Food Trucks
 |
| Washington, D.C. Mall |
Today's constructors Amie Walker and Geoffrey Schorkopf have dished up a tasty puzzle with 4 themers and a reveal that I think you'll concede is pretty straightforward (for a change!) ...
17. Menu icon that resembles a patty in a bun: HAMBURGER BUTTON. A hamburger button, so named for its unintentional resemblance to a hamburger, is a button typically placed in a top corner of a graphical user interface. Its function is to toggle a menu or navigation bar between being collapsed behind the button or displayed on the screen.
This reminds me a little of the trigrams comprising the hexagrams of the Chinese book of divination known as the I Ching, but that's a different kind of puzzle. 😀
23. Red-and-white pattern: CANDY STRIPE. The pattern on the traditional dresses worn by young hospital volunteers. One of my sisters was a "candy striper" at local nursing home when she was growing up. I think it may have led to her becoming a nurse when she got older.
 |
| Candy Stripers British Columbia, CA |
40. Textured features that help soundproof spaces: POPCORN CEILINGS. A popcorn ceiling, also known as a stipple ceiling or acoustic ceiling, is a ceiling with one of a variety of spray-on or paint-on treatments. The bumpy surface is created by tiny particles of vermiculite or polystyrene, which gives the ceiling sound-deadening properties.
 |
| Popcorn ceiling tile |
51. Intricate inversion on some roller coasters: PRETZEL LOOP. This one is pretty intricate -- the Impulse roller coaster at Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park in Elysburg, PA. My grandchildren love this ride, but no impulse will ever get Granddad onto this contraption ...
 |
| Impulse Roller Coaster Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park |
62. Compromise, or what solvers do when filling in the first words of 17-, 23-, 40-, and 51-Across?: MAKE CONCESSIONS. I'm sure you've noticed by now that the first word of each theme clue is actually the name for a common type of concession stand, e.g. a kiosk or a food truck, that has a limited menu of fast foods, e.g. HAMBURGER, CANDY, POPCORN, and PRETZELS.
My personal favorite food truck is operated by this guy, who once gave me a lesson in how to make Penne alla Vodka, including the quickest way to prepare fresh garlic cloves -- whack 'em with the side of a vegetable cleaver and the cloves will practically pop right out of their skins!
Here's the grid ...
1. Food safety concern: ECOLI. ECOLI is short for Escherichia coli, a bacteria that can be harmful, but also occurs in our intestines and is actually necessary for digestion. Here is the difference. Here is an image of the E.coli in our gut microbiome ...
 |
| Escherichia coli |
6. Calif. airport with yoga rooms: SFO. If you're a bare knuckle flyer this may be a good place to relax before boarding ...
9. Hypes (up): AMPS.
13. Like a dance marathon: TIRING. They can practically be killers, like the film about a Depression era marathon, depicted in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses Don't They ...
15. Sticky stuff: TAR.
16. Wraparound dress: SARI. Wedding saris are traditional garments worn for Indian weddings and other special occasions in Hindu, Punjabi and Bengali cultures. Also commonly spelled saree, this South Asian wedding dress is named after the Sanskrit word for "strip of cloth." You won't be sorry for skimming this article for some truly beautiful saris.😀
 |
| A beautiful bevy of saris |
20. Golden yrs. fund: IRA.
21. Iowa State city: AMES. Ames is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU).
22. Strainer: SIEVE. A collection of sieves of various mesh sizes is indispensable for the preparation of ceramic glazes ...
 |
| Glaze sieves |
27. Apple core?: IOS. -- a pun on the word "core", which in computing refers to the central HW or SW component of a system -- in this case IOS is the core software component, i.e. the operating system, of Apple's iPhones.
28. Dawn goddess: EOS. She had her day in the Sun two weeks ago.
29. "30 for 30" airer: ESPN. 30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online, highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. Not all of these films are flattering. Here's trailer for Brian and the Boz, a controversial film about the former Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth ...
