"Hitting the High Notes" January 5, 2024

[steveb]

Whew - one last chance to look at the puzzle without distractions, and I managed to get to the beach with minutes to spare!

[whimsy]

On the Ship this week --

Helping Isaac clean up all the confetti and streamers from New Years.
Took some looks over the past few days but only kept getting swept out to sea.

Posting on the later side so as not to get the hook for the grid spoiler.
But no way I couldn't pick up such a personal gauntlet tossed at 54A!

[Googly]

[hcbirker]

[VanVeen]

After hours of so many musical dead ends -- like matching box numbers to Chopin opus numbers and Bach BWV numbers, looking for do and re and mi, etc., as well as different keys and scales, and thinking about how in German notation, Bs are actually Hs (which was how Bach could sometimes write his name into his own works with B-flat, A, C and B natural) -- I finally noticed how UPRIGHT kinda reminded me of the LEFTOFF > LEFT OF F puzzle that I totally tanked on a few months ago.

No way that works, I thought.

But it DID work.

So many times my mother said I never learned from my past mistakes, but I just proved her wrong. Ha!

[Gman]

The PETNAP to ETNA red herring was mind bending.

[Mister Squawk]

First stop, note the abnormal number of Ps (4.3% vs expected 1.2%.)

Hung up looking for "high notes," e.g. which note A-G is the highest in each column with a P.

Also, notice that there are two rows and two columns that contain all the letters in PIANO.

Fun puzzle.

[Ergcat]

My very first thought was 68a and 25 d were hints. So using the clearly directional hints “high” ( from the title) and “up” from 25d , I preceded to take the letters above the P’s ( from the hint at 68 a)…. But it yielded gibberish. So I went down the rabbit holes of do-re-mi, seeing other instruments in the clues ( lute and trumpeter), PETNAP & ETNA, USING first initials of themers, GOING ON A DIAGONAL ( UP to the RIGHT IN THE CORNERS, etc. There were so many bunnies! Finally I went back to the beginning and focused on my initial 2 hints… hmmmm, what if I went UP and then RIGHT above the P’s…… AHA

[whimsy]

I really liked the answer; wish I could have gotten it!

I'd been experimenting with the up and to the right concept, and did look at P's, but apparently didn't manage that particular combo of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Ah, poor me -- cue the violins --

I also enjoyed pairing the Martha Grahams with the soup kitchen Saltines (and a nice Chianti.)

[Tom Wilson]

Stumped, I was, beyond salvation. So I submitted Tin (10D, 39A and 52D) Pan (54A and 49D) Alley, given the ingredients scattered about, frontward and backward. Where did I think the "Alley" figured into it? Well, my friends, I obviously didn't think at all. Congrats to all who had fun honky-tonkin' while I took a lonely and discordant detour.

[CPJohnson]

My fire hydrant is a reminder for me to always remain humble.

So, you ask, how on earth would a fire hydrant be a symbol of humility?

Think about it: One day you are the "top dog," the next day you may be the fire hydrant.....

DSC_1041.JPG

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug..." (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

[Mirage]

One of my rabbit holes gave me the answer OPERA. I surmised that "high notes" had to do with money, C-note being slang for a $100 bill. This seemed to be supported by the answer CASH for 6A. Using the letter C in the upright/top position in the column, I found OP below the C in 6D, E below the C in 11D, R below the C in 39D, and A below the C in 51D. What bothered me was the inelegance of using 2 letters below one C but only one letter below the other three Cs. I entertained that answer for awhile until I noticed another C in the grid with the letter K below it. That would have given me OEKRA. Back out of that rabbit hole and on to others previously mentioned. Kudos to all who solved without a nudge.

[krf]

I spent my time my time chasing DO-RE-(not MI)-FA- etc. I did see UP-RIGHT ( Shenk had a previous puzzle where LEFTOFF translated to LEFT-OF-F.) but it didn't work with singing syllables.

[hoover]

Huh. Maybe if I had seen the mechanism, I would have realized that my grid didn't work out and that DOGNAP was supposed to be PETNAP. :/

[Justmarebear]

The directions were there, so much for following them!!! But this is a new week and another mug is up for the taking!

[woozy]

Mentioning that Piano is a musical term and that it begins with a P is not, in my opinion, a prompt to look for the letter P. It could be a prompt to look for instruments, for musical terms, or for other grid entries that can be abbreviated by their first letter but to look for Ps seems like one is just throwing words at us.

"'Mr. Left drove his car...' Okay, it has the word 'left' so that means we must do subtraction"

But I do like the idea of HONKY-TONK being the answer.

[Kas]

In a word: "Ugh."

Well...back to the ship's bar--hello, Isaac!

[MMe]

The long acrosses are intentional distractions, which I find unfortunate. Otherwise it's a fun and easy-to-miss ("SAD") aha, very like LEFTOFF.

CANITBE anagrams to CABINET, which had me looking for others. IMPROMPTUS contains TRUMPISM ...

[hoover]

Mentioning that Piano is a musical term and that it begins with a P is not, in my opinion, a prompt to look for the letter P. It could be a prompt to look for instruments, for musical terms, or for other grid entries that can be abbreviated by their first letter but to look for Ps seems like one is just throwing words at us.

"'Mr. Left drove his car...' Okay, it has the word 'left' so that means we must do subtraction"

But I do like the idea of HONKY-TONK being the answer.

Agreed. I saw PIANO and looked for musical instruments, for solfège, for high "seas," everything but the letter P. I was thinking the clue meant that whatever themers I found, I would have to abbreviate by taking the first letter. The UPRIGHT clue had me looking at the down entries, including reading them from bottom to top.

[Henry Paul]

Like others, 68A was my go-to clue, esp. the "soft P" sounds (like HIP). Wasn't till the Mrs spotted 25D right in the middle of the puzzle (another common motif) and it reminded me of the Vee or Geese puzzle that we totally flailed at -- so I tried that mechanism and Yahoo!

Cute answer, and one you don't hear all that often. Except from Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits:

And Harry doesn't mind, if he doesn't, make the scene
He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright
He can play the Honky Tonk like anything
Savin' it up, for Friday night
With the Sultans
We're the Sultans of Swing

Safe week all!