Evans is a master scrabble player who lives in Tacoma Washington. Obviously he is also a great crossword constructor as you can see by his first LA Times entry we get today. I moved right along in my solve but had a natick at the jumping off point of 1 Across/1 Down. I do not know any New Orleans neighborhoods, old or new, and joining that with uber obscurely clued T-RAP made for some very unsettling final minutes for me. ๐ I guessed at a "K" but I had other equally bad/desperate options. Boo!
Across:
1. One of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans: TREME - Excuse my ignorance Big E!
6. Into footwear?: SHOD - A well SHOD unit
10. Included, in a way: CCED.
14. Settle down: RELAX - Aaron said this in 2014 when the Packers started 1 - 2. They then made the playoffs and massed making it to the Super Bowl by 6 points.
15. Come down: POUR - N.W. Ayers and Son ad agency came up with this slogan in 1914 for Nebraskan Joy Morton's salt company.
16. Barcelona's Fundaciรณ Joan __: MIRO - Joan MIRO's foundation has the biggest display of MIRO's works and supports many new artists in Barcelona. More info
17. Homes.com units: APARTMENTS - Our granddaughter is very familiar with this site in her job in D.C.
19. Like a kumquat: OVAL.
20. Fair activities for kids: PONY RIDES.
21. Carrot family plant: ANISE
22. Academic domain: EDU.
23. Took a spill: TUMBLED - The source of Wide World Of Sports' "The Thrill Of Victory, The Agony Of Defeat"
25. Nightie nights?: PAJAMA PARTIES ๐
30. Young egg cells: OVULES.
31. "It's not you, it's me," maybe: LIE.
32. Web-footed divers: AUKS.
35. Struggles with sigmatism: LISPS.
36. Nurse: SIP ๐ Make that drink last!
37. Resolve: SPINE.
38. Swear words: OATH.
39. State on the Arabian Sea known for beautiful beaches: GOA - West coast of India
40. Vandyke kin: GOATEE.
41. World Chess Champion from 2013 to 2023: MAGNUS CARLSEN - Norwegian Sven Magnus รen Carlsen
44. "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" star: SEYMOUR.
46. Waze suggestion: Abbr.: RTE.
47. Facility for tech-savvy HS kids: AV LAB - Every student in America these days is pretty tech-savvy and goes to an AV LAB.
48. Election map figure: BLUE STATE - Here is the 2020 election by county
54. Long-handled hammer: MAUL - I split a lot of wood with my splitting MAUL
55. Fan attribute: TEAM SPIRIT.
56. Part of YOLO: ONCE.
57. Belgrade native: SERB.
58. Possible warning signs: OMENS.
59. Uses Siri, maybe: ASKS.
60. Holy chests: ARKS - Opening the Lost ARK was not a good decision
61. Cantankerous: TESTY.
Down:
1. Genre of Ariana Grande's "7 Rings": T-RAP - I threw a flag on this play where this ludicrous cluing with TREME seemed unfair for a common word! In case you're interested: "7 Rings" is a trap-pop song with elements of hip hop and R&B that runs for 3 minutes, with Grande rapping the hook and final verse."
2. Used car, perhaps: REPO.
3. Great exuberance: ELAN.
4. Barra of General Motors: MARY.
5. Highs and lows: EXTREMES - For April 27, Nebraska's EXTREMES are 95°F in 1989 and 24°F in 1950.
6. Got the lead out: SPED UP.
7. Give an edge: HONE.
8. Surpass: OUTSTRIP.
9. MRI orderers: DRS.
10. "Help me out here": C'MON BE A PAL.
11. Means of settling some disputes: CIVIL SUITS - OJ was found not guilty (not innocent) in his criminal trial but was found guilty in the CIVIL SUIT charging he caused wrongful death.
12. Take marks off: ERASE - There was a time...
13. Gave out: DOLED.
18. Touchy one?: MIDAS ๐
21. "__ wrong?": AM I.
24. SLC athlete: UTE - In Salt Lake City
25. Game that may be played on horses, bicycles, or elephants: POLO.
26. Brand of slip resistant shoes: AVIA.
27. "Short straw again": JUST MY LUCK.
28. Figures in a dominance hierarchy: ALPHA MALES.
29. Protective cover?: ALIAS.
33. __ sock: KNEE.
34. Spotted: SEEN.
36. Gose or lambic: SOUR BEER - "Sour beer is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. Sour beer styles include Belgian lambics and Flanders red ale and German Gose and Berliner Weisse."
37. Subject worth avoiding: SORE SPOT.
39. Masai Mara mammal: GNU - The great migration in the Masai Mara (Kenya) in Kenya and Tanzania
40. Airport listings: GATES - Hartsfield/Jackson Airport in Atlanta has more GATES than any airport in the world - 195
42. Lump: GOB.
43. Remnants: CRUMBS.
44. American __: SAMOA - You deserve a break today in Pago Pago, Samoa
45. "Captain America" star: EVANS.
49. Willa Cather's "The Song of the __": LARK.
D.C.'s Statuary Hall
50. Life partner?: TIME - Speaking of people from Nebraska
Today's idiomatic/anagram puzzle is presented by none other than Winston Emmons, no stranger to the LA Times crossword puzzles. Winston uses 5 "theme" entries. Each answer to these entries is an unscrambled word/phrase that comes as a result of answering the second part of the clue (as well as the first part)
Wait just a darn second, Moe. That doesn't make any sense! Well, you're right; it doesn't. But if you carefully rearrange the letters in the theme answers, you can achieve both halves of the clue's meaning
Please look again at the cartoon above. The carolers are singing "Listen Thing", which is an anagram for "Silent Night" (re-arrange the letters). And while there is no clue associated with the cartoon, all we need to do is use that bit of logic to understand what's going on in each clue and answer:
15-across. Cleanliness is next to ... a minimalist approach?: DOING LESS.
The obvious answer to the first part of the clue is "GODLINESS". It was so obvious to me that I typed it into the white squares. The phrase: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is a proverb that implies that practicing cleanliness is akin to worshipping or performing religious obligations
The obvious answer to the second part of the clue, "a minimalist approach", is DOING LESS. I never thought of "doing less" as being a form of "Godliness", but when you rearrange the letters in doing less you can spell the word Godliness, and now we have answered both parts of the clue correctly
19-across. Going to hell in a ... damaged armored vehicle?: BASHED TANK.
The phrase "Going to hell in a "HAND BASKET" is well-known idiomatic phrase that means "to be rapidly deteriorating - on course for disaster;"
a BASHED TANK is indeed a damaged armored vehicle, but the phrase "bashed tank" is not one we often use ... but rearranging bashed tank also gives us handbasket
34-across. Don't throw the baby out with the ... decorative Halloween ring?: BAT WREATH.
"Don't throw the baby out with the "BATHWATER" is an idiomatic expression for an avoidable error in which something good or of value is eliminated when trying to get rid of something unwanted. A slightly different explanation suggests this flexible catchphrase has to do with discarding the essential while retaining the superfluous because of excessive zeal."[wikipedia]
Not this, I hope ...
A BAT WREATH is not the most popular Halloween "ring", but I did find an image:
And as you might suspect by now, a quick rearrangement of bat wreath = bath water
50-across. The only thing we have to fear is ... feeling better quickly?: FAST RELIEF.
The first half of the clue cites FDR's speech (featured below) with the iconic idiomatic phrase: "The only thing we have to fear is FEAR ITSELF."
The second half of the clue (feeling better quickly) yields FAST RELIEF. And if you really want "fast relief"you might want to take Brioschi
Once again, the rearranging of fast relief = fear itself
And last, but not least, we have: 56-across. Famous ... weapon that would dissolve in water?: SALT SWORD.
Unscramble SALT SWORD and you get (famous ...) "LAST WORDS".
This is the only thing I could find for Salt Sword. I am guessing it is a reference to Salt and Sanctuary (unfamiliar, to me), but I suppose that, literally, a salt sword could dissolve in water. But it's a stretch, and of course, YMMV
Certainly, this was a very interesting puzzle and theme. As always, your comments below will let us know how you liked or disliked this puzzle. I floundered with it for over 20 minutes, but once I "got it" it made sense
BTW, this is a puzzle that is **admiral toe** for those who enjoy solving the daily Jumble™. If only Old Man Keith was still alive he would have been smiling **area rote** ๐, as he was extremely fond of finding the diagonal anagrams of the daily puzzle
Here is the grid, and then "To depart ... or what might come with a bundle of shingles? **ROOF FACT SHEET** (let's see how many of you get this - as well as the other two anagrams I used in the intro!!)
Across: 1. Ointment amount: DAB. How many of you recall this old jingle?
4. PIN point: ATM. Sometimes clues can get too cutesy. But I get it ... an ATM is a "point" for where a PIN is entered ... meh
7. Prone to micromanage, perhaps: BOSSY. Don't have a "cow" over this one!
12. Napping racer of fable: HARE. The tortoise and the HARE
13. "Vive le __!": ROI. "Long live the king!" [Frawnche]
14. Gas brand with a torch logo: AMOCO. Shouldn't the clue have been: "Erstwhile gas brand with a torch logo?" Didn't BP take over AMOCO?
17. More vast: WIDER. A little contemporary music to soothe and relax the soul ...
18. Muppet who had a meltdown over a rock named Rocco: ELMO.
32. Like an old mattress, maybe: LUMPY. Or maybe like this character from Leave it to Beaver:
36. Bart in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: STARR.
38. Mongolian desert: GOBI. [Brittanica dot com]:
The Gobi Desert is a great desert and semidesert region of Central Asia that stretches across large parts of Mongolia and China.
