LES MISERABLE~?
I do believe this is a debut for author James Mattina; if so, then congratulations~! Composing this construction must have been complicated. I think the concept is brilliant - it's quite clever, fresh, and required some thinking on my part - but sadly, the "?" clues and proper names just drained some of the satisfaction from it. I ended up "cheating" to find where I went wrong - the truth is, I knew I had TESSA twice, and the instance that crossed the theme answers was where I made the mistake; I simply did not know 44D., nor two of three names in that SW corner. Oh well. A gimmick, a 14x16 grid, which, as I've pictured, is 'technically' 14x20, a fair balance of 3-, 4-, and 5-letter words, a ridiculous # of names - and not just Twurds, but we have a Thwurd this week - but hey, no circles . . . 😜
Rather than move all "theme" answers to the summary, I have highlighted them "in situ" - The "reveal";
54. Equestrian style, or, when parsed differently, a three-part instruction for making 19 clues in this puzzle match their answers: SIDESADDLE - SIDES ADD 'LE' is the "three-part" parsing; in order to "get" the answers on the sides, one needs to 'add' "LE" - once I realized this - and at first I thought it was "SIDES ADDLE" ( which would have been worse ) then the first spanner came clear.
LEBut LEWait, There'sLE MoreLE~!
ACROSS:
1. Not-so-hot wheels: MONS - LEmons - Used automobiles that have more problems than they're worth
If it smells like a lemon and shows up at "2" on the chart below . . .
5. Recap: SUM UP
10. Range that measures acidity and alkalinity: PHSCA - pH scaLE
15. Seize eagerly, as an opportunity: APAT - LEap at - Having to parse a Twurd that's also missing letters might rattle several solvers today
16. __ acid: AMINO
17. Like clean water: POTAB - potabLE - 7 on the pH scale
18. Theaters that typically don't serve popcorn?: CTUREHALLS - LEcture halls - This one may well have been the hardest to get - starting with the implication that lecture hall = theater, then adding the "?" to the clue, making it far more vague, plus being part of the theme, and therefore missing letters . . .
20. Court action: DRIBB - dribbLE - I don't care for basketball, so that type of court never occurs to me
21. Singer Halliwell: GERI - I finally recalled she's a Spice Girl, but still a name, #1
Ginger Spice, go figure
22. Baby foxes: KITS - learned by doing crosswords
24. Round bump on a cactus: AREO - areoLE - we used to have a "Crossword Corner" image for this, but I believe it became "taboo", so let's just call it a "ring-like" structure 😁
25. Heavy reptile with a flexible carapace: ATHERBACKSEATURT - LEatherback sea turtLE - the first double-whammy 16 (20)-letter spanner theme fill
Pirates of the Caribbean
29. Economist who co-wrote "Freakonomics": VITT - Scott LEvitt - name, #2, and missing letters, which just doubles the cringe factor - but a good WAG on my part
30. Mud: JOE - coffee slang; did not occur to me until I had "_ O E" on my second pass, and name(ish)
31. Sink annoyance: DRIP - AND - 32A. Sink annoyances: AKS - LEaks
33. Spring event: THAW
35. Snack topped with cotija: TACO - yada yada snack with Español hint = TACO
36. Antelope that can go without water for long stretches: ORYX
37. Gets the gold: WINS
38. Big spender at a casino: WHA - whaLE - learned this term from Ocean's Thirteen
41. Gadget that has a click wheel: iPOD - I loved the "Apple product" D-Otto produced last Friday - "iDollar Tree" and the Ina Garten DeVito (baby) marriage from Copy Editor . . . wait til you get to 53D.
42. __ velvet cupcake: RED
43. Duo: COUP - coupLE - Duet wasn't going to fly; could not figure out what was going on . . .
44. Ring leader?: TSGETREADYTORUMB - the catch-phrase from MC Michael Buffer, the other double-whammy 16 (20)-letter spanner, "LEt's get ready to rumbLE". It's his 'leader' = opening "salvo" at sporting events; as you can see, A I has "announced" how not-so-intelligent it is . . .
