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Constructed by: Jeff Eddings
Edited by: Rich Norris
Today’s Reveal Answer: Club Sandwich
Themed answers each include a kind of CLUB as a hidden word:
- 60A Order served with toothpicks … and what each of the other four longest answers is? : CLUB SANDWICH
- 17A Alternative medicine treatment : AROMATHERAPY (hiding “MATH”)
- 25A Publicity packages : PRESS KITS (hiding “SKI”)
- 36A “Night on Bald Mountain” inspiration : WITCHES’ SABBATH (hiding “CHESS”)
- 52A Perspicacious : EAGLE-EYED (hiding “GLEE”)
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 8m 02s
Bill’s errors: 2
- CYLON (Xylon)
- RUN-DMC (Run-DMX!!!)
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
14 Principle : TENET
A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he holds”.
16 Bars often scanned, for short : UPC
Universal Price Code or Universal Product Code (UPC)
19 Masters figure : PAR
Golf’s Masters Tournament is the first of the four major championships in the annual calendar, taking place in the first week of April each year. It is played at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, and has a number of traditions. One is that the winner is awarded the famous “green jacket”, but he only gets to keep it for a year and must return it to the club after twelve months.
21 Staple of African food : TARO
Taro is a root vegetable that is grown for its edible underground plant stems (corms). The English name “taro” is borrowed from the Maori language of New Zealand. The same plant is known as “gabi” in the Philippines, “arbi” in much of India, and “jimbi” in parts of Africa where Swahili is spoken.
22 Poet Gorman who read at President Biden’s inauguration : AMANDA
Amanda Gorman is a poet and activist who, in 2017, was the first person named as the National Youth Poet Laureate. Famously, Gorman recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Biden in 2021.
31 Tijuana titles : SENORAS
The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).
Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.
32 FEMA supplies : COTS
Federal emergency management has been structured for over 200 years, but what we know today as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979 in an Executive Order issued by President Jimmy Carter.
33 High-end Apple line : MAC PRO
The Mac Pro is the most powerful line of computers made by Apple. The level below the Mac Pro is the iMac, Apple’s all-in-one line of desktops that is most popular. The Mac Mini is Apple’s least powerful desktop, and the smallest. The Mini uses mainly laptop components.
36 “Night on Bald Mountain” inspiration : WITCHES’ SABBATH (hiding “CHESS”)
A Witches’ Sabbath is a nocturnal ritual involving the gathering of witches and those participating in witchcraft. The phrase “Witches’ Sabbath” really only gained traction in the early 1900s.
“Night on Bald Mountain” is a famous tone poem written by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. The original work wasn’t very popular. Five years after Mussorgsky died, fellow composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov rearranged the work, describing it as a “fantasy for orchestra”. It is the Rimsky-Korsakov version that we hear today.
43 Take in a heist : LOOT
“Loot” is the name given to anything taken by dishonesty or force, particularly during war. The term came into English from the Hindi “lut” meaning “goods taken from an enemy”.
52 Perspicacious : EAGLE-EYED (hiding “GLEE”)
A glee club is a choir group, usually of males, that sings short songs known as “glees”. A glee is a song scored for three or more voices that is performed unaccompanied.
To be perspicacious is to be very discerning. The term “perspicacity” comes from the Latin “per” meaning “through” and “specere” meaning “to look at”.
57 Lengthy account : LITANY
We use the term “litany” in general speech to describe a sizable series of items. This meaning comes from the older religious use of the same term, to describe a series of prayers that usually involves a repeated response from the congregation.
59 “Washington Week” airer : PBS
“Washington Week” is a public affairs TV program that has been on the air since 1967. The show features a moderated panel discussion between 2-4 Washington-based journalists.
60 Order served with toothpicks … and what each of the other four longest answers is? : CLUB SANDWICH
The club sandwich is a double-decker affair with three layers of bread and two layers of filling. This style of sandwich has been around since the end of the 19th century, and some say it was invented at an exclusive gambling “club” in Saratoga Springs, New York.
67 Phillips 66 brand : CONOCO
The Conoco-branded gasoline stations have their roots in the Conoco petroleum company that was founded in 1875. “Conoco” stands for “Continental Oil and Transportation Company”.
