Paula Gamache's Sunday puzzle, Mixed Feelings, has both of my favorite things...circles and anagrams. That on top of a Mike Nothnagel Saturday...well, it just doesn't get any better than that.
The circled letters within each theme answer can be rearranged to make an emotion of some sort...or a mixed feeling.
23A: Pedicurist's need (TOENAIL CLIPPERS)...becomes elation.
30A: Wearer of uniform #37, retired by both the Yankees and the Mets (CASEY STENGEL)...becomes ecstasy.
52A: Whispering party game (TELEPHONE)...hope.
68A: Champion figure skater Irina (SLUTSKAYA)...lust. I never realized that slut became lust, but both words remind me of "Lust," a short story by Susan Minot.88A: Manual transmission position (THIRD GEAR)...rage. Since first would also have fit, I had to wait until I got some downs to complete the answer.
109A: Kitchen implement used with a little muscle (POTATO MASHER)...shame.
118A: Bats, balls, gloves, etc. (SPORTS EQUIPMENT)...pique.
14D: Come-hither look (BEDROOM EYES). For the record, I don't think of bedroom eyes as a come-hither look...either you have them or you don't. Both of these guys do. The anagrammed feeling is boredom...which I wouldn't feel if I were with either of them.16D: Protective mailer (PADDED ENVELOPE)...ah, love. A nice feeling.
50D: Some business attire (PINSTRIPED SUIT)...pride. Am I being too proud if I say that I got this with only the N in place?
67D: Bearing nothing (EMPTY HANDED) becomes empathy.
Favorite clues include 14A: One on two feet (biped), 66A: Divider of wedding guests (aisle), 72A: Leaves for lunch? (salad), 93A: Big shot after making a big shot, maybe: Abbr. (MVP), 123A: Capital of Italy (Euro), 128A: Company-owned building, e.g. (asset), 11D: Fall setting (Eden), 15D: Coming-clean words (I lied), 18D: License to drill?: Abbr. (DDS), 33D: "They're in my hot little hands!" (got 'em), 40D: Heads in the Pantheon? (capita) and 114D: Cause for an R, perhaps (gore).
I liked the connected cluing for 21A: He's seen on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Adam) and 31D: Consort of 21-Across (Eve). Haven't seen it and had no idea.
I definitely paid attention to JimH's music post the other day. If you did, then you knew 92D: F equivalent (E sharp). And if you read his guest blogger, Seth G, today, you were also able to get 56A: Holiday celebrating deliverance from Haman (Purim).
I really struggled to remember how to spell 46D: Poet Omar __ (Khayyam). I filled in the K and the M...beyond that I had to wait for some crosses. There were several other answers relating to the arts, including 19A: Literature Nobelist Morrison (Toni), 43A: Close overlapping of fugue voices (stretto), 95A: Peter Shaffer play based on the lives of Mozart and Salieri (Amadeus), 2D: Writer Peggy known for the phrase "a kinder, gentler nation" (Noonan), and 48D: Rhyme scheme of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (AABA). There was also the connected cluing for crossword regulars aria and solo...at 55A [Diva's delivery] and 80A [55-Across, e.g.], respectively, and 78A: Picassos and Pissarros (art).
There were a few things I was only able to get from crosses...among them 10D: Port west of Monte Vesuvio (Napoli), 32D: Capone henchman (Nitti) and 51D: Yellow Teletubby (Laa-Laa).
That's it for tonight. Don will be home soon, and we'll enjoy the bread I made today with a big salad, followed by strawberry shortcake.
Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
9 comments:
I was upset the whole time I worked through this that I hadn't given enough info to help people get Purim... The day of my post, and I blew it! I mean, "deliverance" had been in a Purim clue just once, more than 7 years ago... And now that I look him up I find Haman's appeared twice in the last year, too. (Sigh.)
Now I wonder if I should go back and add all the things we eat, sing, and do during the Passover SEDER?
Glad to hear you got it anyway, and thanks for the shout-out,
sg
I found this week's NYTimes puzzle totally easy -- only catch being I kept answering "hee" to "haw" clue instead of "yee" as I kept thinking it's the only answer. It's happened before where being overly sure instead of open-minded kept me from the solution. I hope I'm not alone in this.
Am grateful to this blog b/c I would never have known what the circles were for, or what the theme meant. Who knew? Thanks for helping me on this.
Happy Earth Day or whatever you were going to celebrate. We need every voice raised to save our planet.
Seth, don't be so hard on yourself. Your information was so helpful...I was able to get Purim because I had just read about it.
Anonymous, glad the blog is helpful to you. I wasn't sure if we were looking for YEE or HEE on this one...so I just filled in EE until EMMYS solved the mystery.
It was interesting to make a salad by candlelight, but I don't think I'd want to do it again ; )
Yeah me too, Seth. I inferred PURIM having just read about it on your post. Another one of those harmonic convergences.
Cause for an R? GORE? He's become a Republican cause now? Or am I completely misinterpreting this ... Linda you have it lower case so I'm pretty sure I just don't get the reference at all.
I had Toes And Clippers for awhile (I can laugh about it now ... ) so that screwed me up as well as User ID instead of TELNET which, to be honest, sounds like a word from the early 90s.
Loved the long answers, most of which I got. I did not understand the circles, which is usually the case. If they spell out something sequentially I may be OK, but I could see that wasn't the case here so I dropped it like a hot POTATO MASHER.
One thing I always laugh about is when an answer is supposed to be an abbr. and still has 6 letters. How abbreviated is that? But of course APPROX is definitely shorter than its full word, so it's legit. Just always strikes me as funny.
I'll never remember how to spell KHAYAAM, Linda. I've just resigned myself to that fact.
Wendy, a movie could get an R rating for too much gore...
If you're not into anagrams, I imagine this theme would have been hard to see. Seth also loves them...check out his profile for a very funny anagrammed answer to the random question asked by Blogger.
I was very slow to finish this, such a PITY, a real SADCASE.
I also salute SethG for the blog on Jewish-isms. Unfortunately I was thinking PriUM, like Prius. And JimH's music entry was most welcome. And last year, there was a RexP entry on the various Diane/Dyan/Dian/Dianas. Now, once someone covers the other 463 topics I'm lousy at, I'll be ready.
Maybe it's just the Downhill Racer persona, Linda, but I think the guy on the left could possibly be boring. You were alluding to conversation, right?
I remember the KHAYYAM spelling by remembering "There are tow 'Ys' in Yam." Never fails.
KarmaSartre, thanks for the two Y's hint...I'm hopeful that KHAYYAM will never stump me again.
Oh, and, yes...conversation. That must have been what I was thinking about ; )
You have no idea how happy I am to see your blog again.I never lost faith that you would return. Never,never, never leave us again.
Gee, Alan, since you put it that way...
Thanks for the warm welcome ; )
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