"A Minor" COMPOSITION in "B#"
The Circle of FIFTHS - A minor = C major: C = "B#" - get it~?
This is Yijing Chen's fifth LA Times puzzle - I blogged her debut puzzle here, and today's offering may have led some Cornerites to a Circle of FITs, or even the fifth circle of hell - see 51A. I however, loved this puzzle - I enjoy the extra challenge of trying to figure out the hidden, underlying meaning of a crossword's theme. It took me about 8mins over my usual Friday time to finally figure out just the SW corner alone. Once I caught on to the reveal "NOTES" being the musical Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti vocalizations, it was enough to figure out that the theme answers were completely undefinable from the clues themselves - 45A being the most obscure & difficult to parse; I'm not even sure I am 100% correct, but there is no "sourson" word - the closest I could find was soursop - this fruit. The solution is to take out the duplicate "notes", ( which had to be doubled to match the plural reveal ) and Bob's your uncle. I am sure this construction is going to cause a fair amount of grumbling, but it's Friday, and it does have a theme, albeit a very cryptic one. An over-sized 15 x 16 grid, no outlier letters, several names, no Twurds, sixteen 3LWs, and no circles, but perhaps "*" on the themers would have helped, as they coincided with other same-length fills:
17. Female sib: DOSIDOS - SISter, abbr in the clue, abbr in the answer, no relation to the actual fill of do-si-do, the dance step ( and now I see, a strain of marijuana, plus the Girl Scout cookie ); the same non-relation goes for all of the themers . . .
18. Cozy eatery: CAREFREE - CAFE, not the 'care-free' attitude, e.g.
23. Man of La Mancha: SEMI MINOR - SEÑOR, Español for "man" in the Spanish city - which we also learned from last week's clue/answer "Dulcinea" fiasco; filled mostly via perps, and I did not know what the definition of "Semi Minor" was;
the Wiki
38. The complete set: ALFALFA - ALL
45. Big flowerpot: SOURS ON - URN - "loses interest in"; almost impossible to fill in without understanding the theme
57. Extemporizes: LAVA LAMPS - VAMPS - the "musical improvisation" definition. I have a green one to match my office
67. Low-level laborer: PETITION - PEON, my first thought, but was obviously too short for the eight-letter fill in the grid
69. "Perfect!," or how to make seven answers in this puzzle match their clues?: NO NOTES - D'Oh~! A deer, a female deer - remove the doubled Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So ( and I know it's usually referred to as "SOL" ) -La-Ti-Do pairings, and what's left is a straight explanation for the clue 😁
ACROSS:
1. Barnyard call: MAA - cows go "moo", sheep go "baa", so this must be goats
4. A pop: PER
7. Compels: FORCES
13. Like some pickup-only deals: IN-STORE
15. Prehistoric hand tool: STONE AXE - A uniquie fill
19. "Ferrari" actor Driver: ADAM - name #1
20. Second singer to be honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: SINATRA - and the first singer was~? Answer at the end, name #2
22. Some laptops: PCs
25. Ernie's "Sing After Me" duet partner: ELMO - Good guess on my part; not BERT - name #3
28. Monument Valley formation: MESA
30. Winter layer: COAT - I was not fooled, didn't go with SNOW, RIME or HOAR
33. __ Nation: Jay-Z's conglomerate: ROC - name (ish)
36. Novelist Quindlen: ANNA - No clue, more here, name #4
40. Approximately: ABOUT
42. Many a K-pop singer: IDOL
44. Starting lineup: A-TEAM
47. Gaelic speaker: CELT
49. Cornerback Bly in the College Football Hall of Fame: DRÉ - No clue, name #5
50. Was gripping?: HELD - Har-har
51. Breathe fire, say: RAGE - the sin of the Fifth Circle of Hell
53. Inhale, maybe: EAT - slang for eating fast
55. Couple: DUAD - Not being DUET caused all sorts of grief
62. "Thrilla in Manila" boxer: ALI - Crossword staple, name #6
64. Approached bedtime: LATENED - "got late"
66. Wife of Zeus: HERA - name #7
71. Peppers in some mole sauces: POBLANOS - oof. I didn't know the name of this pepper, and it's a unique fill, so new to any crossword - more here
72. Writer/illustrator who often wrote in anapestic tetrameter: Dr. SEUSS - the rhyming 'pace', depicted as da - da - DUM. My blogs are written in all-a-puzzle octalmeter . . . name #8
73. Villainous looks: SNEERS - This fish, my S-i-L calls "Vegas", hovered in the corner of the tank and stared at me the whole time I was down on Long Island . . .
