Friday, May 17, 2024, Michael Torch

Good morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with a recap of today's puzzle by Michael Torch.  The theme of the puzzle is based on the placement of words within four of the responses.  In those places, Michael has taken common expressions that include the word BEFORE and omitted the word BEFORE thereby allowing the order of of the words to speak for itself.  He has "literally" placed certain words before (in front of) others.  Let's take a look at the first example:

17 Across:  Give unappreciated gifts, literally:  CAST PEARLS SWINE.

The expression is, of course, "cast pearls before swine" and it has come to mean to not present a thing of value to those who will fail to understand or appreciate it.  Here, our constructor has physically CAST (placed) the word PEARLS in front of (before) the word SWINE.  As a result we can read the answer as CAST PEARLS (BEFORE) SWINE.  Michael has, literally, cast pearls before swine.

Here is how the gimmick is applied at the other themed clues and answers.

25. Pre-chaos moment, literally: THE CALM (BEFORE) THE STORM.  In the answer, THE CALM, literally, comes before THE STORM.

43. 48 hours ago, literally: THE DAY (BEFORE) YESTERDAY.   You get the idea.

57. Overconfidence is dangerous, literally: PRIDE COMES (BEFORE) A FALL.  Cometh, goeth, who's quibbling!?

Here is the completed grid:

.... and here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. Radio format: TALK.  Hand up for first thinking AM FM.  TALK radio as opposed, say, to Top 40 radio or All News radio.

5. Johnny Chase's nickname on "Entourage": DRAMA.  Unknown to this solver.  Thanks, perps.

10. Hunk: SLAB.  Not as in Adonis.  A hunk, for example, of meat or concrete.

14. Land east of the Urals: ASIA.  I sometimes wonder whether we would consider Europe and Asia to be separate continents if the map makers who had the greatest influence were not, themselves, European.

15. Scout's task, briefly: RECON.  Not a reference involving Tonto's horse.  RECONnaisance.

16. Choice: A-ONE.  Used as an adjective.

20. Unsubscribe, with "out": OPT.  Why did the Maharishi Yogi OPT out of Novocaine during his root canal?  Because he wanted to transcend dental medication.

21. Boot: EXPEL.  Not a shoe reference.  Perhaps a shoo reference.

22. Took the top prize for: WON AT.

23. Drink suffix: ADE.  As in lemonade.  Or Gatorade.

24. Emmy nominee Lucy: LIU.  A frequent visitor.

34. "Boléro" composer: RAVEL.

35. Fields: AREAS.  As in AREAS of expertise.  Not as in comedienne Totie.

36. Highlands refusal: NAE.  Scottish.  "No more Glenmorangie for me, thanks" would not fit in  the allowable space.

37. Cupid counterpart: EROS.

38. Snide remarks: SNARK.  An answer that did not end with an S.

39. Orchid garlands: LEIS.  An answer that did end with an S.

40. Set as a price: ASK.

41. Cozy inn, informally: B AND B.  Bed AND Breakfast.

42. Modest hits?: BUNTS.  Not a musical or theatrical reference.  A baseball reference.

46. Scrubs ctrs.: ORS.  Medica personnel wear scrubs in Operating RoomS.  With the leading cap it could be a reference to the TV show.

47. Consumed: ATE.

48. Enjoy every bite of: SAVOR.

51. Leading the league: FIRST.  A possible baseball reference.

54. Place for a mud bath: SPA.  STYE was too long.

60. Middle East capital: RIAL.  Capital in the financial sense.

61. Trim: PRUNE.  What did the gum trees say after I PRUNEd them?  Eu-clipped-us!

62. Alien conveyances: UFOS.

63. Bulldog's home: YALE.

64. Turn off: REPEL.  What did the male magnet say to the female magnet?  He said : When I saw your backside I was repelled....However, after seeing you from the front, I now find you very attractive.

