The Niagara Waterworks -- Fallsview Indoor Water Park in Niagara Falls, Canada
The Niagara Waterworks is a large interactive water play center with all kinds of sprayers and doodads to soak others and get soaked.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Puzzle by Joe DiPietro, edited by Will Shortz
This is a playful puzzle with DOODADS (1A Fandangles) and TOEHOLD (8A It can aid one’s climb to the top) in the lead, followed by TICTACTOE (33D Game ih which crosses are used) -- nice words and fairly harmless activities, but then we get a bit sadistic with the esses!
Esses? This Saturday crossword is a stern lisper's heaven with words of action beginning with "s" all crowded into the center left of the grid:
SEESTOIT (7D Makes sure something’s done)
SKI (20A Come down briskly?) (Remember all those lewd remarks by otherwise proper Commenters.)
STIFF (24A Creaky) (They’ll have at this today!)
SCOTFREE (28A Without repercussions)
SITSOUT (36A Skips) sits on top of…
STEPON (39A Flatten) flanked by…
SWOON (28D Faint) and
SCRUNCH (24D Compress) and punctuated by a…
SPITTAKE (37D Bit of slapstick) and elsewhere, bringing up the rear (have a comment?) are…
STEELER (60A Brown foe) and last, but not least…
SPRYEST (61A Displaying unmatched nimbleness).
Noted Personalities (living or dead) include DIANAROSS (1D Singer with the 1980 #1 hit “upside Down”), OSA (30A Massen of the 1940s film Tokyo Rose), EVE (55D One-named rap star/actress), DANTE (4D “De Vulgari Eloquentia” author), ELSA (10D Designer Schiaparelli), CID (41A Massenet’s “Le___”), TATE (40A 1992 Pulitzer poet James), LENNY (49D 1974 Dustin Hoffman movie) and MATADORS (38D Ones who accept charges), give them all an OLE (9D Appreciative response to 38-Down).
Financial Matters bring us such entries as ONDEPOSIT (2D Banked), not to be confused with LEVEE (13D Bank), DUN (6D Hound for bucks?), TARIFF (8D Duty), CHIT (45A Check) and the aforementioned SCOTFREE.
Human Actions, Activities and Proclivities: OVERSTATE (3D Hyperbolize), EVILLOOKS (34D Glares), NERTS (19A “The heck with it”), APNEA (22A What might prevent you from staying out?), IDEATED (54A Thought), HASTE (50A Precipitateness), TLC (44A Special treatment), REDCARPET (35D Special kind of treatment), ROT (27A Languish).
For the pedagogues the pickings are sparse with only ADENINE (17A DNA component), READER (43D Schoolbook), HEXAD (48A Series of six), and perhaps MISSIVE (38A Letter) and maybe WRIT (31A ____ of assistance [search warrant]) to see if the dog really ate the homework.
Designers and craftsmen will recognize HOTPRESS (11D Give a smooth and glossy finish, in a way), DÉCOR (53A Inside look), CHIPS (45D Takes the edge off, maybe), OVINE (12D Wooly) and ULSTER (32A Winter coat).
Those into geography and transportation can hop a TAXI (40D Waiter at a hotel) maybe with an OPENTOP (56A Like some tour buses) and cruise down PARKAVE (58A Fashionable part of N.Y.C.)
or go to LALA (49A ____land) sail down the ISERE (47D River from the Savoy Alps), look at the stars from KITT (21D Arizona’s ____Peak National Observatory),take a covered wagon across the FRUITED (25D Like some plains) where they can lade produce INCRATES (42A How apples and oranges may come), head east to ROANOKE (59A ________Island, N.C.)where they can cut a REED (26A Swamp thing) -- if only the answer had been NESS (I, know, it’s Nessie but she wouldn‘t fit), we’d have made it back to yesterday’s puzzle (remember Scotland?)...oops, that was WALES!
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The latin today is very sparse: ETAL (51D Substitute for some names) and ALIS (5D First word of Oregon’s Latin motto).
Standing alone like the weasel in the children’s rhyme is POP (57D Some music)…
Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Below’s the tune (or melody), for more lyrics go HERE.
...or write your own lyrics in praise of DiPietro!
For today’s second cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.
Puzzle available on the internet at
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I hadn't noticed all the esses... sssweet!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite answer today was James Tate. smack-dab in the center of the grid (well nearly). He wrote a poem about the blue-footed booby, a creature that took up residence many years ago in the most wild and comical corner of my imagination. I hope to get to the Galapagos some day to see some!!!!
Great aside on POP! I didn't know there were so many versions. And I never realized how strange..... what does it mean, POP goes the weasel? Does the weasel get squashed by the monkey? Or does the weasel disappear down a hole? I think the former. Anyway, to me, the song will always bring to mind The Good Humor Man. Even in Sweden, the ice cream truck plays that song.
Ssssweet it is. I hadn't noticed, either.
ReplyDeleteI'm off to blog about the Sunday puzzle. I'll catch you tomorrow.
rocky road rabbit:
ReplyDeleteI always found the Good Humor truck to be very sinister with its refrigerator humming and the cheerful tune permeating the neighborhood!
Hmmm...I'm curious now about the pop in pop goes the weasel!