Saturday, October 5, 2024, David P. Williams

Saturday Themeless by David P. Williams

I was fortunate to blog Dave's first puzzle that was published for the LA Times on May 15, 2021. It was so long ago that Rich Norris was still the editor.

The brilliance of Dave's puzzle is evident when you see the three vertical and three horizontal 11-letter fills in the heart of the puzzle. Subsequently, he had a very low word count of 66. The last horizontal fill is only 51. Across and the last vertical fill is 47. Down

My failure was at MIN_US/_ENTIANS which fills my definition of a Natick. I wrote my grandson (see below), who is a professional jazz musician and getting a Graduate Degree at The University of North Texas, and he immediately knew MINGUS and told me some terrible stories about him.

My Grandson

Across:

1. Street in London home to many medical offices: HARLEY.

7. Charles known as the "Angry Man of Jazz": MINGUS.

13. Cold spells: ICE AGES.

15. Like most drafts: UNSENT - Mentally, I went through several definitions of draft before I arrived at the ones that indicate that you might want review a few times before you hit Send.

16. "Hang on": JUST A SEC.

18. Pose: STANCE.

19. Duck: AVOID.

20. Admit: COP TO - On the other hand...

22. Get some sun: TAN.

23. Get too much sun: BURN - On the other hand...

24. "No kidding!": TRULY.

25. Guinness order: PINT.

26. Ready: SET.

27. Large venue: ARENA.

28. Song birds?: SWANS - Two came to my mind

  

29. Serious scratch: PRETTY PENNY - The idiom explained

31. Poutine kin: CHEESE FRIES - You can hold the cheese on my FRIES

Not a big fan below either!

32. Comes full circle?: WRAPS AROUND.

33. Second-most populous urban area of the Tibetan Plateau: LHASA 

LHASA pop. 521,000

Getting from LHASA to Kathmandu takes a WRAP AROUND route.

 

34. Primary rte.?: US ONE - From Ft. Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida

35. Ask sincerely: BEG.

38. A in Kindergarten: EINE - Kindergarten is German so "A" dog is EINE Hund

39. Like some accents: ACUTE.

40. Adidas rival: FILA.

41. Sound of disapproval: TSK.

42. Shorts' lack: KNEES 😀

43. John whose Civil War trilogy was adapted as a miniseries starring Patrick Swayze: JAKES - You'll have to look hard to see John's name in the credit

44. "Don't bother": SKIP IT.

46. Star witness?: SIDEKICK.

48. Moderate: GENTLE.

49. International understanding: ENTENTE - The most famous/infamous one?

50. Instruments that are difficult to donate, ironically: ORGANS - Now that is a great observation!

51. Help: ASSIST.

Down:

1. Garments similar to mantillas: HIJABS.

 

2. Contacts company: ACUVUE.

3. Sandals, e.g.: RESORT.

4. Mass medium: LATIN - The Catholic Church changed from being all in LATIN just before we got married over 60 years ago. Some LATIN phrases are used during the liturgical year. 

5. "Zounds!": EGAD.

6. Pitcher's aim?: YES - Not a baseball pitcher or a water pitcher. This pitcher is a salesman.

7. Dank: MUSTY.

8. Digging: INTO - I really got INTO Dave's puzzle

9. PRISM org.: NSA.

10. Plants whose roots flavor angostura bitters and Aperol: GENTIANS Angostura bitters  is a concentrated bitters (herbal alcoholic preparation) based on gentian, herbs, and spices, produced by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11. Eerie: UNCANNY - Just some of the eerie comparisons

12. Surgical tubes: STENTS.

14. Ingredient omitted from a recipe, perhaps: SECRET SAUCE - There's some things they won't tell you. 😀

17. Retaliates, in a way: COUNTERSUES - The man on the right sued Taylor Swift for $3M saying she got him fired, but he lost the suit. Taylor countersued for $1 for assault which he is doing in this picture and won that suit.

21. Do some sole searching: PLAY FOOTSIE - I know Irish will like this version

24. Arborist's concerns: TREES - After living on the treeless prairie, Nebraskan J. Sterling Morton proposed Arbor Day to support planting trees.