65. Many a tow job: REPO.   REPOsession.

Down:

1. Birria option: TACO.  A Mexican food reference,  Birria is a flavorful stew that originated in Jalisco.

2. Letters of urgency: ASAP.  What do you call very short proverbs?  ASAPs fables.

3. Enumerate: LIST.

4. Dennings of the MCU's "Thor" films: KAT.

5. School that's home to the Dragons: DREXEL.  Known for their women's basketball program.

6. Harvest: REAP.  As ye sow . . .

7. Plot piece: ACRE.  Not a literary reference.  A bit misleading as an ACRE, by itself, can be a fair sized plot.

8. Defoe's "__ Flanders": MOLL.  A literary reference.

9. Y or N, possibly: ANS.  Punt.  Yes    No    ANSwer

10. Showed the door: SAW OUT.

11. Pork cut: LOIN.  CHOP would have fit.

12. Golfer Nordqvist: ANNA.  Winner of the 2009 LPGA Championship and the 2021 Women's British Open.

13. __ red: BEET.   ERIK THE was too long (and red was not capitalized).

18. Elliptical part: PEDAL.  An exercise machine reference.

19. Reuben cheese: SWISS.  A sandwich reference.   For a number of years, the Yamaha FJR motorcycle community put together a Ruben Run to La Pine, OR.

23. Las Vegas team: ACES.  A basketball reference.

24. Security concern: LEAK.  Call the White House Plumbers.

25. Halloween option: TREAT. TRICK was also five letters.  Fill in the T and the R and find a perp.

26. Rather severe: HARSH.

27. Call to mind: EVOKE.

28. Third baseman Machado with two Gold Gloves: MANNY.  Obviously, a baseball reference.

29. Vocation: TRADE.

30. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme: HERBS.  Once again, Patti and the puzzle setter have teed it up.

31. Upright: ON END.

32. Condiment in Indian cuisine: RAITA.  A creamy yogurt-based sauce.

33. Tough to resolve: MESSY.  As in a MESSY situation.

38. Word with you or who: SAYS.  Before and after.  SAYS you and who SAYS.  Or, Simon.

39. Bass player?: LURE.  Not a music reference.  A fishing reference.

41. Fitness program that incorporates ballet, yoga, and Pilates: BARRE.  Another unknown for this solver.

42. Siamese fighting fish: BETTA.  ... and yet another unknown to this solver.  Thanks, perps.

44. Marginal drawing: DOODLE.

45. Shoe decor: TASSEL.

48. Nimble: SPRY.

49. Covent Garden solo: ARIA.  Covent Garden is a London, England venue used for operas.

50. Glass vessel: VIAL.  I once made the mistake of drinking the liquid from a scientist’s test tube.  It was a VIAL substance.

51. Anterior: FORE.  Most often seen as a golf reference.

52. "My turn!": I'M UP.  Another possible baseball reference.

53. Artist Magritte: RENE.  Another frequent visitor.

54. Jewel box?: SAFE.  A place to store your jewelry.  Jewel box is often used as a CD case reference.

55. Tiny splash: PLOP.

56. Plus: ALSO.

58. Lifeguard skill: Abbr.: CPR.  An abbreviated answer to a non abbreviate clue.

59. Lab coat?: FUR.  Not a reference to what might be worn in a facility used to conduct experiments.

Not too far from my home they have torn down a small retail strip mall and are constructing a medical complex.  Out in front is a sign that reads:

I'll take two.

And, on that note . . .

____________________________________________

Thursday, May 16, 2024, Alan Levin

 

Cooking Competitions

  This one is between Chef and his wife Janice over the price of turkeys ...

Today veteran constructor Alan Levin dishes up four cooking contests with in the language clues that bake into 4 punny game shows by changing just a single ingredient ...

17A. Contestants must perfect a ras el hanout today on ...: THE SPICE IS RIGHT.   The Price is Right.  And  to spice things up a bit Alan gives us today's Arabic lesson: رأس الحانوت = ras el hanout, a Middle Eastern spice blend. When I attempted to save the logo that follows I got a prompt that it existed already.  Then I recalled that the watchword  for The Price is Right -- "COME ON DOWN" was used as the reveal in Trent Evan's April 6, 2023 puzzle.

 

25A. Contestants flatten a confit de canard today on ...: PRESS YOUR DUCK.  Press Your Luck. If you should happen to have a duck handy, here's a recipe for Confit de Canard (confit is French for candied). As it turns out pressed duck is actually a different dish, an Asian specialty.  Here's the Bald chef's recipe for Chinese Pressed Duck.

424. Contestants work in teams to create a Michelin star-worthy dinner today on ...: LETS MAKE A MEAL.  Let's Make a Deal is still going strong  The fill for this actually makes some sense.