Phillips 66 is a Houston-based oil and gas company. The Phillips Petroleum Company was founded in 1917, and “Phillips 66” gasoline was introduced in 1927. Apparently, the “66” was chosen for several reasons. The gasoline’s specific gravity was about 66, the car testing the fuel traveled at 66 mph, and the road test took place on US Route 66.
68 Former first daughter : MALIA
Malia Obama is the eldest of Barack and Michelle Obama’s two daughters. She graduated from the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., the same school that Chelsea Clinton attended. Malia took a gap year after leaving high school, and spent the 2016 summer as an intern in the US Embassy in Madrid, before heading off to Harvard in 2017.
69 Exobiology subj. : ETS
Exobiology is the study of life in the universe, and central to the work of exobiologists is the search for life beyond earth. A fascinating field, I would imagine …
71 “Battlestar Galactica” enemy : CYLON
Cylons are a race of robots that show up as antagonists in the “Battlestar Galactica” sci-fi franchise. The robotic race was the creation of a reptilian race also known as “Cylons”. The original Cylons were overcome by the robots that they themselves created.
Down
3 Tokyo’s Yoko : ONO
Yoko Ono was born in 1933 in Tokyo into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Yoko’s father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.
4 Like “The Handmaid’s Tale,” to many critics (but not to the author) : FEMINIST
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is a 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It is a set in a dystopian New England of the near future, after the overthrow of the US government. The central character is named Offred, who is a “handmaid” forced to bear children for the male ruling class. The novel was adapted into a highly successful TV series of the same name, starring Elizabeth Moss as Offred.
6 Squirt : TWERP
“Twerp” and “pipsqueak” are both terms used for someone who is insignificant and contemptible.
8 Thurman of “Batman & Robin” : UMA
Uma Thurman started her working career as a fashion model, at the age of 15. She appeared in her first movies at 17, with her most acclaimed early role being Cécile de Volanges in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons”. Thurman’s career really took off when she played the gangster’s moll Mia in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. My favorite of all Thurman’s movies is “The Truth About Cats & Dogs”, a less acclaimed romcom released in 1996. She took a few years off from acting from 1998 until 2002 following the birth of her first child. It was Tarantino who relaunched her career, giving her the lead in the “Kill Bill” films.
“Batman & Robin” is a 1997 superhero movie, with George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell in the title roles. Helping out the good guys in the film is Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone). The villains of the piece are Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman). I think it’s fair to say that “Batman & Robin” bombed at the box office …
10 Word with glass or ware : SPY-
Spyware is software that is installed on a computer to gather information without the owner’s knowledge. Nasty stuff …
11 Worker with a host family : AU PAIR
An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working and living as part of a host family. The term “au pair” is French, and means “on a par”, indicating that an au pair is treated as an equal in the host family.
12 Helen’s homeland : SPARTA
Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece that was famous for her military might. Spartan children had a tough upbringing, and newborn babies were bathed in wine to see if the child was strong enough to survive. Every child was presented to a council of elders that decided if the baby was suitable for rearing. Those children deemed too puny were executed by tossing them into a chasm. We’ve been using the term “spartan” to describe something self-disciplined or austere since the 1600s.
According to Greek mythology, Helen (later “Helen of Troy”) was the daughter of Zeus and Leda. When Helen reached the age of marriage, she had many suitors as she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. Menelaus was chosen as her husband, and he took her back to his home of Sparta. Paris, a Trojan prince, seduced Helen, as she eloped with him and travelled to Troy. This event sparked the Trojan War that waged between the city of Troy and Greece. Because of this war, Helen was said to have “the face that launched a thousand ships”. And because of this phrase, it has been suggested, probably by author Isaac Asimov, that the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship is one “millihelen”.
15 Pop duo __ & Him : SHE
She & Him is a musical duo comprising guitarist M. Ward and vocalist Zooey Deschanel, the noted actress. Ward and Deschanel met on the film set for “The Go-Getter” in 2007, and got together to sing over the film’s end credits.
21 Ring ref’s decision : TKO
Technical knockout (TKO)
23 “Where’s my Fancy Feast?” : MEOW!
Fancy Feast is a brand of cat food that was introduced by the Carnation Company in 1982.
24 Bubbly brand : ASTI
Asti is a sparkling white wine from the Piedmont region of Italy that is named for the town of Asti around which the wine is produced. The wine used to be called Asti Spumante, and it had a very bad reputation as a “poor man’s champagne”. The “Spumante” was dropped in a marketing attempt at rebranding associated with a reduction in the amount of residual sugar in the wine.
