ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ LETTER RIP]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ LETTER RIP]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Fans of alternative crosswords take note: Peter Gordon is relaunching his Sun crosswords series, now rebranded as “Fireball,” starting next month. This’ll no doubt be a must-do weekly themeless puzzle. So please, take a minute and sign up for it here. And while you’re doing that, remember to tip your constructor, or get a copy of the “Diagramless” book or perhaps a t-shirt? (Oh yeah: New design up shortly now).
Share the puzzle. New one on Friday.
TENCC = UTWO (tho much easier for me to get this time). There’s clearly some meaning of “crop” I don’t understand, as CRAW (and that whole little section in the west) was the last thing to fall. Never heard of the cookies (my bad), don’t think “cagers” authorizes an abbrev. like WIZ, and think “N-i-i-ice” reads more ironic than ZOWIE. Liked the SE a lot.
Holy crap, that was hard. Only complaint is WIZ (and I thought Champs needed a d-apostrophe before the ELYSEES.) BOXING CLAY is great. All the theme answers were very good, though I confess I don’t get the theme. CL changes to D because when you write a “cl” in cursive it looks like a d? (Mine does anyway, which is why old friends from elementary school call me Wackle.) Or is a Roman numeral thing?
I was wrong, you are right: There is no d-apostrophe in Champs-Elysees.
as much as i wanted it to be the latter, i do prefer DCUPs to DOORs. nice clue.
did not like CROPCLUSTER crossing CRAW-clued-with-the word-crop. (but, @Rex, I am familiar with a bird’s CROP, which is the little sack where gravel grinds up its food–aka CRAW).
did some googling. standard for me here. I’m with Wade, wondering how the roman numerals tie in (seems like a perfect inside joke, if only I got it . . .).
Now [DC cagers] …
@Wade and @treedweller, the puzzle was title “Letter Rip” and if you “rip” apart a lower case ‘d’, you’d get a lower case ‘c l’. That’s what motivates the D => CL change in the theme entries.
Enjoyed the puzzle and found it pretty challenging. Not sure how “SPELT” = “Bread choice”?
The tantalizing 9D was worth the price of admission. Medium? Hmmm… Nearly 45 minutes again today, mostly because I started in NW and didn’t get much traction intill I got into south. Progress there got me 38A and the theme, which–as happens too infrequently in themed puzz’s–actually helped me figure out the rest.
Mr. Sanders, thanks. I was THINKING LIKE THIS so I couldn’t divine the sense of the title either.
Cavils. 46A, ZOWIE. I’m 58 and do not remember a time when “zowie” was spoken non-ironically. “Ni-i-i-ice!” is sincere contemporary slang, and is, I should think, synonymous with “Swee-e-e-t!” SWEET fit, and held me up for quite a while, abetted by 40D, WIZ. The answer is singular, but the clue signals a plural, so I floundered trying to come up with a “??S” abbreviation.
Spelt
–noun
a wheat, Triticum aestivum spelta, native to southern Europe and western Asia, used chiefly for livestock feed.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spelt
I guess they use for bread baking, too?
Aah, but of course!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Very-Simple-Spelt-Bread/Detail.aspx
@Al Sanders, regarding “spelt”, according to:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spelt
the secondary definition of the word “spelt” refers to a type of wheat, which I suppose could be made into a bread, and therefore a “bread choice.”
I did not know this while solving. While doing the puzzle, “spelt” just came out from the words going in the other direction; I looked up “spelt” for verification after the fact.
Hope this helps,
Andy
Hmm, this was actually one of my faster BEQs. The ANNEE/RECU crossing was the last to fall as I simply typed in vowels until Mr Happy Pencil showed up.
[Resets] for ADJUSTS isn’t quite right, and I had to chuckle as I typed in TENCC after the UTWO “controversy” on Monday. Way to double-down.
Good challenge! Lots of French; RECU, ANNEE, MILLE, LUXE, ELYSEES, ETRE, CALENDRIER and ALEE which sounds French but totally isn’t, j’aime! I was in Paris this year and had the most delicious déjeuner on the Champs Elysees. I really really like the clue for 11D. Also, I like that Turkey and Gibberish are clues next to each other…Gibberish is akin to Gobbledygook (according to Wiki) and Turkeys go Gobble. Oh, Thanksgiving.
I still don’t get 9D. Explain?
Also, gibberish sounds like giblets. Which is the nasty part of a turkey that you use to make gravy, I believe.
The snatch is a weight-lifting movement, like the clean and jerk, the deadlift, etc. It works the deltoids, a/k/a the “delts”.
Aha, oho and I see! Thank you 😉 It’s a far cry from what I was thinking “snatch” meant…
Thanks for the 9D explanation. I also didn’t get it. SPELT was new to me.
It took us forever to get the theme; I thought it was a double-letter thing – tried to make CROP CLUTTER work, and thought maybe it was CASSUS CLAY, even though I was fairly sure that the spelling was Cassius. Got there eventually, though. Another fun one, thanks.
Fun puzzle. First BEQ I printed out. Took it to the ice arena and did it while the kids were at skating lessons. Filled in the entire thing and was very excited Mr. Happy Pencil appeared with no tweaking needed. I didn’t know SPELT, and reasoned out ANNEE since I didn’t know RECU. I liked the theme. Thanks for the puzzle.
i feel like the only person here who didn’t have a problem with SPELT! i do live in hippieville Olympia WA, though, and shop at a local co-op for a lot of my food, so there is that. tho i still haven’t seen ACAI or GOJI in a crossword yet.
i really liked this one! nice challenge throughout, but the NW was a bit much for me, for some reason (alcohol). excellent cluing on some of the otherwise boring 3-letterers: SOB, SUP, and so on. OTOWN shoulda been a gimme to me but i couldn’t come up with it.
the idea behind the theme was nice, too — wasn’t one of the earlier puzzles on this site similar? something about changing a Y to a T or vice versa… who do you know with the bad handwriting that inspires these themes, brendan?