56A. Contestants race to prepare baby's first bottle on ...: THE NEWLY FED GAME.  The Newly Wed Game was an American television game show that put newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other (e.g. when the crying baby wakes up at 2 AM, who handles the bottle?).

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest

Across:

1. First president born after 1960: OBAMA.  The 44th President of the United States.

President Barack Obama

6. Disparages: RIPS.

10. Damsonlike fruit: SLOE.  SLOE (Prunus spinosa) is a species of flowering plant in the rose family native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa.  The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Britain and patxaran in Basque Country. The wood is used to make walking sticks, including the Irish shillelagh.

Sloe berries
a.k.a. "Blackthorn"

14. Commands a crew, informally: COXES.  A COXSWAIN is in charge of a crew, especially of rowing teams.

The coxswain of this sculling boat is in the stern

15. __ chamber: ECHO.

16. Miami team: HEAT.

17. [Theme clue]

20. Appointed: ORDAINED.  In most Christian churches people are ordained to one of three positions: bishops, priests, and deacons.  In the Catholic church the first two require celibacy.  Deacons may be either permanent or transitional. Permanent deacons may marry, whereas a transitional deacon is temporary position for a seminarian during the last year of their formation.  The following year they are ordained to the priesthood.  Ordinations are performed with the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  One of the many actions that take place during this rite is the laying on of hands ...

The Laying on of Hands

21. Come next: ENSUE.  Clue 21A will ENSUE
.
22. Patient care pros: RNS.  Registered nurses are on the front lines of medical care.  This is what it takes to become one.

23. Brit's pal: MATE.

25. [Theme clue]

31. No longer listening, say: BORED.

33. Type of 32-Down: ALTO.  Also called the English Horn.  Here is a solo featuring this instrument from the second movement of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "New World", played by  Vivian Kong ...

34. Ground-breaking tool: HOE.

35. Bibliography space saver: IBID.  Today's Latin lesson: ibidem; "in the same place" -- used to indicate that a reference is from the same source as a previous reference.

36. Jet off for: FLY TO.  Don't know where I'm going and  when I'll get back again ...

38. River's edge: BANK.

39. Chaney of old horror films: LON.  Scary looking guy ...

Lon Chaney Jr.

40. Reunion invitee: ALUM.

41. Put out, as a flame: DOUSE.

42. [Theme clue]

46. Fade: WANE.

47. Ocasek of the Cars: RIC.   The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek (rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter and leader.  Here's Just what I needed ...

Lyrics

48. "Being the Ricardos" role for Bardem: ARNAZ.  Being the Ricardos is a 2021 American biographical drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Arnaz. Kidman received an Oscar for Best Actress that year.  Hand up if you've seen it?

51. Locals at the 2016 Summer Olympics: CARIOCAS.  A Saturday level clue that you could only hope to get with perps.  I didn't.  The term is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial.

56. [Theme clue]

59. Yacht wood: TEAK.

60. Sammy with 609 homers: SOSA.

61. Bert's bestie: ERNIE.  Bert and Ernie go fishing ...

62. __ a one: NARY.

63. Power unit: WATT.

64. Title pages?: DEEDS.

Down:

1. Pod prefix: OCTO.  More Latin (or Ancient Greek: "ὀκτώ • (oktṓ)"): EIGHT.  One of the many definitions for the clue "pod" is "foot", so that in this case it refers to that remarkable, highly intelligent creature, the octopus, a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda.

2. Physicist played by Branagh in "Oppenheimer": BOHR.    Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branagh's casting in this role was criticized by some Danes, as Niels BOHR was Danish -- but director Christopher Nolan defended it on personal grounds.   

As to Bohr himself, his groundbreaking work on atomic theory and quantum mechanics in the  first quarter of the 20th Century not only gained him a Nobel Prize, but made the atomic bomb possible.  He was in fact a hero to J. R. Oppenheimer.

Niels Bohr

3. Canceled abruptly: AXED.

4. Flat-topped hill: MESA.  Today's Spanish lesson: "mesa" = table.  A mesa is a flat-topped mountain or hill. It is a wide, flat, elevated landform with steep sides.  Spanish explorers of the American southwest, where many mesas are found, used the word because the tops of mesas look like the tops of tables. Not to be confused with buttes and plateaus ...
 

