port : USB
49 Shoeshine targets : SCUFFS
52 Microwaved : NUKED
53 Longtime Utah senator Hatch : ORRIN
55 They’re just what the doctor ordered : DOSES
57 Massachusetts motto starter : ENSE …
59 Louisville-based fast-food company : KFC
60 Laugh syllable : HAR
61 Nolan Ryan, notably : ACE
63 Dumbbell abbr. : LBS

15 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 17 Sep 20, Thursday”

  1. Took longer than normal for a Thursday.. A very ‘frenchy-spanish’ crossword puzzle?? Had 2 errors. TRUCKEI and SITTING instead of SETTING.

    UTOPIA got me perplexed until I realized More was an author.

  2. No errors, but like Anon Mike I had Utopia right, but didn’t know why
    until I read Bill’s explanation. Clever clue I guess.

  3. DNF. The 4 box square in the NE corner I left unfinished. Very difficult for me otherwise although I finished the rest via the crosses.

    16A: Always knew that DAUNT meant the preventing of an action that you wished to occur but was not aware of the emotional aspect for the word so the clue ‘Rattle’ didn’t clue me in.

    50A: In my mind, I always spelled Saint Thomas More last name as ‘Moore’ so I was never going to get it via the clue but eventually answered it thru crosses. ‘A Man for All Seasons’ is a great movie of his life and Paul Scofield was tremendous in the role.

    @Allen Dickerson from yesterday
    This is the device we use on my HazMat team, it has thousands of Toxic Industrial Chemicals in its library, a true Tricorder progenitor.

    https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/FIRSTDEFENDERRMX#/FIRSTDEFENDERRMX

    @Nonny: Terribly sorry to hear about your brother’s passing. My condolences.

  4. Once I got Nice niece I figured out the theme and finished the puzzle. But why constructors continually use French words and themes as much as they do is beyond me. I too, had trouble with utopia even though I had most of it through the crosses. Never thought of the author. Interesting clue for khaki as well.

  5. 8:19, no errors, no complaints. Clever. Fun.

    Thanks to all for the sympathetic responses yesterday. It appears that the coronavirus was not responsible for my brother’s condition, though his sudden decline remains something of a mystery.

    So … be safe, all … 😳.

    1. I suppose it’s a little comfort that COVID-19 wasn’t responsible. Regardless, losing a sibling is terrible thing to go through. Please accept my condolences.

    2. Hi Nonny. So sorry to hear about your brother. I have an older brother who has such severe back pain that he stays cooped up in his apartment 24/7/365. I did kid with him when this whole Covid19 thing blew up about his being an early adopter of social distancing, but his pain is really an unfortunate situation. I will say thank DOG for Amazon and Instacart, as I can send him everything he needs to survive as he has no computer nor smart phone (or TV for that matter).

  6. Like Several others, I also didn’t get the “More” reference. Also thought it was Sir Thomas Moore. Used more of the downs until I got the “French Connection”, having just a week ago told a friend just starting crosswords that “Nice” can sometimes be a misdirect and refer to the French town.

    In the mid 80s I lived in Belgium for a couple years, working in an English speaking office (with the office staff being native speakers), so I made extensive use of “Franglais” when out and about. My favorite story about my various language miscues was when I went into a flower shop and asked – Je voudrais une “corsage” (I would like a corsage – corsage sounds French, right??). I got VERY strange looks until I asked the question a bit more literally about little flowers and where a woman wears them. When I asked in the office about my miscue they just laughed uproariously at me. Come to learn that in French corsage means “bodice”, i.e. a nightgown. One should always go into a flower shop and ask for a woman’s nightgown.

  7. Well, I’ve never been to France
    But I’d kind of like to go there…
    (with apologies to Three Dog Night and others)

    Puzzles wasn’t all that easy, but then again my heart just wasn’t in it today.

  8. More work good clue but a stretch…utopia good thing it filled in for me.Did learn a new word Franglais…good for an old guy…fun puzzle

  9. 11:26 1 error

    I saw a theme in the long answers, but it’s more like false cognates than Franglish.

    By the way, the seal of the state of Massachusetts is all kinds of messed up.

  10. This was much easier for me than yesterday’s, though I Googled for OSTRAS and ASTROS. The theme helped me get through many words I didn’t actually know: AVA, BREE, ANA, PTS, BENITO, ENSE.

    I think they use so many French words because one ends up learning them from the literature we often read in school. This hasn’t happened with Spanish, the language we should be learning now.

    1. >French words
      I think the use of French is a lot because of the Northeastern US bias that always happens in these crosswords. Remember that Quebec is but a short hop north of New York State. Even when I was in high school, I could have never gotten exposed to French (or a whole host of other things, but that’s the bane of being in a small town school), but did get exposed to two years of Spanish in the total of my education, which has a far likelier application for all the Mexicans out and about.

Comments are closed.