Theme: "BIG SHOTS" - Each common phrase that ends with a synonym for "big shot" is humorously rephrased so that the phrase now describes a literal standout in the industry named in the clue.
22. Big shot in the bulb industry?: LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT.
35. Big shot in the sci-fi awards industry?: HUGO BOSS.
42. Big shot in the paver industry?: BRICK CHEESE.
61. Big shot in the podiatry industry?: FOOTBALLER.
67. Big shot in the treasure-hunting industry?: FINDING GOD.
89. Big shot in the champagne glass industry?: FLUTE PLAYER.
95. Big shot in the cab industry?: RED BARON.
109. Big shot in the refrigeration industry?: COOLING SENSATION.
Hard to believe, but this is Scott's solo LAT debut. All of his previous puzzles have been collaborations. As Naomi noted in her last blog, "Hogan is a patent attorney in Michigan who has frequently teamed up with other constructors, most often Katie Hale."
67-Across is the only verb phrase in the set, but the clue fits it perfectly.
 |
| Scott Hogan |
Across:
1. Béla Fleck's instrument: BANJO.
6. Pricey German imports: BMWS. We call BMW "Precious Horse" in Chinese.
10. Italian wine: VINO.
14. Chaps: LADS.
18. Not very approachable: ALOOF.
19. Source of a scoop: LEAK. Reporter's "scoop".
20. Overly caffeinated, perhaps: MANIC.
21. Social sci. major: ECON.
25. K: THOU.
26. Henry VI's school: ETON. He founded Eton.
27. __ of Man: ISLE.
28. Luv: HON.
29. Take in: ABSORB.
31. Cards: WITS.
33. Squandered: BLEW.
37. Put on a pedestal: ADMIRE.
40. Fort __, Florida: MYERS. Spring training place for the Twins.
41. Wash and wear?: ERODE. No laundry involved, Just good old-fashioned erosion.
44. Shrewd: CANNY.
45. Stocky antelope: GNU.
48. Green house?: BANK. Also 39. Money makers: MINTS.
49. Trending: HOT.
50. Fabled messages: MORALS.
52. "If I were in your __ ... ": SHOES.
54. Withdraw, with "out": OPT.
55. Salty one: MARINER. And 57. Salty five: OCEANS.
58. Skills assessment: TEST.
60. Spots: SITES.
64. "Daaaaang!": OH SNAP.
66. Drawing (in): LURING.
71. Make fast again: RE-TIE. Not "quick" fast, but "secure".
72. Concert gear: AMPS.
76. Old sub titles?: U BOATS. German submarines.
77. Positively reinforces: REWARDS.
79. Shrill bark: YAP.
80. Home of the world's largest irrigation project: LIBYA. The Great Man-Made River Project. Learning moment for me.
81. Source of some travel reservations?: JET LAG. The doubt/reluctance meaning of "reservation".
83. Put away: ATE.
85. Arequipa's land: PERU.
86. Baton Rouge sch.: LSU.
87. Drywall supports: STUDS.
92. Battery terminal: ANODE.
93. Blah: STALE.
94. Edmonton NHL team: OILERS.
98. Folk-rock supergroup, familiarly: CSNY. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
99. Soapy residue in a sink: SCUM.
100. Come out: EMERGE.
101. Sanskrit honorific: SRI.
102. Ruler who commissioned the Taj Mahal, for one: SHAH. , Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor,
104. Slight advantage: EDGE.
108. Game that can only be played right-handed: POLO. Google AI: a rule implemented for safety to prevent dangerous head-on collisions
between players using opposite hands on their strong sides, ensuring
everyone stays on the same "side of the road," much like driving.
114. "Tell Mama" singer James: ETTA.
115. Per __: ANNUM.
116. Serpentine: EELY.
117. Place for a cross: STAND.
118. Show the way: LEAD.
119. Actor Postlethwaite: PETE. Don't know him.
120. Scandinavian capital: OSLO.
121. Plot inconsistencies: HOLES.
Down:
1. Hay bundle: BALE.
2. Came down to earth: ALIT.
3. Off-limits: NO GO.
4. Antihero played by Keanu Reeves: JOHN WICK.
5. Many times o'er: OFT.
6. Sprinkle with holy water, e.g.: BLESS. You can bless yourself when you enter or exit the church.
7. Combo, say: MEAL.
8. Make a parting gesture: WAVE BYE.
9. Chicago WNBA team: SKY.
10. Like the subject of a Carly Simon classic: VAIN. "You're So Vain".
11. Gerund maker: ING.
12. Medical research org.: NIH.
13. Umbrella shape, typically: OCTAGON.
14. Does not disturb: LETS BE.
15. Sneeze sound: ACHOO.
16. Closers: DOORS.
17. Gives the cold shoulder to: SNUBS.
20. Asks for more catnip, perhaps: MEOWS.
23. Advanced, as gadgets: HI-TECH.
24. "Infected be the air __ they ride": Macbeth: WHEREON. Not many ways to clue this archaic word.