Plateau, butte, and Mesa

5. Aimed high: ASPIRED.

6. Playground time: RECESS.

7. Like some tea: ICED.

8. Greek letter that sounds like "fie": PHI.  Among the many uses for this letter, it represents the wave function in quantum mechanics which was developed by Erwin Schrödinger, a colleague of Niels Bohr (see 2D).

Phi

9. Mayday call: SOS.

10. Buffed: SHINED.

11. Bench supports: LEGS.  Or the "tears of wine" running down the sides of a glass.  A CSO to MOE.

12. Island called "The Gathering Place": OAHU.  The Hawaiian Islands and their nicknames, explained.

13. Pal follower: ETTE.  This can be either a flat surface that an artist uses to mix paints, or the range of colors in a painting, e.g.

Some believe that Vincent van Gogh was the greatest artist who ever lived, and I definitely believe that Vincent and the Doctor was the greatest episode of the time traveler series Dr. Who that was ever produced (you can stream the whole episode on Amazon Prime for a nominal amount) ...

18. Stagecoach stopovers: INNS.

19. Evocative of the past: RETRO.

23. Lose a layer: MOLT.  As they get bigger, 38Ds do this

24. Self-: AUTO. 

25. Museum gift shop purchase: PRINT.  Like this one ...

Irises
Vincent van Gogh
May 1889

26. Flushed: RED.

27. "I'm the best!": YAY ME.  The crossword antonym to I TRY.

28. Relocation rental: UHAUL.  U-Haul Holding Company is an American moving truck, trailer, and self-storage rental company, based in Phoenix, Arizona, that has been in operation since 1945. The company was founded by Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington, who began it in a garage owned by Carty's family, and expanded it through franchising with gas stations.

29. Scams: CONS.

30. Palmer of "Nope": KEKE.  NOPE (stylized in all caps) is a 2022 American neo-Western science fiction horror film written, directed, and produced by Jordan Peele.  It stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as horse-wrangling siblings attempting to capture evidence of an unidentified flying object in Agua Dulce, California.  Hand up if you've ever been there?  Two hands up if you saw any UFOs? 😀

 31. Tab: BILL. For some reason people always expect me to pick this up. 😀

32. Bassoon cousin: OBOE.  Here is Valerie Xu playing an excerpt from the OBOE solo in Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Juan ...

36. Dessert made in a ramekin: FLAN.  Here's a recipe for an easy to make Spanish Flan.

37. Gospel that includes the parable of the Prodigal Son: LUKE.  Two sons figure in this parable: the prodigal son and the faithful son.  When we visited Lourdes in 1999 there were giant posters of this famous painting by Rembrandt all around the grotto, inviting people back to the Church.  I accepted the invitation.

Return of the Prodigal Son
The faithful son can be seen in the background,
just above the father's left shoulder.
He is not happy about the prodigal son's return.

38. Pet snake, perhaps: BOA.  Eventually they get very big ...

Pet boa

40. Outstrip expectations: AMAZE.

41. Returned a verdict: DECIDED.

43. Like a penthouse: SWANKY.

44. Palestinian leader who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize: ARAFAT.  The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 was awarded jointly to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East".  Here's the Nobel Prize Committee press release.

Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist the following year.

45. Swampy earth: MIRE.

48. Abbr. before an addressee: ATTN.

49. Emmy nominee Seehorn: RHEA.  Presumably named for Rhea a mother goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Titan daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, himself a son of Gaia.

Rhea

50. In the area: NEAR.

51. Dermatological complaint: CYST.  A cyst is a small pocket of tissue often filled with fluid or pus. It can occur due to an injury, infection, or other issues. They’re usually benign but may need treatment for complications.

52. Scary character: OGRE.  See 39A.

53. Peppermint shape: CANE.

54. During: AMID.

55. Realizes: SEES.

57. OH-to-OK heading: WSW.  Oklahoma is West South West of Ohio.

14 hr 27 min (972.5 mi) via I-70 W and I-44 W

58. Mauna __: LOA.  Not KEA.  You have to wait for perps on this.  MAUNA LOA is Earth's largest active volcano by both mass and volume.  Its last eruption was in 2022, lasting from November 27 to December 13. Here's some news footage of the event ...

Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley