Happy Days The Malachi Crunch
Varinia Swicegood
Ok, so I admit it - I was a massive fan of the Brady Bunch when I was a kid. So what if they talked funny, Greg threw a football instead of kicking it and the house was adorned with wall to wall orange shag pile carpet with olive green fixtures. (So was ours btw!) The show introduced us to blended families, which sadly are the norm these days and Mike Brady was everybody's favourite TV dad - or was he?
Challenging him for that job was the Grand Poobah of Leopard Lodge No. 462 in Milwaukee, Howard Cunningham. You see as much as I loved the Brady Bunch, Happy Days was where it was at for me. I wanted to hang at Al's diner, eating fries and drinking soda while watching Richie, Ralph and Potsie get up to their usual shenanigans and planning some oddball caper that always ended up with Howard dispensing some fatherly advice after it had gone south.
But I wanted to be the Fonz, not the kids in the letter jackets. I wanted to pick up girls just by holding my arms akimbo, thumbs up and saying "Ayyyy" and play music on the juke box by thumping it in the right spot to make the right record start playing. The Fonz never paid either - just got a free ride by virtue of his coolness.
Sadly I learned that such things don't happen in real life when attempting to emulate him in the games room at Swansea Caravan Park, our frequent school holiday destination. At the age of 12 saying Ayyy with your thumbs out just gets you quizzical looks from the girls at best, at worst finger pointing and outright laughter. Compounding my humiliation, thumping the juke box just resulted in a permanent scratch on ELO's Dont Bring Me Down and 24 hours banishment from the Games Room by Park Management.
My favourite episode of Happy Days though was the one featuring the Malachi Crunch, a famed demolition derby move by the Malachi brothers in which they simultaneously reversed at speed into their hapless victim from opposite sides turning them into a Malachi Sandwich. Predictably the Fonz put paid to this evil manoeuvre by pulling out of the trap at the last second, resulting in the Malachi Brothers crunching each other - thus winning the day, the girl and my undying admiration.
John Davidson at Eastern Autobody has been in the Smash Repair Industry for some time now and he and his fantastic team at Mornington are more than a match for the Malachi Brothers and their modern day counterparts.
Impressive clever tricky Thurs. It was fairly easy once I caught on so of medium seems right.
Because I was ENTRANCED at first ANTS spoiled my picnic for a while. And, of course, I needed to move a bunch of stuff around when the theme dawned.
I did like this one. Kudos to Mr. Schmiedeler.
I had gotten both GOODALL and ENTHRONED and was not happy with either,then threw down ONE FOR ALL/ALL FOR ONE off the F's but I still hadn't totally figured out what was going on 'til TBALL turned into TBONE which I had down for 49D!AH HA indeed.I liked the symetry although it did cut down the answer count.I would have to call this easy/medium at most.they want me to go to rehab I say NO!NO!NO!
Fun, but not too challenging. Though it's amazing how easy it is to get tripped up on the theme entries even after you have the gimmick figured out. Just so hard to make your brain write the wrong thing . . .
Also hated OATSEED and LESSEROF. And NWA?!? . . . wow. I wonder how many people will look up what that stands for after seeing it here for the first time. I expect some complaints, too.
I loved this.. It made me think differently and once I got the theme, it was fun looking for all the all's and one's which I circled.
ONE FOR ALL and ALL FOR ONE right smack dab in the middle. Give me this kind of puzzle over a rebus any day.
Never heard of ALTON nor DOUAI but everything was gettable.
NWA doesn't bother nor our friend LSD that likes to pop up often.
Thank you Mr. Schmeideler for a great puzzle.
Good ONE, and quite clever - definitely gets two thumbs up! Agree with @Harry about the difficulty in purposefully committing an "error."
The only MALACHI I've ever heard of was the Malachi Crunch (from an old Happy Days episode). I suspect the pronunciation is different.
LSD references two days in a row? And Eurasia in the last couple of days? It's ALL good!
I liked this puzzle a lot. I had the revealer filled in very early on, but it still took me some time to make the switch.
And no wonder EURASIA doesn't seem quite fictional enough for 1984!
Hand up for difficulty writing the "wrong" answer in the grid, @harry! Also wanted "Billy" for Elliott rather than the eventually obvious MISSY, and ten for the eventual EEN (TTL somehow sounds so right at 12:40 am!). Also Fry instead of RAE. And the less said about OATSEED the better! Otherwise, a smooth easy solve with some fun to be had along the way!
Hand up for ANTS and BILLY (Elliott). Should have caught the latter early - he has only one t.
DNG because I messed up ATTIC. Was sure it was ADA B. Wells (10D) and ended trying to make ATTA? fit 7A. Checked all squares and.... D'OH!
