Carolyn W. Stewart is a veteran constructor that for some reason or another, hasn't published here in the LAT before - probably because she has trouble spelling
"GEARS." But she's turned that into an asset in today's Los Angeles puzzle. I'm glad she finally found us!
Here's the revealer:
59. Shift, or what the ends of 17-, 23-, 38-, and 48-Across do: CHANGE GEARS. In each of the themers, the order of the five letters that spell GEARS are CHANGED (scrambled).
Since the themers don't relate to each other (except for sharing the last 5 letters) I'm going GEAR up by inventing new definitions for each of them:
17. Some fines: LATE CHARGES. A fine imposed when returning GEAR late.
23. Group leaders: TEAM MANAGERS. People who may select GEAR for a team to use.
38. Old name for neon or argon: RARE GAS. GEAR to contain gases include tanks and cylinders.
48. Prom purchase: WRIST CORSAGE. Floral GEAR worn on a wrist.
Now you're all in GEAR. This theme was one that needed the reveler to decode. Circles would have clued us in earlier that something was happening at the end of each answer, but then it wouldn't be Thursday.
Let's CHANGE GEARS and shift into Drive!
Across:
1. Headcheese ingredient: ASPIC. Headcheese is not actually cheese. It is a spicy appetizer mold made of pork roast. For me, the gelatin is the worst ASPIC of this dish.
6. Nave-y bases?: PEWS. Ha ha! "Nave" as in the central area of a church.
10. Ad __: HOC.
13. Like bagpipes and wetlands: REEDY.
14. Overly familiar: TRITE.
16. Forest hooter: OWL.
17. [theme]
19. Messenger __: RNA. RiboNucleic Acid is essential for life (as we know it).
20. Marked down: ON SALE.
21. One with snappy comebacks: WIT. If you can't come up with a clever retort, you are WITout.
22. Attach a patch, say: SEW. A mini poem!
23. [theme]
27. Broccoli __: RABE. Broccoli RABE (pronounced ROB) isn't broccoli at all. AKA rapini, it's a leafy, bitter relative of the turnip. Mine is missing - I've been RABED!
30. Go without a destination: ROAM. Or ROVE.
31. Carol contraction: TIS. 'TIS not the season yet, but it starts earlier every year, so who knows? And remember folks, there's only 252 shopping days until Christmas, so you'd better get going! To save time, you may contact me here for my list. Just sayin'...
32. Didn't waste: USED.
33. Landscaping supply: SOD. In South Florida, it's very difficult to grow grass from seed in our sandy soil, so I recently added some SOD to my lawn. Per instructions, I laid it green-side up.
34. Take exception to: RESENT.
37. None at all: NIL.
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| NIL (not pictured) |
38. [theme]
40. San Francisco's __ Hill: NOB. NOB Hill is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the US. You can hobnob with snobs there.
41. Long rowboat, or a long kitchen: GALLEY.
43. Square on a waffle: PAT. A PAT of butter.
44. Best guesses: Abbr.: ESTS. Abbreviations is abbreviated, so we must double abbreviate ESTimateS?
45. In medias __: RES. Latin for "in the midst of things," it is a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of crucial action rather than with a traditional preamble. You see it at the beginning of every action movie, as director's try to stay fresh by emulating Homer's Odyssey from the 8th century BC.
46. The Smiths guitarist Johnny: MARR. Johnny MARR is an English-born Irish musician, singer and songwriter. Fender now offers a signature model Jaguar built to his specs.
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| Johnny and his Jaguar |
47. Political satire that won 17 Emmys in seven seasons: VEEP. It's on HBO, so many of us haven't seen it.
48. [theme]
52. Many, many years: EON. Many, many years: EVEN. The rest are odd years.
53. "Color me intrigued!": OOH. Tell me more!
54. Drive-in server: CARHOP. Before the drive-thru, meals came to you! You were still eating in your car, but at least you were parked. So civilized.
58. Shakshuka ingredient: EGG. Shakshuka is a popular North African and Middle Eastern dish of EGGs poached in a flavorful sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, seasoned with spices like cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. I'm glad this clue wasn't the other way around - Egg dish: SHAKSHUKA. That would've been ridiculous.
59. [theme]
62. Low grade: DEE.
63. "Home Alone" boy: KEVIN. KEVIN! Played by Macaulay Culkin.
64. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES. Will ESTES is an actor, apparently, who stars in something.
65. Orchestra sect.: STR. The STRING section.
66. Tide type: NEAP.
67. Surgical tube: STENT.
Down:
1. "Collapsed in Sunbeams" singer-songwriter Parks: ARLO. ARLO Parks is a performer perhaps better known by her English countrymen, although now living in the States. Since the only ARLO I know is Guthrie, I assumed she was a he. And you know what happens when you assume...
2. Astin of "The Goonies": SEAN. SEAN Astin is an accomplished American actor who started as a child in Goonies. I liked him as the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's best friend in Lord of the Rings.
3. Dependents that can't be claimed as tax deductions: PETS. Actually, they can be deducted if they are also service animals. Here's Buster patrolling the beach as a tax-deductible life guard.
4. Contributed to a brainstorming session: IDEATED.
5. Repetitive sequence: CYCLE. Ever felt like you're getting nowhere?
6. Org. that may take summers off: PTA. Like many school-related organizations, the Parent Teacher Association follows the academic calendar and has summer vacation.
7. Miss a cue, say: ERR.
8. Native American hut: WIGWAM. A WIGWAM differs from a teepee in that there are less ways to misspell it.
9. Hofbrau vessel: STEIN. Hofbräu is a Bavarian beer from Munich traditionally served in a German beer STEIN.
10. Good judgment: HORSE SENSE. You can trust a horse's advice if he's wearing glasses.
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| Mr. Ed talking sense into Wilbur |
11. One with a title: OWNER.
12. Scratches (at): CLAWS.
15. Lots of rich folks?: ESTATES. See sNOB HILL.
18. Word of mouth: HEARSAY.
24. "Wuthering Heights" setting: MOOR. The MOOR in this story is in northern England, thus no bagpipes. It lies between Liverpool and Leeds, near Haworth where the Brontë sisters wrote most of their novels.
25. Met expectations, in a way: MADE PAR. This clue was average.
26. PX patrons: G.I.S. G.I. is a nickname for an US soldier, thought to be mass-produced "Government Issue." Originally stamped on trash cans and equipment made of "Galvanized Iron" in WWI, it's adoption is an even more cynical take. In any case, soldiers shop at Post EXchanges, retail stores on an Army base.
27. Stepladder step: RUNG.
28. Land east of the Urals: ASIA.
29. Quasimodo, for one: BELL RINGER. Yeah, I know. His face doesn't ring a bell.
34. Daily grind: RAT RACE.
35. Pay attention to: NOTE. Because if you miss a NOTE, the melody sounds wrong.
36. Cookbook meas.: TBSP. A TaBleSPoon measure.
38. Update, as inventory: RESTOCK.
39. Needle-nosed swimmers: GARS.
42. French article: LES.
44. Highest point: EVEREST. While Mount EVEREST is the highest point above sea level, it's interesting that there are taller mountains on Earth, but they start on the sea floor.
46. Natives of the Colorado river valley: MOHAVE.
48. Works the garden: WEEDS. The difference between WEEDS and flowers is whether you want them there or not. We're trying to grow more wildflowers around our South Florida home that add color and thrive naturally in the sub-tropics with low water requirements.
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| Not our yard, but it's certainly colorful! |
49. Thesaurus creator: ROGET. In junior high, I thought it was Roger's Thesaurus, but that's a different word.
50. Financier Steve who owns the New York Mets: COHEN. He seems very popular.
51. Green plums: GAGES. Greengages (or Green GAGE) are a cultivar group of the European plum recognized for its small, round shape and intense sweetness. That's plum crazy! The things you learn from xwords.
55. Can't stand: HATE. Can't stand: SITS.
56. __ Ishii: Lucy Liu's "Kill Bill" role: O-REN. I stumbled upon Kill Bill: Volume 1 while flipping channels years ago, and was immediately riveted. Watched it from the middle, then again from the beginning. I like Tarantino's incongruent music choices.
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| Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii |
57. "Over here!": PSST.
60. Actress Vardalos: NIA. It all started at her wedding...
61. Economic fig.: GNP. This nomenclature for a country's wealth figure, the Gross National Product, is outdated though still in common use. In 1993, the United Nations renamed it GNI, the Gross National Income, to better reflect their intent to measure residents' income vs. product manufacturing.
Be good. RB
