"Power Trips" - July 15, 2022

[31 Down]

...Then started with the across letters and had The Lice. Then added PO from the downs and had the answer after a little chuckle over The Lice.

Not so far fetched:

https://www.balleyrecords.com/artist/li ... %20drummer.

[BarbaraK]

I could let go of the fish out of water, but having "Power" in the clue for an entry in the lower right corner - whoa! Once I bit that herring, I was totally hooked with no way to get off that line.

Matt has said that he does not put intentional red herrings in his metas, but I don't recall ever hearing Mike say that. I wonder if Matt's original clue was something generic like "Vote" and Mike changed it. Or maybe Matt is going to start doing intentional red herrings, like Pete's MMMMs that have basically a 2nd meta.

[MajordomoTom]

found the triples, saw they were nonsense

looked at the first letters, when it started THE, that was promising.
and it finished POLIE, making me stop and "find my cheese".

... next up, let's go with some Pink Floyd perhaps (as I'm listening to Wish You Were Hear as I type this)?

EDIT: now playing: Queen, Somebody to Love.

KSHE 95, St. Louis, the "world's longest playing rock station".

[vandono]

Saw the triple letters. Anagrammed to Amebic Who and knew that wasn't it. Then started with the across letters and had The Lice. Then added PO from the downs and had the answer after a little chuckle over The Lice.

I found The Lice, too! I totally missed the Down triplets at first. I'm a little miffed that my pattern recognition module didn't recognize that I had most of a well-known musical trio.

[Streroto]

I had ABIEWHOMEC very quickly having gotten the TRIPS clue but had to sleep on it to have the aha moment. Meanwhile I had The Lion Sleeps Tonight in my head all night! The subsequent Police songs were a welcome change.

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

Stay well all

[JetStream]

Good puzzle but out of my league. I'm think I'm 20,000 under at this point.

[MajordomoTom]

I had ABIEWHOMEC very quickly having gotten the TRIPS clue but had to sleep on it to have the aha moment. Meanwhile I had The Lion Sleeps Tonight in my head all night! The subsequent Police songs were a welcome change.

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

Stay well all

they're throwing shade at the WSJ editorial board, not at us.

[iggystan]

I had ABIEWHOMEC very quickly having gotten the TRIPS clue but had to sleep on it to have the aha moment. Meanwhile I had The Lion Sleeps Tonight in my head all night! The subsequent Police songs were a welcome change.

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

Stay well all

they're throwing shade at the WSJ editorial board, not at us.

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

[SewYoung]

This was sent to my husband and he shared it with me. I thought that it probably sums up the attitude of most Muggles as well:

Sir Winston Churchill's vocabulary and command of the English language was unparalleled.(He won the Nobel prize in literature in 1953).

He was once asked about his position on whisky. Here's how he answered:

"If you mean whisky, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children;

If you mean that evil drink that topples men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fibre of my being."

"However, if by whisky you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes;

If you mean good cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning;

If you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow;

If you mean that drink the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of pounds each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation...

Then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favour of it..!!!

This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle !!!"

[MajordomoTom]

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

We have a great community here.

[CromsFury]

I had ABIEWHOMEC very quickly having gotten the TRIPS clue but had to sleep on it to have the aha moment. Meanwhile I had The Lion Sleeps Tonight in my head all night! The subsequent Police songs were a welcome change.

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

Stay well all

they're throwing shade at the WSJ editorial board, not at us.

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

[michaelm]

[redacted - We're not getting dragged into political nor personal attacks.]

[Barney]

I wasn’t intending to start a Crossword Battle of the Blades when I responded to the comment ~~ “I decided to completely cease all patronage of the WSJ, even its crossword” (because he disagreed with a WSJ editorial)~~ by suggesting to keep politics out of the crossword forum as we do here.

Said suggestion was met with vehement disagreement. So be it. It’s Amy Reynaldo’s board; she can run it as she likes.

Apologies for unintentionally creating ill-will toward this board but it happened.

[femullen]

A sympathetic correspondent wrote to ask if the Smarter Half of Equipe Canuck, being the smarter half, was of no assistance to me this week. The Smarter Half and I did kibitz briefly on Friday. She observed that changing a P to an O would change the title to "Power Trios." However one says "Aha!" in French, I said it and began to dig.

Summers in Montreal are famously short, so I cannot blame the Smarter Half for spending the weekend beyond wifi in the Laurentians rather than in close conference with me on a computer screen. In short, not only was she of no help, she was the opposite: changing Ps to Os and cousin schemes was such a fruitful vein of tantalizing and incorrect hints that I just kept digging.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is THE POLICE. Nine answers in the grid contain one letter three times. From top to bottom they are TAMARA, HUBBUB, EXHIBITION, POWWOW, OH HUSH, LOOPHOLE, IMMEMORIAL, CHEESE and ECLECTIC. Their first letters spell the contest answer.

Another tough one this week, right? (Here at contest HQ, we weren't nimble enough to see "trips" as a clue to triple letters....). We had 823 entries, with 75% correct, right in line with a typical week. Lots and lots of other trios among the incorrect entries, including Peter Paul and Mary (21), Emerson Lake & Palmer (14), Cream (13), the Isley Brothers (12), the Bee Gees (11), and lots more.

Congrats to this week's winner: Bob Jasinski of Cincinnati, Ohio!

[Joe Ross]

I wasn’t intending to start a Crossword Battle of the Blades when I responded to the comment ~~ “I decided to completely cease all patronage of the WSJ, even its crossword” (because he disagreed with a WSJ editorial)~~ by suggesting to keep politics out of the crossword forum as we do here.

Said suggestion was met with vehement disagreement. So be it. It’s Amy Reynaldo’s board; she can run it as she likes.

Apologies for unintentionally creating ill-will toward this board but it happened.

Your comments didn't cause the response. We do keep politics & negative B.S. off this site, which is well-appreciated by members, including you, Barney. You need not apologize.

[MajordomoTom]

editing was appropriate, commencing the walk of shame ...

[Joe Ross]

editing was appropriate, commencing the walk of shame ...

Nobody whose comments on this page I redacted should apologize, including you, Tom. The redactions were necessary, IMO, like removing combustible fuel to keep fires from spreading.

[MatthewL]

I wasn’t intending to start a Crossword Battle of the Blades when I responded to the comment ~~ “I decided to completely cease all patronage of the WSJ, even its crossword” (because he disagreed with a WSJ editorial)~~ by suggesting to keep politics out of the crossword forum as we do here.

Said suggestion was met with vehement disagreement. So be it. It’s Amy Reynaldo’s board; she can run it as she likes.

Apologies for unintentionally creating ill-will toward this board but it happened.

Your comments didn't cause the response. We do keep politics & negative B.S. off this site, which is well-appreciated by members, including you, Barney. You need not apologize.

Can't we at least challenge them to a rumble? Or maybe a dance off? I'm thinking a Sharks and Jets kind of thing.

[MajordomoTom]