26 Land bordering los Pirineos : ESPANA
In Spanish, “los Pirineos” (the Pyrenees) is a mountain range straddling the border between “Francia” (France) and “España” (Spain).
The Pyrenees is a mountain range that runs along the border between Spain and France. Nestled between the two countries, high in the mountains, is the lovely country of Andorra, an old haunt of my family during skiing season …
27 Belgrade native : SERB
Serbia is a landlocked country in southeast Europe. After WWII, Serbia became one of several states making up the nation called Yugoslavia. Serbia became independent again in 2006 as Yugoslavia broke up after the declaration of independence by Montenegro.
Belgrade is the capital city of Serbia. The name “Belgrade” translates into “White City”.
28 Classist type : SNOB
Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.
34 Silent speech syst. : ASL
It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.
35 CBS series with multiple spin-offs : CSI
I quite enjoy the “CSI” franchise of television shows, all except “CSI: Miami”. I find the character played by David Caruso to be extremely annoying. “CSI: Miami” was cancelled in 2012. No loss …
37 First Nations tribe : CREE
The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans on the continent. In the US, Montana is home to most of the Cree nation. They live on a reservation shared with the Ojibwe people. In Canada, most of the Cree live in Manitoba.
“First Nations” is a term used in Canada describing the ethnicity of Native Americans who are neither Inuit nor Métis people.
39 Common dumpster spot : ALLEYWAY
“Dumpster” is one of those words that we use generically, even though it is actually a brand name. The original “Dumpster” was patented by the Dempster Brothers of Knoxville, Tennessee. “Dumpster” is derived from “dump” and “Dempster”.
44 Airport safety org. : TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.
46 Peter or Jessica : RABBIT
Beatrix Potter was an English author famous for the children’s books she wrote and illustrated. The most famous character in her stories was Peter Rabbit, whose sisters were Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail. Potter put her talent as an artist to good use in the scientific world as well. She recorded many images of lichens and fungi as seen through her microscope. As a result of her work, she was respected as an expert mycologist.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is a clever 1988 film featuring cartoon characters that interact directly with human beings. The most memorable cartoon characters have to be goofy Roger Rabbit, and vampish Jessica Rabbit. The film is based on a novel written by Gary K. Wolf called “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” There is a prequel floating around that has never been produced, which is titled “Who Discovered Roger Rabbit”.
51 ’80s hip-hop pioneers : RUN-DMC
Run-DMC was a hip hop group from Queens, New York. The trio took its name from two of the group’s members: Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.
53 Macaroni type : ELBOW
In many cases, the name given to a type of pasta comes from its shape. However, the name macaroni comes from the type of dough used to make the noodles. Here in the US, macaroni is usually elbow-shaped, but it doesn’t have to be.
54 Brake parts : DISCS
The drum brake was invented in 1902 by Louis Renault (founder of Renault, the automobile company). In a drum brake, there is a set of brake shoes that usually press on the inner surface of the drum to slow down rotation. Nowadays, the disc brake system is more popular, a design which uses brake pads instead of brake shoes.
58 Yin/yang principle : TAO
The name of the Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Taoism signifies the true nature of the world.
The yin and yang can be illustrated using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine. The yin can also be associated with the moon, while the yang is associated with the sun.
60 Loops in, briefly : CCS
I wonder if the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle? A kind blog reader pointed out to me a while back that the abbreviation has evolved and taken on the meaning “courtesy copy” in our modern world.
61 Texter’s chuckle : LOL
Laugh out loud (LOL)
64 AFL partner : CIO
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded in 1886, making it one of the first federations of unions in the country. Over time the AFL became dominated by craft unions, unions representing skilled workers of particular disciplines. In the early thirties, John L. Lewis led a movement within the AFL to organize workers by industry, believing this would be more effective for the members. But the craft unions refused to budge, so Lewis set up a rival federation of unions in 1932, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The two federations became bitter rivals for over two decades until finally merging in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO.
65 Solo of “Star Wars” : HAN
Han Solo is the space smuggler in “Star Wars” played by Harrison Ford. Ford was originally hired by George Lucas just to read lines for actors during auditions for “Star Wars”, but over time Lucas became convinced that Ford was right for the pivotal role of Han Solo.