Really enjoyed this one--if only because I had most of the answers right before I figured out what the theme MEANT!
I got the clue early on, but couldn't figure out what to do with it... I kept thinking that ONE of the 8 clues would have the phrase 'ALL' in it and then ALL 8 of the clues would have the phrase 'ONE'. This even after I noticed some of the answers were "in wrong places," which should have been the giveaway.
DOUAI was a complete shot in the dark but most of the other more obscure ones I was able to deduce-- I love ALTON Brown so anytime that fits I'm happy to try it and it checked out. AUNT BEE's a mystery (was thinking DEE most of the time); Though it's not Josip Broz here, I always associate TITO with the Cold War.
Props to NWA--must make Dre feel old!
Caught onto the theme rather quickly and was grinning like a Cheshire cat through the entire solve. I loved this one. First fill was Jane Goodall and realized something was up when I couldn't get anything off of the ALL. Got the reveal after filling in a bunch of letters. A good and satisfying Thursday puzzle.
6D brings to mind what I usually associate with presidential candidates although I always refer to it as the EVIL OF TWO LESSERS.
Had a very enjoyable lunch with @Rube and Mrs. Rube today at Duke's Barefoot Bar and Restaurant. They came bearing gifts and we came bearing (what else, muffins) Weather, perfect! Next time we may branch out and try a new place, The Feral Pig. We have a few of those on "the rock".
Great puzzle Dan, thanks for the smiles.
Liked it a lot. And so what if no one ever heard of DOUAI -- what an interesting vowel cluster and refreshing change from the tired STLO, ARLES, and NICE.
I actually bought into some of the swapped clues before catching on. I mean, software is SET IN STONE (silicon), right? And TBONE (4D) just had to be one of those playground games that was before my time. Nicely done, Mr. Schmiedeler.
I suppose the clue to 45A should have read "Former Swedish manufacturer..." since Saab has just delivered its last 100 cars, and will now go dark for good.
DOUAI ??? NONONO I don't !
But really clever!
I spent too long saying "How is TBALL a steak??!!
How is "fixed" INSTALL?!?"
It never occured to me there was a theme at that point?!
Then again, i found myself wrapped in a towel today with wet hair with NO memory of having taken a shower!
@chefwen
LOVE Evil of two lessers!! Might steal that...as apparently i have to keep @Pretty Bad Doug amused...pressure!
Got the revealer early, understood what it meant, wasn't confused about what to put where, still didn't realize for way too long that there were symmetric pairings that had been switched instead of just random word replacements, and quote 1983's WarGames incessantly.
2D must have been a further clue to the theme: the slogan of the Three Musketeers! Can't believe that this wasn't intentional. And nice that no mention was made of it. This is the sort of hint used in the biweeky NYT acrostics; some of the clues allude obliquely to the theme. All hail Athos, Porthos, et Aramis (not the cologne (ugh)!
@Rex f*** yeah Wegmans! I miss that most about Upstate New York. And the excitement of bringing people there for the first time. "But it's only a grocery store!" "Just wait, my young grasshopper..."
I don't construct, but here's a cute clue/answer: Saruman and Sauron's landlord? Answer: LESSOROFTWOEVILS. Make it so, Rex or ACM.
I loved this puzzle. I knew that 59A had to be GOODALL but kept getting GOODONE. Once I figured out the connection to 14A, the puzzle came together guickly (I got the hint form the 59A/14A pairing). Loved that I could get the hint without crosses and that every answer still required a 'double take'.
Agree with @evildoug. I'm white and even though I'm an Anglophile, I'm not anglo.
I'm another one who got the theme early but still tripped myself up. I think for the first time ever I had 3 writeovers on the same answer - ENTRANCES>>ENTHRONES (huh?)>>ENTHRALLS>>ENTHRONES (oh, it's a THEME answer!!)
Once I navigated that mess I zoomed through nicely, but still did double-takes on every set of theme answers - for that, I applaud this puzzle.
I had a dream last night that I was solving the Thursday puzzle and trying to cram 8 letter rebus answers into tiny squares. So maybe I was semi-prepared for a fun misdirect type of puzzle this AM.
@evil d: you've been visiting here long enough to know the answer to your question. Rex has a whole bunch of rules for crosswords. Whether anyone else abides by them, or even knows about them, is beside the point.
Loved this puzzle, thank you, Dan Schmiedeler! I'll be looking for your name at the top from now on.
I'm wondering if a semi-evil or kinda mean doug is going to show up? @The one and only evil doug, you have red hair?
@davkio, the Saab story is truly sad.