Um, spelled wrong
49. "I Hope You Dance" singer Womack: EANN - LEe Ann - I confused her with LeAnn Rimes. Without grokking the gimmick, I thought maybe it was spelled Le-An - bzzzzt~! Name #3
50. Heritage gp. celebrated in May: AAPI - Asian American Pacific Islander - more here
51. Month during which the shofar is blown daily: ELUL - Well, I knew it wasn't EL AL . . .
52. Person represented by the sunset flag: SBIAN - LEsbian - the flag - that's as far as we'll go
58. Wright who plays Shuri in the MCU: TITIA - LEtitia - I'm completely uninterested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - too repetitive & CGI for me. In hindsight, I figured this was the correct spelling, but it's still name #4 - more from IMDb
59. Reorders a draft?: EDITS - as in "first draft" of a novel, or screenplay, script, etc.
60. Make possible: ENAB - enabLE
61. One-pointers in horseshoes: ANERS - LEaners - "Close" only counts in horseshoes & hand grenades - upon reading through several websites, scoring seems to be inconsistent
62. Many, informally: LOTSA - this reminds me of Winston Wolf "lotsa luck fellas" - WARNING~! Here's the NSFW link to the scene from Pulp Fiction
63. Place to hitch a ride?: STAB - stabLE - again, with a gimmick like this, a "?" clue only makes it that much more difficult . . . IMHO, a horse is usually "hitched" to a post, but housed in a stable
1. Bud: MAC - not PAL, so I was already in the hole before I even started . . . the def at dict. dot com
2. Make a call: OPT - I pondered "UMP"; Tuesday "O" 3LW dupe #1
3. Zeros: NAUGHTS - Brit-speak
4. Crosswalk spot: STREET - phew; Friday vague
5. Hindi honorific: SAHIB - phew; Friday vague
6. Actress Thurman: UMA - phew, Crossword staple - but still a name, #5
7. Guernsey, for one: MILK COW - good WAG on my part
8. As opposed to: UNLIKE
9. Shares on socials: POSTS
10. Abbr. for a rained-out event: PPD - PostPoneD
11. Fictional captain Hornblower: HORATIO - I am unfamiliar with this character, name #6
12. Foment: STIR UP
13. Giant pole tossed in Highland games: CABER - I knew this . . .
14. Monastery head: ABBOT - . . . and this, but something was just not working on the crossings . . .
19. Miscalculate: ERR - I thought I had ERRed, but then I got to the reveal
23. Midsize ride: SEDAN
25. Director DuVernay: AVA - name #7; a web page
26. Kesha's "__ Tok": TIK - seemed likely, but still too name(ish) for me, #8
27. Trojan War warrior: AJAX - actually looking for a proper Greek name, #9, more here
28. Shuttlecock paths: ARCS
33. Relaxed pace: TROT - Dah~! No LOPE
34. Monster slain by Hercules: HYDRA - it's "all Greek to me" part II
35. Neat: TIDY
36. Like businesses with no overhead?: OPEN AIR - meh. Another vague "?" Twurd clue
37. "Yay, team!": "WE DID IT~!" - "Yes~!" We have the "Thwurd" fill~!
38. "__ you like to know?": "WOULDN'T"
39. Fire on all cylinders: HUM
40. PD dispatch: APB - Police Dept., All Points Bulletin
41. Light: IGNITE
42. "¡Ándale!": "RAPIDO~!" - Español
43. Refinery inputs: CRUDES - I was thinking ORES, not liquids
44. Seed covering: TESTA - learning moment; the M-W def. here
46. Canvas support: EASEL - Dah~! Got caught thinking TENT POLE canvas - also like the clue/answer from this past Tuesday - not art canvas
47. Thompson of "Creed": TESSA - name #11 - another MCU character
48. Ipanema greeting: OLÁ - Geo name, Brazil - Tuesday dupe, #2; more here
53. "Hip Hop Is Dead" rapper: NAS - not up on my rappers - name #12; the irony~? His track samples Iron(y) Butterfly, and the song "In A Gadda Da Vida"- if you care to listen, and the riff is definitely an earworm, then here's the YouTube rap song link
55. Sci-fi beings: ETs
56. Anaheim team, on scoreboards: LAA - The Los Angeles Angels
57. Subside: EBB
Splynter
Grid Flow 19.6, which is low
2 comments:
A fiendishly clever
puzzle. It wasn’t long before I figured out “something funny” was going on. And then with (le)atherback sea turt(le), I figured out what the gimmick was.
It was off to the races from there.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Nothing was working in the NW, so I moved to the NE. Nothing working there, either. Like SubG, once ATHERBACK SEA TURT appeared, the mystery was solved. Thought CABER was spelled with a K. Fixed. This one ran right up against 20 minutes, and d-o almost got it...everything but the P at the AAPI/RAPIDO cross. Rats. Spanish is one of the many languages I'm no good at. Clever theme. Thanx, James and Splynter.
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