Good morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, back from an extended stay in the quite cold Colorado Rockies. The cooling effects of that stay have worn off pretty quickly because today's constructor, Amanda Cook, has elected to take us in quite the opposite direction. Would it be improper to say that, although I have never met the woman, Amanda has given me HOTS? I know, I know. A little context is required and here it is:
At the four corners of the puzzle, Ms. Cook has placed answers that can be preceded by the word HOT. The reveal comes at:
35 Across: Third base, in baseball lingo, or one of four in this puzzle: HOT CORNER. It is commonly assumed that the term came about because of the hot shots aimed at the third baseman, but the explanation is not universally accepted. "Third base was so named about 40 years ago when most of the star sluggers were right-handed. Nowadays, however, with so many hard hitting left-handers, first base is equally 'hot'." - Fan And Family October, 1935
... and the theme is applied at:
1 Across: Valued entity: HOT COMMODITY.
10 Across: Chances: HOT SHOTS. Chances as in "to take your best SHOT" at something. Hot Shots, of course are what all solvers who hang out here are.
64 Across: Breathes heavily: HOT PANTS. With HOT, a style of women's shorts.
65 Across: See's Candies candy: HOT CHOCOLATE. After a career at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Valerie decided to work part time at Sees' Candies just for the fun of it.
The rest of the clues and answers are:
Across:
15. Dodgy behavior: AVOIDANCE. As avoidance is not always dodgy behavior, this clue threw this solver off the scent for a bit.
22. Google rankings metric: Abbr.: SEO. Search Engine Optimization All You Might Want To Know
24. Bubblegum __: POP. A music genre reference. An example (listen at your own risk):
43. Long-jawed fish: GAR.
 |
| Gar Brooks |
46. __ of March: IDES. Beware!
48. Pacific Coast Highway's route number: ONE.
49. Innovative: NEW.
50. Mork's home: ORK. A Robin Williams reference.
54. Some tuna cuts: STEAKS. Tuna puns are fin-ally back in season.
56. Composers' rights org.: BMI. This could have been clued with a reference to Body Mass Index.
57. Ego Nwodim's show, for short: SNL.
58. Magical symbol: SIGIL. A learning moment for this solver.
59. Geographical region for a retailer: TRADE AREA.
62. Completely silly: INANE.
63. Quiz with bona fide answers?: LATIN TEST. Bona fide being a Latin expression.
Down:
2. Sheep: OVINES. Baaa, Not to be confused with BOVINES. Moo.
3. Landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania: MOLDOVA.
.jpg)
4. The Bucks, in sports crawls: MIL. A professional basketball reference.
5. W.H. Auden's "__ to the Medieval Poets": ODE.
6. Bolts: DARTS. Not a hardware reference. Used as a verb.
7. Lined up: IN A ROW.
34. Dry: ARID.
36. Black bird: CROW. A crow invited her friends over to hang out but they didn’t show up. She was charged with attempted murder.
38. Mexican bar: CANTINA. Alternatively, a Star Wars reference.
39. One who practices minimal consumption: FREEGAN. New to this solver.
42. Awareness of wrongdoing, in criminal law: MENS REA.
59. "No Scrubs" group: TLC.
60. Ambient musician Brian: ENO. Another frequent visitor.
7 comments:
Yesterday someone on this site said we were overdue for a hard one and they were absolutely right; today, we got that “hard one.” Among other head scratchers, Latin legalese made an appearance. And that wasn’t the half of it! Anyway, FIR (somehow ) so I’m happy.
By the way, MalMan didn’t say, so I’ll just tell you that “BMI” stands for Broadcast Music, Inc.
You’re welcome.
I have no idea how the fill managed to not fall apart completely, given the theme material on the edge AND triple stacks. Plus KILLER ABS is a great answer. On the other hand there's LATIN TEST, green-painty with a clue that doesn't really land.
Good morning!
It only took ten minutes for d-o to meet his DEMISE. ERIc/ORc and FREEmAN/SImIL were the guilty parties. SEO and NAP (as clued) were mysteries. BMI, on the other hand, was a gimme. Definitely Friday-worthy, Amanda. Welcome back. Mal-Man. (Loved the "attempted murder.")
BMI: BMI pays composers for public performance of their works. One way to count performances is the number of radio airplays. Occasionally our radio station would be required to complete BMI logging -- a listing of every song played, along with its licensing organization: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc. What a hassle! Results from one radio station would also be used for other stations having the same music format.
STREAK: That immediately evokes memories of Ray Stevens novelty song, The Streak.
Well I had to settle for a FIW after I ran out of WAGs, A-runs, (and patience) in the MOLDOVA/SEO cross (I stuck with i as in Search Engine Index), and FREEGAN/SIGIL had me stumped. Never heard of MENS REA, but perps dictated that. HAMM was the only unknown name, and we have another shortened word in RIDIC which I imagine some will lodge a complaint about. The reveal was a perfect fit for the 8 corner fills, and the cluing was mostly fair (being Friday, it shouldn’t be easy). I liked the clue for STREAK, I just happened to be living in a dorm at the time STREAKing was HOT, and there was one memorable night in the courtyard…. Thank you for the challenge Amanda, nice work!
MM ~ welcome back, and thanks for explaining it all. I think 3rd base is the “HOT CORNER” because the player usually positions himself closer to the batter than the other infielders, thus giving him way less time to react on a hard hit ball.
I guess I should have stated - the dorm was co-ed 😆
Took 10:12 today for me to get sent in the corner with two mistakes.
The "g" at the intersection of "freegan" &"sigil", and the "i" at the intersection of "BMI" & "ridic". "Freeman" made sense, as did "radic(al)". Oh well. I never saw the gimmick either.
Another interesting choice was "mens rea" crossing "latin test".
Post a Comment