Much of the Gobi is not sandy desert but bare rock.
The Gobi is the 5th largest desert in the world, covering over half a million square miles.
The Gobi’s fauna is varied and includes camels, kulan, and dzeren.
The Gobi’s Yol Valley houses an ice field, even during summer.
Ancient tales in Mongolia speak of lost cities buried beneath Gobi’s sands.
The Gobi’s Taklamakan area is often called the “Place of No Return” due to its harsh conditions.
The Gobi is surrounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands of Mongolia.
The Himalayas block weather and starves the desert of rainfall from the South.
39. Altar constellation: ARA. I know of the erstwhile Notre Dame football coach (ARA Parseghian) but not the constellation. And further down the grid we had a similar sounding clue with a much different meaning (59-across. Alter __): EGO.
48. MIT's domain: EDU. [Oxford English Dictionary 3rd definition of domain]:
computing
a distinct subset of the internet with addresses sharing a common suffix or under the control of a particular organization or individual
49. Grammatical gender: NEUTER. As someone who studied German in HS and briefly in college, I became all to familiar with the grammatical "genders" ... In der deutschen Grammatik ist das Wort fรผr Neutrum "das"
54. Pad __: THAI. Moe-ku:
Bangkok's Apple Stores Pair street food with Tablets. Serve Pad THAI with i-Pads
55. Monteverdi work: OPERA. [Britannica dot com lists these] "Notable Works: “L’Arianna”, “La favola d’Orfeo”, “Licoris Who Feigned Madness”, “Madrigals of War and Love”, “Movete al mio bel suon”, and “The Combat of Tancredi and Clorinda”
60. Ont. neighbor: MINN. Four-letter state abbreviations went by the wayside when the USPS decided to further abbreviate them to two-letter ones ... MINN became MN because MICH laid claim to MI
61. L'Orรฉal polish brand: ESSIE. Thank you, perps. Maybe our resident mani-pediites can chime in on this not-so-famous-to-me brand ...
5. Throw: TOSS. There is a certain skill involved in this relatively new game:
6. Out-of-bounds golf shot, e.g.: MISHIT. TTP, HG, and any other golfers ... care to share one of your MISHITs that might have turned out to be positive?
7. Ribald: BAWDY. Moe-ku #2:
A spotted horse was Quite BAWDY with the fillies. A ribald piebald??
8. Skip over: OMIT.
9. Diner drink: SODA POP. ICE CREAM SODA wouldn't fit; nor COFFEE. ICED TEA did. Anyone try that first?
10. Tourist's diversion: SCENERY. Perhaps Picard can provide us with some SCENERY that caused a diversion for him?
11. Long-haired terrier, familiarly: YORKIE. My first thought - after viewing a few images of a YORKIE - was, "is Toto (the dog from Wizard of Oz) a Yorkshire Terrier?? [hepper dot com says]
"Toto’s breed is never mentioned in the books, and many scholars insist that he was supposed to be amutt. He’s described as having long, silky hair — just like a Yorkie. One other thing worth noting is the fact that the book’s illustrator, W.W. Denslow, was the proud owner of a Yorkshire Terrier"
So now you know
12. More sacred: HOLIER.
15. Thick: DENSE.
16. Birth announcement abbr.: LBS. Is there any proof that babies who are born weighing 7 lbs 11 ozs turn out to be great craps players??
27. Rid (of): PURGE. Something I do every time I move (which happened over 7 times the last 14 years), and yet I still have a lot of "stuff". And another similar clue: (48-down. Get rid of): ERASE.
28. Texter's "How disappointing": SMH. ๐คฆ
31. Went boldly: STRODE.
33. Practical: UTILE. Or, the clue could've been "Scrabble™ square worth 1 point": U-TILE
34. Base: BAD. It is better to show an antonym for "base" to know how this adjective can mean "BAD":
35. Proterozoic, e.g.: EON. [Britannica dot com says]: "Proterozoic eon, the younger of the two divisions of precambrian time, the older being the archean eon. The proterozoic eon extended from 2.5 billion to 541 million years ago"
36. Colorful shawls: SERAPES. As seen on ETSY:
37. Mortarboard attachments: TASSELS. I somehow recall that a TASSEL on a mortarboard is in one position before graduation and another position afterward
40. Gain again: RE-EARN. As in someone's confidence, perhaps
41. Secret alternative: ARRID. does TRYST also fit??! ๐ In this clue's case, it was referring to a woman's deodorant/anti-perspirant brand called "Secret". But if you didn't get this one, don't sweat it ...
42. One side of a comparison ad: BEFORE. Clever; the old before and after comparison ... the image below is of one that always seemed to be on the back cover of comic book magazines, back in the day:
My inspiration for getting a set of barbells
44. Signs of life: PULSES. I just checked mine ... yep, still alive ... 69 bpm @ resting rate