31. On the wrong side (of): AFOUL.
34. Verify, in a way: CARD. The verb not the noun.
37. Beat handily: ROUT.
40. [Theme clues]
43. Tennis great Sampras: PETE. Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 286 weeks (third-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 six consecutive times.
 |
| Pete Sampras Wimbledon 1998 |
45. Luxury watch: OMEGA. The end all of all watches, or at least the Greek ones? 😀
46. Rae of "Barbie": ISSA. She played President Barbie in this clip called "Put the Constitution Back" ...
48. Style manual org.: MLA. MLA Handbook (9th ed., 2021) establishes a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. It is published by the Modern Language Association, which is based in the United States. According to the organization, their MLA style "has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses".
 |
| Amazon Link |
49. Latin I verb: AMO. Today's Latin lesson: AMO = "I Love".
51. [Theme clue]
58. "Divine Comedy" poet: DANTE. Dante Alighieri (c. May 1265 – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, is considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. His use of the Tuscan dialect helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language.
The poem consists of three parts: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. I recall reading The Inferno in college and discovered that it is a misconception that the 9th circle, the center of Hell and the abode of the Devil, is the hottest place in the Universe. Instead it's the coldest because it is the farthest away from God.
 |
| Dante Alighieri Sandro Botticelli, 1495 |
60. Feels sorry for: RUES. Not pities, regrets.
61. Badminton team, e.g.: DUO. Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock ("birdie") across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players per side). The use of the word "team" in the clue implies the answer DUO.
 |
| Here two Chinese duos compete in the mixed doubles gold medal match of the 2012 Olympics. |
66. Cold drink brand: ICEE. The Icee Company is an American beverage company located in La Vergne, Tennessee, United States. Its flagship product is the Icee (stylized as ICEE), which is a frozen carbonated beverage available in fruit and soda flavors. As I'm writing this there are 6" of snow on the ground outside that needs shoveling and for some reason this drink doesn't appeal to me. 😀
67. Inquire: ASK.
68. Bring about: INDUCE.
69. Playroom pile: TOYS. My son tells me that coming downstairs in the dark in the middle of the night and stepping on a pile of LEGOS in your bare feet is not a lot of fun. 😀
70. ACLU focus: RTS. The American Civil Liberty Union is concerned with defending rights.
71. Chuckled, slangily: LOLED. Laughed Out Loud, closely related is ROTFL, which is equivalent to roaring, slangily.
Down:
1. Moral tenet: ETHIC.
2. "1, 2 Step" singer: CIARA. "1, 2 Step" is a song by American singer Ciara featuring American rapper Missy Elliott ...
3. "Women & Money" podcast host Suze: ORMAN. Susan Lynn "Suze" Orman (SOO-zee; born June 5, 1951) is an American financial advisor, author, and podcast host. In 1987, she founded the Suze Orman Financial Group. Her work as a financial advisor gained notability with The Suze Orman Show, which ran on CNBC from 2002 to 2015.
 |
| Suze Orman |
5. Shiba __: INU. Thank you perps. Well not quite -- a Shiba Inu is both a breed of Japanese hunting dog ...
 |
| Shiba Inu |
 |
| Shiba Inu |
7. Language of Tehran: FARSI. Farsi, which is the Persian word for the Persian language, is spoken in Tehran, Iran, but also in many other countries around the world ...
 |
| Farsi speakers Worldwide distribution |
8. Celestial body: ORB. It has quite a few other meanings as well.
9. Italian bubbly: ASTI. Asti (also known as Asti spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont, but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the Asti has been classified as a denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG) and since 2004 has been Italy's largest wine product.
 |
| DOCG label |
10. Quick deposition of a king?: MATE IN ONE. MATE as in CHECKMATE, the move that ends a chess game -- the KING is attacked and has no escape. Here are two chess games where WHITE can end the game with one move ...
