The three theme answers were clued identically...End of some addresses. The answers:
20A: City, state and zip
39A: Email domain name
55A: God Bless America
Clever enough...three different types of address.
I think of John Farmer as a cyberfriend of sorts...we both guest-blogged for Orange when she was globetrotting a few months ago. As such, he deserves better than the Q&D he'll get here tonight...but I'm just tired to the bone.
So here are my favorites...some are great answers, some are great clues.
14A: Detail in a Georgia O'Keeffe painting (petal). There was one of her prints hanging in my former office. That's the only thing I miss about that place. I can't find a picture of that one, but here's another I really like.16A: "Gotta run!" (Ciao!). I remember a little girl who lived in our neighborhood about twenty years ago. She was just a year old, and that was how she said goodbye to everyone. It was too cute.
19A: James who sang the ballad "At Last" (Etta). Her name is standard crossword fill...a good one to remember.
32A: One way to get a witness (subpoena). That's one of my favorite legal words. I used to pronounce it phonetically in my head (sub-po-E-na) when I had to learn to spell it. I used the same trick for Wednesday (WED-nes-day) when I was in grade school. It must have worked...spelling is one of my strong suits.
35A: Setting for the setting of el sol (oeste). That's Spanish for west...where the sun sets.
43A: Renaissance Faire entertainer (minstrel).
44A: Some widows (spiders).
52A: Small hit (bunt).
2D: Jacopo __, composer of the earliest surviving opera (Peri). Didn't know it...got it from crosses.
4D: "Miracle on 34th Street" name (Macy's). I was running through all of the characters' names...couldn't think of one that would end in YS.
6D: Chipotle, e.g. (jalapeno). Can't eat the things and am always amazed by those who can.8D: The Dolphins retired his #12 (Griese). I grew up in south Florida and was a Dolphins fan...mostly because my Dad was. Even though he moved to Colorado for a few years, he never changed his allegiance.
9D: "Oh! Carol" singer, 1959 (Sedaka). My mother and I both loved Neil Sedaka. For her sixteenth birthday, Elaine got a Neil Sedaka CD (which had Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen on it). She loved it and was devastated when all of her CDs, along with her backpack, were stolen. Maybe I'll get her another copy for her 20th birthday...next month.
11D: Swank (ritzy).22D: Hose (nylons). That took me forever to see.
30D: "Timecop" star Van __ (Damme). Never saw it, but he looks pretty good in this shot.
45D: Exclamation at an epiphany (I get it).
50D: Runner-up to Ike (Adlai).
60D: Plimpton portrayer in "Paper Lion" (Alda)...one of my all-time favorite actors.
That's it for today. Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
9 comments:
Hi Linda...I agree this was a hard puzzle...had to stop and start a few times before my brained kicked in...confused Marino with Griese which made for a slow start...Used Dr. Google a couple of times...don't like unbelievalbe for tall...makes no sense to me.
Have a good day
Bob
Linda,
I too found this puzzle very hard. I used google and your blog. I had madrigal instead of minstrel, coupe instead of t-bird. Forgot that song, but ended up putting the Beach Boys on to do the puzzle. Tall for unbelievable - I assume stands for a tall tale. Hopefully, tomorrow will be easier for me.
My dictionary has agape but not agaze -- I get petulant when constructors don't use my dictionary.
Have a good day!
Oh, is that you're snow we're getting?
This was a fairly difficult one but I managed to finish in a reasonable amount of time. I ended up with agape/peal too, and I like those answers better than agaze/zeal.
Here comes the snow. Stay safe and warm.
Started this puzzle waaay too late at night and way too tired, was stumped at where my error was (AGAPE/PEAL here), and didn't find out where it was until reading the blogs tonight. AGAZE never even crossed my mind as a possible answer, even though ZEAL fits the clue. Ah well. Last time I do a puzzle right after the office XMas party ;).
Happy holidays, and all the best.
- Howard B
Hi Linda, I just thought I'd drop in to say thanks, enjoyed your your comments. I always am impressed by your completed grid, and just once would like to have one as clean as yours!
John, the grid is only clean because I use pencil and can erase. I'm pretty anal, though, and will erase letters as I go if they don't look good...that may be the result of eight years in Catholic school.
Off to finish tonight's puzzle. Another tough one that required a nap before I could finish...if I can finish.
Hi Linda,
I agree with you and other posters that this was a hard puzzle ... I thought it was terrible, compounded by many of the clues being based on trivia or misleadingly worded. I, too, put "Marino" in where "Griese" was the answer and while I got the theme of different types of addresses early on, I thought the second long address answer "Email Domain Name" was a poor choice. "Auto in a Beach Boys Song" I figured was either coupe or tbird, but I was misled by the "Jazz singer Anderson" clue which I thought was referring to Carl Anderson, which messed up that part of the grid. A frustrating puzzle where the solution isn't really satisfying. I would be wary of doing a John Farmer puzzle again, especially based on comments about his other puzzles also being poorly done.
I don't think a hard puzzle means it's an unfair puzzle. Thursday puzzles should be difficult, and the ambiguous cluing is part of it.
Some constructors put together more difficult puzzles than others. When I see a David Quarfoot puzzle, I groan. I know it will be tough and will require Google...and I may not finish it at that. I do puzzles for the challenge, though, so I'll at least attempt it.
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