Very early Lincoln, NE 

25. Trounced, as a n00b: PWNED - The word "pwned" has origins in video game culture and is a leetspeak derivation of the word "owned", due to the proximity of the "o" and "p" keys. It's typically used to imply that someone has been controlled or compromised ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

27. Corncake that may be filled with queso: AREPA.

28. One making bank in Paris?: SEINE - I'm going out on a limb to say I'll bet you understand this picture  

29. Moon unit: PHASE.

30. Dried plum: PRUNE.

31. Revolutionary activity?: CRANKING - Success!

32. Hair of the dog: WHISKER 😊

33. "It's that time": LET'S GO.

35. Midriff-baring suit: BIKINI.

36. Chooses: ELECTS - Carol Blood is running against Mike Flood in our 1st District Congressional race.

A clever sign!

37. Flood insurance?: GASKET - Given enough time...

39. They're paid to play: ANTES.

40. Mountebanks: FAKES - Derivation

42. Brick oven: KILN.

43. Takes off: JETS.

45. Org. that publishes Our Children magazine: PTA.

47. Father figurer: DNA.

Friday, October 4, 2024, Gary Larson, Amy Ensz

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with a Friday offering from frequent contributors/collaborators Gary Larson and Amy Ensz who are dillgently trying to help us Get ER Done (but, hopefully, in a manner significantly different than the one our friend, above, appears to be employing).

At six places within the grid we are asked to append the letters E and R to a common expression and, thereby, create appropriate answers to the clues.  To make things even more interesting, today we get a mixture of themed-answers placed both Across and Down in the grid.  Here is where we are asked to get ER done:

17 Across. Die-hard independent?: PARTY HATER.   A reference to political parties and people who are not convinced that either of the two dominant ones have the answers.  Derived from: Party Hat

28 Across. Baked potato?: HOT TUBER.  From: Hot Tub  A potato being, of course, a TUBER.

48 Across. Diamond heist?: ICE CAPER.  From: Ice Cap  CAPER being film noir/tec - speak for a robbery.

63 Across. Problematic dental patient?: DRILL BITER.  From:  Drill Bit  Ouch!

11 Down. Gauge on an oil rig?: WELL METER.  From: Well Met which is an archaic adjective used as a salutation, or part of a salutation, meaning "glad to meet you".  It is also carries connotations of suitability and propriety.  It's based on a different meaning of "meet," an adjectival/adverbial usage indicating something is literally or figuratively the right size for a given situation.

35 Across. Quality-control inspector at a knapsack factory?: PACK RATER.  From: Pack Rat.  A pack rat is a hoarder.  Not to be confused with the Rat Pack.

The grid:

The rest of the clues and anwser-ers:

Across:

1. Floor it: SPEED.  Put the pedal to the metal.  Step on the accelerator.  An automotive reference.

6. Grasps: SEES.  Understands.

10. Exchange: SWAP.

14. Eighth Greek letter: THETA.  See also 62 Across.

15. Do roadwork: PAVE.  Better to see this than something to do with TAR.

16. Deli sandwich: HERO.  How The Hero Sandwich Got Its Name

19. Came to rest: ALIT.

20. Alpine cheese from Italy: ASIAGO.

21. Vexes: RANKLES.

23. Support on a course: TEE.  A golfing reference.

24. "Stay" singer Lisa: LOEB.  Not in this solver's musical wheelhouse but they've TEEd it up so:

27. Ode or haiku: POEM.

Our clever Chairman

Crafts amusing Moe-kus but

Eschews writing M-odes 

30. One of Bo Peep's charges: EWE.  LAMB was t00 long.  RAM would have fit but would not mesh with the perps.

33. Incident that hurts one's credit score: REPO.  REPosession.

36. Hence: ERGO.

37. Place atop: SET ON.

39. "To the stars," in mottos: AD ASTRA.  Today's Latin lesson.

41. Facility that's in a constant state of ferment: BREWERY.  Nice wordplay.  Beer is fermented.

43. Kitchen gadget: RICER.  Sometimes PARER.

44. Carp kin: DACE.  Both are fish.  While we have previously seen DACE in our puzzles this solver did not recall the word.  Thanks, perps.

