Signs of the Times by Randolph Ross – 12:45 or so (paper – interrupted)
Hi it’s Jeffrey with your weekly Wall Street Journal puzzle. The first word(s) of the theme answers are all words you see on signs.
22A. [Somehow] – ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
30A. [Sports analyst’s aid] – SLOW MOTION REPLAY
46A. [1973 Bruce Lee classic] – ENTER THE DRAGON
82A. [“Don’t move!”] – STAY RIGHT THERE
98A. [Directionally challenged pilot of 1938] – WRONG WAY CORRIGAN. Douglas Corrigan was an American aviator…He was nicknamed “Wrong Way” in 1938. After a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach. He claimed his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. However, he was a skilled aircraft mechanic…and had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for his transatlantic flight. He had been denied permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and his “navigational error” was seen as deliberate. Nevertheless, he never publicly admitted to having flown to Ireland intentionally. [wikipedia]
111A. [Get a bad situation under control] – STOP THE BLEEDING
3D. [Let someone else speak] – YIELD THE FLOOR
54D. [Conversation after canning] – EXIT INTERVIEW. I’ve done exit interviews with staff retiring or resigning but I’ve never heard of one done after someone is canned. I don’t think that would be very productive.
An odd feature of this puzzle is all the first names mostly in the across answers:
25A. [Pilot Post] – WILEY. The first pilot to fly solo around the world. A minitheme developing.
28A. [Model Bundchen] – GISELE
51A. [First name at the CIA] – LEON Panetta
52A. [Newest colleague of Clarence and Ruth] – SONIA. Thomas, Bader Ginsburg and Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court.
57A. [Lofgren who plays with Bruce] – NILS
92A. [Bobcat mascot of the Diamondbacks] – BAXTER
2D. [Golfer with an “army”] – ARNIE Palmer
88D. [Drea’s role on “The Sopranos”] – ADRIANA
99D. [1960 Wimbledon champ ___ Fraser] – NEALE
..and all the last names mostly in the down answers:
97A. [Assassinated Swedish prime minister] – Olof PALME
5D. [Jazz singer Anita] – O’DAY
10D. [Christine of “Chicago Hope”] – LAHTI
11D. [Rap Dr.] – DRE
23D. [Milne moniker] – ROO
28D. [Composer born in Bergen] – GRIEG
30D. [Mack, maker of madcap movies] – SENNETT
32D. [Tara family] – OHARAS
43D. [Holder of 1,093 patents] – Thomas EDISON
58D. [Emmy nominee for playing Truman] – SINISE
78D. [Best successor] – STARR. Pete and Ringo, Beatles drummers.
89D. [“The King of Swing”] – Benny GOODMAN
100D. [Governor before Pataki] – CUOMO
Other stuff:
81A. [Old Saturn model] – ION. All Saturns are old models now, including my Aura which never gets clued as a car model.
94A. [Mileage meter, for short] – ODO. I have around 48,000 kils on my ODO in my Aura.
105A. [Free hit of the hockey ball from out of bounds] – SIDE IN. I’m guessing field hockey?
116A. [Personal pieces of writing] – MEMOIRS or blogs
37A. [2009 Broadway revival] – HAIR
35D. [Chinese weight equal to 50 grams] – TAEL. Huh.
84D. [Third of a Seinfeld line] – YADA. The other thirds are YADA and YADA.
93D. [Sirius merged with it in 2008] – XM RADIO. I have XM RADIO in the Saturn. Becoming strangely addicted to the Broadway channel.
97D. [Ratchet parts] – PAWLS. Couldn’t believe this was right.
I leave you with my first Poll of the Week. Which of these 3 Canadian artist cover versions is your favorite?
Paul Anka does Nirvana
Shania Twain does AC/DC
Sarah McLachlan does the Beatles
I’m going with Paul Anka. He took that song and made it his own, dawg.
From machinedesign.com, “Pawls, which are sometimes misidentified as ratchets, are thin protrusions that rest against a ratchet to restrict its motion. When the ratchet is rotated in one direction, the pawl is raised and moves smoothly between the angled teeth. When the ratchet’s rotation stops, the pawl rests between the teeth and makes a clicking noise.” Yep, I haven’t heard of it either. They actually make a pretty picture.
i know about the ratchet and PAWL from reading feynman’s lectures on thermodynamics. TAEL is old-school crosswordese. i think i’ve seen it twice in the roughly 10^4 puzzles i’ve done since 2008, and both times, somebody who’s been doing crosswords longer than me has called it “old-school.”
the poll question is a tough one. sarah M’s blackbird is pretty much just the beatles version with her own voice. but she does have a pretty unique voice, and i like that song best of the three originals. anka’s teen spirit is just … weird. among other things, it’s legitimately distracting to be able to understand the lyrics of that song. what’s his problem? shania’s is the worst cover of the worst song, but i like the harmonies in the refrain. i’ll go with sarah.
Gotta go Nirvana and Paul Anka .God, nobody even *tries* Nirvana stuff and the guy can sing. All I can see in my mind’s eye is sad puppies with Sarah any more and “No Country for This Old Man”.
Hey, was it me or was this the easiest WSJ ever?
the last two have both been quite easy. i bet we get a tougher one next week. ;/