30. Part of some security checkpoints: BODY SCAN.
32. Vex: IRK.
34. Jean Valjean's story, familiarly: LES MIS.
35. Get well: HEAL.
36. Large garden planters: URNS.
37. Head monk: ABBOT.
38. Fall in folds: DRAPE.
40. Descriptive piece of HTML code: META TAG. Working behind the scenes.
43. Zeroing (in on): HOMING.
44. Holiday singer: CAROLER.
45. Tender prelude?: GOAL. Preceding "tender": goaltender.
46. State bird of Hawaii: NENE.
47. Space race initials: USSR.
51. Third in a ring: REF. The referee is the third man in the boxing ring.
53. Wife of Hägar the Horrible: HELGA.
56. Shows up for duty: REPORTS.
57. Four Tops singer Benson: OBIE. Just learned this from doing another puzzle.
59. Until midnight: TODAY.
60. IRS tracking info: SSNS.
62. Render obsolete: OUTDATE.
63. Blue, in Burgundy: TRISTE. Sad "blue". .
65. Had to pivot to plan B, say: HIT A SNAG. Keep pivoting!
67. Out of room: FULL.
68. Wading bird in Egyptian art: IBIS.
69. Japanese-Peruvian fusion chain: NOBU. Signature dish: miso-marinated black cod.
70. Third key in a reboot sequence: DEL. Ctrl+Alt+Del.
71. Sleeve style: RAGLAN.
73. "Poppycock!": MY EYE.
74. Prep chef's knife: PARER.
75. San Antonio team: SPURS.
78. Enters the room airily: WAFTS IN.
81. Grand Slam Tokyo discipline: JUDO.
82. Paradise: EDEN.
84. Multiple ages: EPOCHS.
85. Tree on South Carolina's flag: PALMETTO.
88. "In summary ... ": TO RECAP.
90. Government Grant?: ULYSSES. Capitalized Grant.
91. Simu of "Barbie": LIU.
92. Overseas: ABROAD.
93. Hanging in the theater: SCRIM. For curtains.
95. Put off: REPEL.
96. Really get into a role: EMOTE.
97. Airline that grew from a crop-dusting operation founded in 1925: DELTA.
99. Panasonic subsidiary: SANYO. Literally "three oceans". San = Three in both Chinese and Japanese.
101. Swivel around: SLUE.
103. "Inferno" setting: HELL.
105. Tuning knob: DIAL.
106. Out of the park: GONE.
107. Pulls the plug on: ENDS.
110. Individual: ONE.
111. Province between Man. and Que.: ONT.
112. Prefix with cache: GEO.
113. Bat wood: ASH.
C.C.
36 comments:
Some of the clues
were fun. I liked “salty one” for “mariner” for example. However, I did not care for the answer of “foot baller” and the “B” was a lucky WAG.
In general, even though I neglected to read the caption of this puzzle, I didn’t have too much trouble with it.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
There were plenty of clever, misleading clues in this one. I liked it. Needed my Wite-Out to change CAGEY to CANNY and the Z to S in LES MIS. Excellent Sunday debut, Scott. Thanx for the explication, C.C.
FIR, but asti->VINO, wags->WITS, elk->GNU, praises->REWARDS, eat->ATE, CDC->NIH, nono->NO GO, john wilk->JOHN WICK, cdc->NIH, and leaves->LETS BE. Phew!
I also struggled with FOOT BALLER. The rest of the muckity-mucks are generic, but I don't remember hearing BALLER in any context other that sports. I don't think you would want to call your CEO a BALLER, but you could call him/her a HESAVYWEIGHT (maybe,) a BOSS, a CHEESE, a PLAYER, a BARON, or a SENSATION.
I've always seen the play abbreviated LES MIz, but LES MIS seems more correcter.
From today's clue it seems to me that OBIE should be an award for "best Motown artist" rather than a theater award.
As CC wrote, SANYO means "three rivers." In this case, the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian. But Panasonic ceased using the name 14 years ago, only two years after it bought the company. Kinda reminds me of these lyrics of that wildly popular, but critically panned (even by the band members) Starship hit We Built This City:
Someone's always playing corporation games
Who cares, they're always changing corporation names
(Rolling Stone declared it to be the worst song of the 1980s, but I've always liked it. The song, not Rolling Stone.)
Thanks to Scott for the fun Sunday workout, and to CC for 'splainin' it all.
Good Morning:
I agree that much of the cluing was clever and fairly misleading and I also thought the theme was fresh and, with a couple of exceptions, executed well. I think Baller is an outlier, as is Sensation because, IMO, neither one connotes being a Big Shot in the same vein as the other themers do. In retrospect, Baron doesn’t fit either, being simply a noble title. Despite these quibbles, this was a fun and enjiyable solve, with none of the obscure or questionable fill that Sunday grids usually rely on.
Nice solo debut, Scott, congrats, and thanks, CC, for the concise and well-explained theme and grid.
Have a great day.
Sorry, Enjoyable.
I forgot to mention this! The days are now getting longer! I know that next month is the statistically coldest month, but at least there'll be more daylight. I'm moderately influenced by SAD.
Took 16:50 today.
Gotta run. Those Costco items aren't going to magically appear at my house.
Had trouble getting started on this one. Favorite misleading clue was 81 across: Source of some travel reservations
IM, BARON applies as the 1890’s robber baron era of American industry. More recently August Busch, owner of the STL Cardinals and Budweiser, was often described as a “beer baron”
FIR. For me this was quite a workout. The cluing was tricky and yet very clever.
I got the theme early on with light heavyweight and that helped a great deal with the solve.
However I'm not really fond of footballer as one of the theme answers. It seemed a bit off to me.
But overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Quite a workout, but FIR and no major complaints. Favorite entry---BIG CHEESE. Least favorite---RED BARON (don’t care for word stubs in clues).
Random comments: Wow, Canadian provinces are big; OH SNAP, I must have accidentally wandered into a British crossword puzzle; MY EYE, more commonly used three letter word didn’t fit; SCRIM?, RAGLAN?; and finally (with a hat tip to old Vaudeville)---When Bruce Jenner went to his travel agent to plan a trip, the agent asked “What is your preference,” since he didn't suffer from JET LAG he replied "I’d like to be ABROAD.”
Oops, that should be BRICK CHEESE.
I think of the robber barons of the late 19th century. They were definitely bosses.
Oops. I hadn't read this far down when I replied to I-M.
I was hoping somebody could explain,
I mean, light heavyweight makes sense. And whatever red had to do with taxi's turned into a huge V8 can to the head when cab was revealed to be Cabernet Baron while reading the Blog. But Hugo and Boss seems completely unrelated to me.
Anyone?
A walk in the park, albeit with a few stop signs and detours along the way. A nice Sunday puzzle, mostly straightforward, and the clever clues were the right amount of clever.
I'm much more familiar with BALLER as clued than I am with SLUE.
"Baller" has infiltrated modern slang to mean, in some cases, one who lives a successful, extravagant lifestyle, and isn't afraid to show it.
BOC and DO, thanks for pointing out my error.
Hugo Boss is a fashion brand.
FIR, but it took a looong time. Lots of tricky clues, plenty of Aha!s D'oh!s and V-8 cans. The wordplay was clever, using up quite a bit of WiteOut this morning, but the perps were very fair. My favorite kind of puzzle...challenging, enjoyable, and leaving the solver with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Bravo!
Musings
-Happy Winter Solstice! About 8,500 peeps celebrated it at Stonehenge this morning.
-A “LEAK” in D.C. can be just a test to see how some info plays that allows for deniability
-A girl where I sub recently scored her 1000th GBB point and so I just call her ONE K
-MINT: As I scrounged to get the correct change yesterday, I wondered when we will stop producing pennies
-What do you say: sub MAR in er or sub muh REE ner? The latter can also describe pitcher’s delivery style
-Some accused Tom Brady of gaining an illegal EDGE by under-inflating footballs for a championship game
-PLOT HOLE: How did Andy Dufresne reattach Raquel Welch’s poster after he escaped?
-Angel Reese’s VAIN words and actions creates publicity for the SKY
-Some TSA agents have been accused of scanning certain body types more frequently
-GOAL tending is legal in hockey but not in basketball
-OUTDATE: Apple would really like me to trade in my iPhone 11 for an iPhone 17. I choose to OPT out.
-When backlit, previously opaque SCRIM curtains become transparent and provide amazing theatrical effects.
A very enjoyable Sunday solve which I FIR in 34:28. I liked the clues for U BOATS and MARINER, and the theme clues and fill were quite creative also. I did have to change ‘otis’ to OBIE, confusing the Four Tops with the Temptations and Otis Williams. Have always been a fan of Motown having spent my formative years not far from there. Never thought of an umbrella being an OCTAGON till I saw the photo viewed from the top, I was thinking the clue referenced the curve. Just read a news story about two fishermen that set out from Ft. MYERS yesterday and never returned, the boat was found empty 70 miles off shore, prayers that they are somehow surviving.
Thank you Scott for your fine offering, and to C.C. for your write-up.
Dave, The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best Sci-Fi fiction works, as the clue references, and Hugo Boss is a clothing designer, so it’s an in the language reference. Hope this helps.
Your penny reference must be old. The last ones were minted November 12th, per USMint.gov.
Enjoyable and CANNY puzzle for a warm, sunny Sunday morning. It took me a while to discover the theme, not until I got the FLUTE PLAYER, then I had fun discovering the others. This CW was just the kind I like, some clever clues, enough misdirection to make me feel good when I solve them.
But OH SNAP, I did not find GOD. I had META TAb and didn’t know the reboot key DEL, so left the first letter blank.
Yes, I just looked at the map of Canada, and the provinces are large, as CanadianEh! will attest.
Thank you CC for your fine RECAP.
I am unable to find yesterday's blog. I got busy yesterday and meant to catch up on it today, but it appears to have disappeared!
Agree with the majority here that Scott Hogan is now a Big Shot, although he briefly threw me off track. His first themer featured LIGHT HEAVY and had me looking for opposites for a while.
Wanted CCCP for Russia in the space race.
I enjoyed C.C.s Chinese lessons. I'm learning one fortune cookie at a time!
I enjoyed Scott's first solo flight, but I'm not sure I've ever encountered SLUE, had Spin instead, and could not complete that section. _OOpING SENSATION just didn't do it for me! FIW and liked it anyway.
Jinx at 8:10 AM, I was not informed as to the terrible reputation of "We Built This City"! Loved that song, and never saw the video until you linked it, so thanks for that. I also look forward to longer, if colder, days ahead.
At 25-Across, C.C. (to whom all is obvious) did not explain how K is THOU, which I read as an archaic pronoun. Finally, the LIGHT shone upon me: THOUsand. Oh!
Many thanks to Scott and C.C. for the Sunday fun.
Sorry, not FIW -- DNF!
Anonymous at 11:52 AM, thanks for pointing that out! The post is indeed missing, although I can attest to having read it last night on my phone. I've sent a message to management!
Enjoyed this CW. Favorite clue was “Wash and wear.”
Anonymous at 11:52 AM, yesterday's blog post has been restored.
NaomiZ, thank you for the follow-up!
Hand up I know about the sci-fi Hugo Awards, but never heard of HUGO BOSS. Hand up never heard of BALLER to mean a Big Shot. But apparently it is a thing originally from Black slang. Hand up no idea about K/THOU until the light went on.
Did anyone else find this puzzle very uneven in difficulty? Some parts very easy and other parts almost impossible?
I echo what Charlie Echo said.
Yes, our provinces are large. I can drive from Toronto to Quebec border in about 4.5 hours, but it will take about 24 hours to reach the Manitoba border. And I can’t even drive all the way north to Hudson’s Bay.
We always smile at how tourists underestimate the size and thus attempt to see too much n one trip
Now this is what I call a great crossword puzzle: snazzy fun theme, great clues that were just clever enough to make one think obliquely (but weren’t obscenely deceptive) and lots of entertaining fills. Great job, Scott and Patti! 😎👌🏽; I’ll be looking forward to Mssr. Hogan’s (hero!) next submission.
While FOOTBALLER regularly is used in the U.K. to describe star “soccer” players, as noted above a “BALLER” in current pop lexicon is someone who’s a big item in their circles — like a guy who’s a PLAYER.
An aside: speaking of FOOTBALL, I’ve always been totally mystified how a game that only uses ones pods (about 2% of the game) came to be named “foot”ball. I guess they couldn’t call it “hand”ball…maybe “crash”ball would be more fitting?
But I digress.
Thanks for the sterling Sunday workout, and to C.C. for another thorough review. Btw, I once had a Chinese girlfriend, C.C., whose surname was Mah — a slightly different spelling for “horse”, as she told me. She definitely wasn’t “horse”-y looking, and we had some nice rides together 😎
====> Darren / L.A.
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