46. Writer Bombeck: ERMA.  A frequent visitor.

47. Comics shriek: EEK.  Sometimes we see EKE as in to EKE out a living.

51. Rolling in dough: RICH.  Slang.

53. Henry VI's school: ETON.  If it's a reference to English royalty, the school is almost always ETON.

54. Apollo vehicle, briefly: LEM.  Lunar Excursion Module

57. Netflix title role for Lily: FRANKIE.  Lily Tomlin I know.  The show I don't know.  Thanks perps.

60. Gender-neutral ethnic identity: LATINE.  As contrasted with Latino or Latina neither of which is gender-neutral.

62. Ninth Greek letter: IOTA.  See also 14 Across.

66. "Couldn't agree more": AMEN.

67. Country whose name comes from a Gaelic goddess: EIRE.  Ireland.

68. Not fully trusting: LEERY.

69. Shredded: TORE.  Will it be TORN?  Not this time.

70. "Out!": SCAT.  SCAT also has other meanings.

71. Barnett of CBS News: ERROL.

Down:

1. Mid-Mar. figure: ST. PAT.

2. Lunar cycle component: PHASE.

3. Supercreepy: EERIE.  Halloween is less than a month away.

4. Blues guitarist Baker: ETTA.  Often clued with a reference to ETTA James.

Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad

Same Song - A Different "Take"

5. Company that invented black-light fluorescent paint: DAY-GLO.  Until solving this puzzle yours truly was unaware that DAY GLO colors traced their name back to a specific company.

Day-Glo Color Corp.

6. Upscale bathroom installation: SPA.  Somewhat convoluted cluing, IMMHO.

7. Down: EAT.  Slang.  Down has many meanings (e.g. feathers, a direction, nail it down) so this one had to be sorted out.

8. At any time: EVER.

9. Oaxacan wrap: SERAPE.  Oaxaca tips us off to a likely Spanish answer.

10. Lose: SHAKE.  As in to get away from someone who is following you.  My Labrador loved it when, in a "cops and robbers" flick, someone would say "Let's see if we can SHAKE the tail."

12. "Songversation" artist India.__: ARIE.  A frequent visitor.

13. Double boilers, e.g.: POTS.

18. Owl: HOOTER.  Not a themed answer.

22. Like Vikings: NORSE.  I love NORSE puns.  They're Frigg'n hilarious.

25. Robinhood alternative: E-TRADE.  Both are platforms for trading stocks.

26. App issue: BUG.  A tech reference.

28. Socks: HOSE.  Used as a noun.  Not as in punches someone.

29. Excavator-maker: BOBCAT.

31. Compost bin helper: WORM.  I saw a pack of gummy WORMs that said “No artificial flavors.”  Who buys gummy worms hoping they’d taste as close to real worms as possible?

32. Grammy winner from Donegal: ENYA.  A frequent visitor.

33. Uncommon: RARE.

34. Actress Falco: EDIE.  A frequent vistior.

38. Amphoralike vessel: EWER.  Not a themed answer.

40. Take in: TRICK.  As in "I've been taken in".

42. Get a second opinion?: RE-POLL.   Okay, but this solver has never heard this used.

45. Part of the upper deck?: ACE.  A playing card reference.

49. Takes to task: CHIDES.  My ex-wife used to CHIDE me about everything.  She was a real multi-tsk-er.

50. Empower: ENABLE.

52. Idiotic: INANE.

54. Soda purchase: LITER.  Hand up for first guessing it was a flavor or a brand name and not a size.

55. Año Nuevo month: ENERO.  Spanish lesson.  The New Year happens each January.

 

56. Streep of "Only Murders in the Building": MERYL.  Are there other Streeps?

57. Order: FIAT.  From the Latin:  Let it be done.

58. Tony who holds the Cowboys record for most touchdown passes: ROMO.  Dak Prescott holds the single-season Dallas Cowboys' record for most touchdown passes.

59. Playwright Bogosian: ERIC.  Perhaps better known for his role as Captain Danny Ross in Law & Order Criminal Intent.

61. Layer: TIER.  Hen was too short.

64. 401(k) rollover target: IRA.  A rollover IRA is a retirement account used to move money from a former employer-sponsored retirement account, such as a 401 (k) plan, into an IRA without losing its tax-deferred status.

65. Tennis mulligan: LET.  A do-over.

Well, that will wrap things up on a day where we visited, or were visited by, ERMA, ETON, EIRE, ETTA, ENYA, EDIE, and ERIC.  Was that a sub-theme?

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