Read on, or …
… return to top of page
Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Disappearing sounds : POOFS
6 Bridge support : TRUSS
11 __ rule : AS A
14 Principle : TENET
15 Arrived at a dock, perhaps, with “to” : SWAM UP …
16 Bars often scanned, for short : UPC
17 Alternative medicine treatment : AROMATHERAPY (hiding “MATH”)
19 Masters figure : PAR
20 “Where are you?” response, perhaps : IN HERE
21 Staple of African food : TARO
22 Poet Gorman who read at President Biden’s inauguration : AMANDA
25 Publicity packages : PRESS KITS (hiding “SKI”)
29 Puts up a fight : RESISTS
31 Tijuana titles : SENORAS
32 FEMA supplies : COTS
33 High-end Apple line : MAC PRO
36 “Night on Bald Mountain” inspiration : WITCHES’ SABBATH (hiding “CHESS”)
42 Arrive, as clouds : ROLL IN
43 Take in a heist : LOOT
45 Market in advance : PRE-SELL
49 Stuffy : AIRLESS
52 Perspicacious : EAGLE-EYED (hiding “GLEE”)
55 “¿Cuánto __?”: “How much is it?” : CUESTA
56 More than listen : OBEY
57 Lengthy account : LITANY
59 “Washington Week” airer : PBS
60 Order served with toothpicks … and what each of the other four longest answers is? : CLUB SANDWICH
66 English __ : LIT
67 Phillips 66 brand : CONOCO
68 Former first daughter : MALIA
69 Exobiology subj. : ETS
70 Holds up : SLOWS
71 “Battlestar Galactica” enemy : CYLON
Down
1 School support gp. : PTA
2 Poetic adverb : O’ER
3 Tokyo’s Yoko : ONO
4 Like “The Handmaid’s Tale,” to many critics (but not to the author) : FEMINIST
5 Arena section : STANDS
6 Squirt : TWERP
7 Less cooked : RARER
8 Thurman of “Batman & Robin” : UMA
9 “Yo, what’s new?” : ‘SUP
10 Word with glass or ware : SPY-
11 Worker with a host family : AU PAIR
12 Helen’s homeland : SPARTA
13 To the opposite side of : ACROSS
15 Pop duo __ & Him : SHE
18 Unnamed object : THAT
21 Ring ref’s decision : TKO
22 Hoops three-point line, e.g. : ARC
23 “Where’s my Fancy Feast?” : MEOW!
24 Bubbly brand : ASTI
26 Land bordering los Pirineos : ESPANA
27 Belgrade native : SERB
28 Classist type : SNOB
30 Foul : SMELLY
34 Silent speech syst. : ASL
35 CBS series with multiple spin-offs : CSI
37 First Nations tribe : CREE
38 Doughnut __ : HOLE
39 Common dumpster spot : ALLEYWAY
40 Ring sites : TOES
41 Entertain : HOST
44 Airport safety org. : TSA
45 Folks : PEOPLE
46 Peter or Jessica : RABBIT
47 Expels : EGESTS
48 Calculating : SLY
50 “Leave it to me” : I CAN
51 ’80s hip-hop pioneers : RUN-DMC
53 Macaroni type : ELBOW
54 Brake parts : DISCS
58 Yin/yang principle : TAO
60 Loops in, briefly : CCS
61 Texter’s chuckle : LOL
62 One in Mexico : UNO
63 Far less than 100% : ILL
64 AFL partner : CIO
65 Solo of “Star Wars” : HAN
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I thought the club in 25 Across would be PRESS club.
The clubs is “sandwiched” into the answer, so it needs to be somewhere in the middle.
The problem with press clubs is that press doesn’t cover two words and is not sandwiched (hidden) in the answer. That being said it was a lousy clue.
8:36, 1 typo.
@Lou lu
It happens, but more a function of mental fatigue than anything else, and definitely notice a limit on doing any kind of crossword puzzles of any difficulty.
Got some responses to other things, but not really in the mood to deal with all the sanctimonious moralizing that tends to center around crosswords in this place today. (Bad stuff otherwise)
@Glenn
Thanks for taking the time to comment on my question.
An especially taking the time to Corky’s questions. I wanted to ask but didn’t want to bother you.
Be Well
10:09
The theme felt more like a meta that you figured out after you’re done.
