Explanation: Four theme entries start with TO* BE*, in line with the title, where * represents any number of letters. (Love the phrase TORCHBEARER, especially for the upcoming '24 Olympics, but that is technically hyphenated or even one word as opposed to two, hence the disclaimer.) The middle row also illustrates the meta answer's trademark song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," and perhaps the most notable 11-letter entry in the form TO* BE* not represented is the late, great TONY BENNETT. Our family loved his music, and we will continue to spin it in his honor.
KayW 11:23 · 2023-08-05T17:17:53.057Z
Awwww... lovely tribute to a fantastic singer. And a fun puzzle and meta, To Boot!
More vinyl records were sold than CDs in '22 for the first time in the CD's history.
merlinnimue 🤓15:05 · 2023-08-05T18:18:46.243Z
Thanks for the puzzle, amazing find as always, I wish I could understand how you geniuses do it, but I understand now puzzle creation is like that quote from Harry potter: if you need to ask, you'll never know; if you know, you need only ask.
I feel like the center entry took me 5 minutes on its own, but thats a me problem, I need to get better (somehow). And thats not the reason why I'll be crying all day...
I will kindly exhort you that if you even have the tiniest of nudges toward creating puzzles, go for it! Keep your eyes and ears open, as inspiration can truly come from anywhere!
Yeah, I feel that you might need the reveal for that last square! TALENTS he did have.
Joe 16:17 · 2023-08-05T19:41:01.442Z
I tip my glass to the great one! Nice puzzle, Mikey.
rjy 12s · 2023-08-05T19:30:11.935Z
Loved Tony, and loved your tribute.
I K Snamhcok 20:54 · 2023-08-05T20:45:33.158Z
I didn’t get the center square; I got impatient and “revealed puzzle”. And now I wish I hadn’t. Such a nice touch. I should have thought it out. (And I like to think Mr. Bennett will always be with us. How could you not love that guy?)
I know. It was the first day of my vacation, and as soon as I saw his name, I knew. He loved what he did so much, and his melodic interpretations and zest for life were true gifts.
MatthewL 13:53 · 2023-08-05T21:17:30.768Z
Nice one, Mikey, and a nice tribute. Never noticed the TO.. BE... thing. Just got it from the middle row. Very clever all the way around.
Tyrpmom 34:51 · 2023-08-05T22:32:34.181Z
Glad to see I’m not the only one who revealed the center square.
Laura M 🤓18:41 · 2023-08-05T23:00:14.162Z
Cool, I didn't know that!
hoover 5s · 2023-08-06T00:01:01.189Z
Nice tribute. This isn't my area of expertise so I was madly googling San Francisco and singing and painting. It didn't help that I had T(ALENT)S for 34D.
Had the worst time trying to fill the middle because I wanted to put in ARTS but that did not fit with cats. It had to be Tony because, well because of all the TO BEs (surprised there was no Shakespeare reference there). When I asked myself TO BE or not TO BE it ended up with good old Tony Bennett. For those of us of a certain age this is even harder. ALL of the crooners are gone (gone to the coroners anagramatically), no more Dean, Frank, Mel, Bing, and now Tony. Sure there are some good ones now; Bublé, Legend, etc. but the Chairman of the Board, Velvet Fog and now the granddaddy of them all Tony. Why he was so good some people went Gaga over him. Nice tribute puzzle Mike.
I was thinking about this with Bennett; one of my friends loves Sinatra's music, and there was really a timelessness about their music. I agree, we need more crooners now, for sure!
Amazing tribute puzzle! Very well done especially with the visual element in the middle :)… I also appreciate when you say what the intended difficulty is so I know not to unnecessarily go hunting for rabbit holes… (very brief rabbit hole hunting when I saw belch and thought belcher bay for hong kong… I should look for more bays!)… the meta skewed slightly harder since I didn’t grow up with tony bennett’s music so I googled “San Francisco heart” and there was a heart statue in SF named after tony Bennett… only realized later it was a song
Many years ago a young Anthony Benedetto was travelling with his pet deer. He was with a group of friends who insisted they go clubbing to a new spot in Manhattan, a dance club owned by Samuel Fahn. They all had a marvelous time, perhaps too marvelous because come the next morning everybody was very hung over and ruing the activities of the past evening. However, none were more depressed than young Tony. “Why are you beating yourself up so?” asked a friend, “Give it a couple of hours and you’ll feel like new!” “But you don’t understand” said Tony, “I left my hart in Sam Fahn’s Disco”….
And from that sad beginning an iconic song was born…no, not that one, “Dear Hart” by Andy Williams.
Absolutely the wrong demo here! Fortunately, after googling "famous singers who paint" and "famous painters who sing" for a while, I finally stumbled across a list that included the right To* Be*. Good puzzle, thanks Mikey!