I'm watchin' you . . . Creepy
74. With 27-Across, big name in watercraft: SEA - AND - 27A. See 74-Across: DOO. Their website
75. Therapist's maj.: PSYchology
DOWN:
1. King with a touching story?: MIDAS - the golden touch of mythology - my first thought was ELVIS😜, #9
2. Battery part: ANODE
3. Breakfast tea variety: ASSAM - Dah~! Not PEKOE
4. Pea sheller's discard: POD
5. Canyon former: EROSION
6. Amber, once: RESIN
7. "Seriously?": "FOR REAL~?" - Rhymes with . . .
8. "Gorilla Warfare" artist Shaquille: O'NEAL - Name #10, but that's who I figured - not too many people named Shaquille - and his "art"
9. NWSL official: REF - abbr for the National Womens' Soccer League; I ventured a guess at something something Sports League . . . enough to take a WAG
10. Didn't ride solo: CARPOOLED
11. Corp. bigwig: EXECutive
12. Goes out with: SEES - Crossword friendly "E"s and "S"s on the edge
14. Retiring: TIMID - Dah~! Not IN BED, but an obscure definition
15. Shake: SCARE - Friday. Vague.
16. Ink spot, for short: TATtoo - so many ladies at the gym with ink art, but I just don't care for it; to me, it's like graffiti on the Venus De Milo
Yecht - looks "dirty"
21. Digital __: remote tech worker: NOMAD - I have not heard this phrase, but sounds like a great way to work in the 21st century
24. Deep defenses: MOATS - two weeks in a row on Friday
Caerlaverock castle, Scotland
26. MD-to-be's exam: MCAT - Medical College Admission Test
29. Clearance event: SALE
31. Not nearby: AFAR
32. No longer feral: TAME - this guy only gets feral when the FedEx guy pulls up . . .
33. Impetuous: RASH - I went with RUDE, only 25% correct
34. Clarinet kin: OBOE - about the only 'gimme' in the SW
35. "Do my eyes deceive me?": "COULD IT BE~?" - Solid, but tough to suss in the Down position, and no crossings to work with either
37. Totenberg of NPR: NINA - I don't listen, more here. Name #11
39. Like some flaws: FATAL
41. Linguistic cousin of Hindi: URDU
43. One of a geographic quintet: OCEAN - Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Antarctic & Arctic
46. Formally decrees: ORDAINS - that's the word I could not think of; I was stuck on ORATES
48. Galena, e.g.: LEAD ORE - I knew this, but for some reason, put in IRON - that's these ores
52. Bonny landscapes: GLENS
Aye, she's a bonny lass
54. Sierra Nevada lake: TAHOE - Geo name #12
56. Match point?: ALTAR - And I thought I was being clever with "FLAME" = tip, but this is the wedded bliss kind of point - the "location"
58. Sells: VENDS
59. Came together: MET UP
60. Olive oil maker: PRESS
61. Flip: SASSY - flip, the adjective, not the verb
62. Intro courses?: APPS - Ah. The restaurant menu appetizers, that is
63. Swimmer Marchand who won four gold medals at Paris 2024: LEON - oof. Friday. Frawnche. Name #13
65. "__ true!": TOO - I had "TIS" to start
68. __-de-France: Paris's region: ILE - Frawnche #2 - guessed it, put it in, took it out, put it right back in, and I shaked it all about . . . 🙄
70. Govt. cybersecurity monitor: NSA - No. Such. Agency.
Splynter
Grid Flow 29.0
answer to 20A << Bing Crosby >>
No comments:
Post a Comment