Nice to see AMANDA Gorman.
Margaret Atwood also doesn’t like to be told that she’s writing science fiction, though there are plenty of SF readers who appreciate her work.
Two errors today; spelled cuesta (caesta)wrong so had “randmc” instead of rundmc. Neither was familiar to me so I’m not surprised.
Never did get the theme and probably never would without Bill’s
explanation.
I had the same two mistakes as Bill. Rundmc, whatever the heck that is and cylon, whatever the heck that is. How people can do these puzzles so fast is beyond me. I mean, do people really look at “Helen’s homeland” and IMMEDIATELY know what Helen they’re talking about and where she was from without even having to stop to think about it? Or even “disappearing sounds” — oh, that’s poofs, again without having to stop to think about it. Sorry, I just found out I have my fifth melanoma and that’s made me a bit cranky. Grrr! Oh, 23 minutes.
Sorry to hear about your melanoma, Corky. I hope it’s at least caught early for a good chance at successful treatment.
Many times, I don’t know an answer as a factoid, so I skip it and work on the intersecting answers. Oftentimes, getting just a few of the letters, especially the beginning letters, will clue me in to what the answer is and I can then fill in the rest. The two examples you gave were just like that for me, plus a few others.
Solving on a computer will go quicker than writing on paper (paper is my usual mode).
@Corky
“How people can do these puzzles so fast is beyond me.”
Mainly there’s an element of doing puzzles. You do more, you get more proficient at telling how many letters there are without stopping and counting (I did that starting out). You get better at locating items in the grid and scanning the clue set.
Then mainly it’s a matter of free association of words probably more than factoid recall. Find what you know. Try out different meanings for the words presented in the clue. Then work through the rest the best you can. It’s not so much whether you know a clue right out, it’s using all the information there from the grid too. So in that sense, it’s not knowing answers to the clues, it’s knowing that the answer is a thing. Like if a clue references a song, I don’t have to know all of Beyonce’s collection and recall that information to come up with Beyonce as an answer, I just need to know that Beyonce is a thing. Of course, no harm with being well read enough to know more things are a thing.
Then you look at the grid and other information present in the clue (singular, plural?) to make some educated guesses and trial them out. Words more or less have a few basic rules with a number of exceptions that you can utilize to trial balloon certain letters in certain spots if you get stuck.
Hopefully at some point, you can have the clue snap with the answer and have something be confirmed and make sense to you (kind of where the topic above lies along). A lot of times, crosswords are written with some pretty bad cluing that doesn’t let you be certain a clue describes a word you have in the grid, so a certain clarity and accuracy is left to be desired.
” do people really look at … without even having to stop to think about it?”
In a lot of respects, yes. [Helen’s homeland] being SPARTA wasn’t something I knew, but I gathered Helen was probably a historical figure given the context and then I thought of Helen of Troy and given the letters present it was probably looking for an old Greek city-state. SPARTA was the only choice given the number of other letters available in the grid at the time. Of course, not knowing it for sure makes that a requirement since the clue really isn’t that specific to weed out between SPARTA and say ATHENS.
Of course, free association tends to snap right to specifics more on Monday’s than later in the week. Then as mentioned, it can help when you’re entry speed is good and you’re not having to erase anything (e.g. online)
Bravo! Right on! I agree with everything you’ve said here, right up to to words “pretty bad cluing”, which I seem to see a lot less of than you do (and I think the point at which one thinks one sees bad cluing is pretty subjective).
What I really object to on this blog (in my own sanctimonious, moralizing way 😜) is posts like “There’s no such word!” (when there is), “That’s not in the dictionary! (when it is), “Nobody ever says that!” (when it, nevertheless, can be said), “There’s a lot of horrible cluing in this puzzle” (when I didn’t see any), and “This puzzle was complete ****!” (when, in fact, I, and probably a lot of others who don’t post here, enjoyed it).
It never fails to amaze me that would-be solvers become so angry with a puzzle they find challenging. I have a friend from college who is smart as a whip, with at least two MS degrees and a PhD; he loves words, he loves puns, but he gets horribly frustrated with crossword puzzles because he’s lousy at doing them; obviously, he shouldn’t take this as a blow to his ego, but, mysteriously, he does. Weird … 😳.
I gave up on chess a long time ago, because I had absolutely no talent for it … but I don’t hate chess.