 |
| Game 1 |
 |
| Game 2 |
11. City near Salt Lake City: PROVO. Provo is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States and is the fourth-largest city in Utah. It is 43 miles (69 km) south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south. The 2020 census listed the population as 115,162.
 |
| Location of Provo in Provo County, Utah |
 |
| Sine A = a/h Cosine = b/h |
18. Setting for Big Ben, for short: GMT. As the clock Big Ben is in London, England the time there is Greenwich Mean Time. This app will show you the current time there, your local time, and the time in many other parts of the world.
 |
| Big Ben |
24. Court ties: DEUCES. Tennis courts of course. Here are the rules (well known by 43A).
25. "Carpe diem" hashtag: YOLO. More Latin: Carpe diem = "Seize the day", advice to take advantage of opportunities. It doesn't necessarily imply that You Only Live Once, an assertion that was considered debatable by this University of Virginia professor.
26. Mani-__: PEDI. A CSO to Lucina!
30. Like some fears: PRIMAL. Or the 1996 film Primal Fear, an American legal mystery crime thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand and Edward Norton in his film debut. The film follows a Chicago-based defense attorney who believes that his client, an altar boy, is not guilty of murdering a Catholic bishop.
31. Tablet download: APP.
32. Sworn enemy: FOE.
33. Alt analogue on a Mac: OPTION KEY.
34. "Erin Burnett OutFront" channel: CNN. Erin Burnett OutFront is an hour-long television news program hosted by Erin Burnett on CNN. OutFront is broadcast live from CNN's Hudson Yards studios in New York City or on location from the site of breaking news events.
36. __ Speedwagon: REO. Looks like they're Back on the Road Again ...
38. Comfy shoe brand: UGG.
39. Wand-waving org.: TSA. Thanks to the TSA's wand-waving magic airline hijackings are now very rare.
41. Bellow: ROAR.
42. Lounge around: LOLL. LAZE fit, but didn't perp, among other words ...
48. Soccer superstar Lionel: MESSI. Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. Here's some MessiMagic for all you MessiManiacs! ...
49. Own up to: ADMIT.
50. Collision repair franchise: MAACO. When I filled this, I had to ask myself "do they still exist?" but after 53 years of operation they're still getting cars back on the road after accidents. MAACO Franchising, Inc. (doing business as Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting) is an American franchisor of auto painting and collision repair shops based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1972 by Anthony A. Martino and Daniel I. Rhode.
52. Accounting giant __ & Young: ERNST. Ernst & Young Global Limited, trading as EY, is a multinational professional services partnership, headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world.[8] Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms. It primarily provides assurance, tax, information technology services (including managed services in areas like Cybersecurity, Cloud, Digital Transformation and AI), consulting, and advisory services to its clients.
53. Stashes, as a football: TUCKS.
54. Calzone center?: ZEE. Metaclue -- if this were a Brit puzzle the answer would be ZED.
55. Big name in near beer: O'DOUL. It may be a big name, as in "recognizable", but this review of O'DOUL's near beer gives it poor marks. In fact this review of the 19 best nonalcoholic beers doesn't even mention it.
56. Cup part: OUNCE. HANDLE was too long and RIM was too short -- a measure of volume, not a container.
57. Not candid: POSED.
59. Simple tops: TEES.
63. Crew blade: OAR.
64. Lorne Michaels's show, familiarly: SNL. This past Sunday February 16th, SNL celebrated its 50th Anniversary. Here are some stars who participated in the 3 hour gala. And here's Steve Martin's opening monologue, rated (just a tad) PG ...
65. Response to "Who wants to go to Disneyland?": I DO. I guess "Vow on the altar" has become a bit dated.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
The answers to the chess quiz in 10D using algebraic notation: Game 1 -- NG6#, Game 2 -- RE7#.
The answers to the chess quiz in 10D using algebraic notation: Game 1 -- NG6#, Game 2 -- RE7#.
