I had four or five theme answers in place before I completely figured out what was going on. The first word of each theme answer is either a moon phase...or it completes a phrase about the moon.
22A: Tarot reading, crystals, spiritualism, etc. (NEW Age movements).
33A: Traditional English festival (HARVEST Home).
44A: Little John's weapon in Robin Hood legend (QUARTER staff).
64A: Brooke Shields movie, with "The" (BLUE Lagoon). A blue moon is the second full moon to occur within a calendar month. The Blue Moon, a local restaurant/bar, always has a big party to celebrate.
75A: Its roar is worse than its bite (PAPER Tiger). That's from a sixties song by Sue Thompson. You can hear (and see her perform) it here. Paper Moon was a 1973 movie starring Ryan O'Neal and his daughter, Tatum, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress...the youngest actress ever to win an Oscar. (Shirley Temple won an honorary Oscar some years before.)
94A: Dinner bun (CRESCENT roll).
103A: Hair removal site (WAXING salon).
119A: 1987 Kubrick film (FULL Metal Jacket). The name of this one eluded me for far too long. I'm not a huge Kubrick fan. All I could remember was A Clockwork Orange (which fit in the grid, but was much earlier than 1987) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (which wouldn't fit and was much later.) The crosses gave me this one.
And the lone down theme answer (other than the theme hint) was at 38D: Proverbial portion (HALF a loaf). It's better than none...so they say.
Not just a fun puzzle. Not just a clever theme. It's also chock-full of good fill, not just your typical crosswordese.
19A: Dow product (chemical). I was trying to make a brand name fit in there until I had enough letters to show me the error of my ways.
30A: Wheel on a spur (rowel). Didn't know this word and looked it up after the Applet accepted my puzzle.
48A: Does some file transfers (uploads). What exactly is the difference between uploads and downloads?
55A: Comparable to a fiddle (as fit). One of my favorites.
62A: __-deucy (game with dice) (Acey). I didn't have a clue, but I guessed that right off the bat.
91A: Elongated marine fish (eelpout). I had never heard of this, but there's actually an Annual International Eelpout Festival. You can find the dates through the year 2020 right here. Be sure to mark your calendars for next year's...February 15-17.
128A: Like a paradise (Elysian). I had idyllic at first, but the downs wouldn't work. Elysian Fields are in Greek mythology, but this article tells about Elysian Fields in geography and in the arts.
3D: Apple on a teacher's desk? (IMac). That's the best clue I've seen for that answer.
57D: They're blown in the winds (oboes). Again, a good clue for an often-seen word.
65D: Tied surgically (ligated). I worked with a woman who talked about having a tubalization. I wonder if she ever figured out what it really was.
96D: Burn at the end? (cremate). Morbid? Kind of...but good.
97D: Dogie catcher (lariat). Didn't see this until I had a few letters in place.
98D: Underarm (axilla). I remembered this from the last time we had it...today it gave me waxing salon.
99D: Garden fertilizer (manure). I liked its cross at 99A: Abbr. on Rockies skeds (MST). Couldn't believe I actually got that.
This is the first time I can remember not stumbling over St-Lo. I just filled it in for 86D: French town on the Vire. This is real progress.
104D: Centaur's head? (soft C). They get me every time with clues like this. I wanted human...probably others did.
The only clue I didn't like at all was 71D: Opinion pieces (op eds). I was so sure it had to be something else. I'd have clued it in relation to Molly Ivins...anything so as not to use the word opinion in the clue. I wonder if that was an editorial oversight.
There was plenty more to like about this one, but I'm calling it good for tonight. Here's the grid.
I'll see you tomorrow. Toodle-oo! (125A, clued as "Ta-ta"). I would never say either of those, but it sure looks funny in the grid.
Linda G
16 comments:
op-eds -- are writings that appear OPposite the EDitorial page. which is something i learned fairly recently, believing until then it stood for OPinions and EDitorials.
a heavenly puzzle -- and, as always, a fun write-up!
;-)
janie
Upload = send out
Download = bring in
Oh, Janie, thanks for the Op Ed explanation. Interesting.
"Blue Lagoon" was a gimme for me. I was a teenager and DYING to see it when it first came out. My momma let me....she probably shouldn't have : )
I always thought it was OPinion EDitorials. Learn somethin' new every day ; )
I was too old to be interested in Blue Lagoon. Did your momma ever find out that she shouldn't have let you see it?
The U.R.I. clue threw me off for awhile. Thinking it was a medical term (upper respiratory infection), I filled in "upper" when the correct answer was "Rhode" (for, I presume, the University of Rhode Island). The crossing words eventually led me to correct my error.
Thanks for helping me & my mum finish this puzzle. xD
What Donald said - Uploading is sending a file 'up' to a server, such as sending a scan of your puzzle from your personal hard drive to Blogger.
Downloading is retrieving a file from a remote site (such as a song, video, or a scanned copy of a finished puzzle from someone's blog, in order to check against their own answers ;) ).
Not technical,
Cut myself off there, but you get the idea. Not a perfect technical explanation, but that's the gist of it.
Hey all! Thank God I found this site. Can someone explain the link between 104A Centaur's Head and Soft C? I don't get it!!
And I'm glad you found this site!
Don't groan too loudly when I tell you...the first letter (head) of the word is C, and it's a soft C.
This still trips me up almost every time I see it...I wanted human in there!
Oh my God, you're kidding!! I thought I had the answer wrong until I found this site. D'OH!! Now I understand what my husband was just trying to explain to me. I was going CRAZY looking for the name of the star that represents the head in the Centaurs Constellation!
Thank you, Linda. I had it but at "soft c" thought it was a musical reference (blushing here)and at "as fit" just didn't get it (now grinning widely). I've visited you before and it's always edifying.
Mark
Mark, I'm glad you're coming back and finding it worthwhile. Thanks for commenting ; )
I can't get these except by web and I did OK on my own once I got started but wass stymied by the Centaur's head---------what the heck? Why is the answer a Soft C?
Sorry, didn't see that comment: the word begins with a soft consonant sound 'c'.
I get the 'soft c' now, but isn't that more of a 'cryptic crossword' clue? But I thought this was a great puzzle.
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