I have trouble with some puzzles and I don’t care for the feeling, either, but I can accept it and move on.
I like crosswords and I like puzzles. I’m pretty good at both. I do have a sense of what’s reasonable and what’s not and don’t have a problem pointing out when a puzzlemaker tries a bit too hard. It’s one thing to have obscure words and difficult clues. It’s another to get so far out in left field that even after the puzzle is filled in, the connection between the clue and the answer is still obscure. A clue, by definition is supposed to give an indication of the correct answer–if it can only be used as a check once the correct answer is already known–and even that use is of questionable value, then it’s clearly not a clue. I don’t really know what it is.
I didn’t understand the theme.
The theme is a type of activity club “sandwiched” into the middle of its answer.
Oh……chess club, math club. That’s a stretch but having built some puzzles myself…..I have stretched too.
Just over 25 min. no errors…never figured out the theme.
If you’re into hip hop, Spanish, the hunger games, and Harry Potter you have a heads up in crosswords
Stay safe😀
12:58 with no errors or lookups. Had to change SASHA>MALIA. Started to write PROMO where PRESS goes, but realized that wouldn’t work with SERB at the intersection. Didn’t see the clubs until all was filled in, but couldn’t see how a SKIT club worked. Didn’t realize it was SKI club until I saw Bill’s explanation.
No errors.. I was PERSICACIOUS!!!!
didn’t know their was the study of ETS? Exobiology?? Is that a major or a rabbit hole you go down once you get an undergraduate degree and fall into a job with “other duties as assigned” role?
It should be Amateur Softball of America(ASA) RULES!
No final error. I thought this was medium hard, but then again every crossword can be really difficult or easy peasy…it all depends on the subject matter and our own strengths or weaknesses. I enjoy learning new factoids through the puzzles. Foreign language clues/answers are interesting to me. New or little knows geography is great too. But really, over the years I’ve learned a lot about things I would never have picked up with crossword puzzles. So here’s to all you constructors who at times drive me bat guano crazy. I do really appreciate what you do, even when I’m gnashing my teeth in frustration. ;-D>
Bill…Bill …never heard of rundmc..how old are you???…great puzzle nice job on the time Bill…10 min deduct for the errors!!!LOL
25:59 – too many lookups/errors to list.
This puzzle really whipped me today.
Be Well
I’m no English major so please correct me if I’m wrong. RE: 2D, “poetic adverb,” I thought o’er is a contraction for “over.” If so, isn’t “over” a preposition (not an adverb)?
I’m no English major, either, but I found this online:
https://wordtype.org/of/over
Short version (copied from the site): “Over can be an adjective, a noun, an interjection, a preposition or an adverb.”
According to Webster’s dictionary OVER is both an adverb and a preposition
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/over
Hi Tim. Quick Google search yielded: “We can use over as an adverb to talk about movement above something or someone: We were sitting in the garden and a huge flock of geese flew over.”
Both adv & prep
Nice to see so many comments and thanks Glenn for the tutorial! Also, it’s very humanizing that Bill made a mistake! Found this fairly easy but I too did not get the theme until bill explained it. I don’t time myself because I might get discouraged. It takes me as long as it takes me…PS nice to see a lot of cross talk today — don’t usually see people interacting here with each other so it’s a nice change.
10 minutes, 28 seconds, and no issues or errors. Odd, seeing as there are so many comments above.
A little tricky for me; took 28:01 with no errors or peeks and only one short error check to find my one mistake before getting the “all done” banner. I had Im HERE/STAmDS which was easy enough to spot on my first go around.
Made a lot of wrong choices today and had to revise a good quarter of the puzzle. I’ve never seen Battle Star Galactica but I have heard of Run DMC, although I’d be hard pressed to name any of their songs.
Re Helen and POOF – I thought immediately of Helen of Troy and I knew she was abducted/left willingly from somewhere in Greece. It could have been Helen Keller, which would have been Alabama. Just needed a bit of crosses to nail it down. I did think immediately of POOF when I saw “disappearing sound”, so I put that in. You’d have to reach to come up with another answer for that, I believe.
Other than that, I endorse Glenn’s tutorial. I’ve been trying to start with the Downs, but I always end up reverting Across before getting too far. I’m also more willing to put in guesses early in the week, and only checking maybe one cross, before moving on. As the week goes, I go with more crosses or only obvious fills at first.