We interrupt our regularly scheduled puzzle for this special coverage. Joseph Gangi has been constructing for several years now, and this
time he has delivered our morning paper with headlines that become attention grabbers to hook readers.
17. "Local Couple Makes a Commitment," e.g.: EXCLUSIVE REPORT. When a couple decides to be EXCLUSIVE, it means they won't be seeing other people. It's a stepping stone between casual dating and a committed relationship.
27. "China Falls From Top Spot," e.g.: BREAKING NEWS. My favorite themer with a fun play on words with that country being in the NEWS all the time. Here, "China" is dishware BREAKING when dropped on the floor.
48. "Final Finalist Finally Arrives," e.g.: LATEST UPDATE. LATEST as in the last one time-wise.
63. "Photographer Embraces Traditional Darkroom Techniques," e.g.: DEVELOPING STORY. DEVELOPING pictures the old-fashioned way.
A fun outing where most of the names were very common instead of obscure, and no reveler was needed. For a Thursday, this was pretty easy...plenty of "E"s but no "Z"s - almost a pangram! At first, I thought all the"X"s would play into the theme, but that was incorrect.
Let's see what's in the rest of the paper:
Across:
1. Gimli's weapon in "The Lord of the Rings": AXE. Grimli is a dwarf warrior, and a major character in Tolkien's fantasy trilogy.
4. Mine passage: SHAFT. Some miners get the elevator, others get the SHAFT.
9. Healthy side: SALAD. Unless it's loaded with excessive toppings and high-calorie dressings.
14. __ lunch: BOX. I don't remember having a lunch BOX. I guess we were a brown bag family.
15. Peninsular Arab state: QATAR. One of the few answers with a "Q" not followed by "U". These words are usually anglicized from other languages that do not use the English alphabet.
16. Act with feeling: EMOTE.
17. [theme]
20. Nephew of Donald Duck: LOUIE. Huey, Dewey and LOUIE are the triplet nephews of Donald Duck and grand-nephews of Scrooge McDuck,
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| Huey (red), Dewey (blue), & LOUIE (green) |
21. Word with tea and toast: TEXAS. TEXAS tea always reminds me of the theme song to The Beverly Hillbillies.
22. Diner slice: PIE.
23. Meat product with a museum in Minnesota: SPAM. I keep getting unsolicited emails to go visit it.
25. July's namesake: CAESAR. Julius CAESAR. His great-nephew CAESAR Augustus got the following month.
27. [theme]
32. Civil rights leader Wilkins: ROY. ROY Wilkins led the NAACP as executive secretary and director for over 20 years (1955–1977).
33. Emotionless: STONY. Emotionless: STOIC.
34. Olympic skater Cohen: SASHA. Not to be confused with Sacha Baron Cohen.
%20Cohen.jpg) |
| Skater vs. Jester |
38. Lotion additive: ALOE.
40. Carriers powered by pantographs and overhead lines: TRAMS. A pantograph is a roof-mounted apparatus on electric trains, TRAMS, and trolleybuses used to collect electricity from overhead wires.
42. Early operating system: UNIX. My dear RightBrain was an early UNIX programmer who developed accounting software for small businesses. The real brain in the family!
43. Drink carelessly: SLURP. Meanwhile, I just SLURP and make a mess.
45. Puts one foot in front of the other: STEPS. And pretty soon, you're walking!
47. Conduit shape: ELL. Having worked with electrical conduit most of my life, I thought it's a tube shape, not how it is bent.
48. [theme]
51. Video meeting need: CAMERA. But not pants.
54. Cozy alcove: NOOK. A good place to curl up with an e-book.
55. Prefix with meter: ODO. ODO (by itself) is probably the weakest answer in the grid. An ODOmeter measures distance traveled.
56. "The Three-Body Problem" genre: SCI-FI. The Three-Body Problem is the first book in Cixin Liu's Hugo Award-winning Remembrance of Earth's Past science fiction trilogy. Volume 1 has been made into a TV series on Netflix.
60. "Cannot __": slangy expression of mock horror: UNSEE.
63. [theme]
66. Flared dress style: A-LINE. As the name implies, it's a dress that flairs like the letter “A” -otherwise known as "a dress" to me. I'm a modemuffel, a German colloquial term for someone who disregards fashion, typically wearing whatever they want, focusing on comfort, or having no interest in current trends.
67. Timed perfectly: ON CUE.
68. Cone-bearing tree: FIR. Cone-wearing dog - with fur.
69. Disreputable: SEEDY.
70. Tandem pair: SEATS. On a bicycle built for two (unless you have a toddler).
71. Start of a giant recital?: FEE. This clue was my FAVE.
 |
| The giant from Jack and the Beanstalk |
Down:
1. Genesis brother: ABEL. Funny how all these early guys have 4-letters in their names.
2. Love letters?: XOXO.
3. "Did I just hear what I think I heard?": EXCUSE YOU.
4. Rodent proof?: SQUEAKS. Fun clue. Rodent-proof (with a hyphen) is something completely different.
5. Gives birth to: HAS.
6. Bumping heads: AT IT.
7. Bestest: FAVE. Words like "bestest" are my least FAVE.
8. Predatory dino: T-REX. Dino is short for dinosaur, and T-REX is short for Tyrannosaurus REX, just like its arms. That's why it has trouble playing the piano.
9. Goes back and forth: SEESAWS.
10. Psych (up): AMP.
11. Cereal shapes: LOOPS. They also make other shapes.
12. Open-air rooms: ATRIA.
13. Try to stop: DETER.
18. "Radical Optimism" singer Dua: LIPA. Dua LIPA is an English singer and songwriter who describes her style as "dark pop."
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| Best New Artist Grammy in 2019 |
19. 5K, for one: RACE. A five kilometer RACE is just over three miles.
24. Baker's protection: MITT.
26. Genesis twin: ESAU. Almost a Biblical clecho.
27. Some undergarments: BRAS. Some other undergarments: BVDS.
28. $2 worth of nickels, e.g.: ROLL. It costs the U.S. Mint 13.78 cents to produce and distribute a single nickel, thus this roll of 40 is worth $5.54. A penny for your thoughts?
29. Like Vikings: NORSE.
30. Swarming pests: GNATS.
31. Citi Field MLBer: NY MET. From Major League Baseball's New York Metropolitan Baseball Club.
35. Leaves unnoticed: SNEAKS OFF.
36. Dagger handle: HILT.
37. Wheelbarrow part: AXLE.
39. Dashiell contemporary: ERLE. Dashiell Hammett and ERLE Stanley Gardner both wrote hard-boiled crime novels. They were egg-cellent.
41. Twirled: SPUN.
44. Pesto option: PARSLEY.
46. Marriage partners: SPOUSES.
49. Folded fare: TACO.
50. Word of warning: DON'T.
51. Musical endings: CODAS.
52. One-named singer whose surname is Adkins: ADELE.
 |
| Who's your Grammy? |
53. Theater showing: MOVIE.
57. NYSE investment opportunities: IPOS. An Initial Public Offering from the New York Stock Exchange.
58. "Whatever": FINE.
59. Highlander of ancient Peru: INCA. Highlander of ancient Loch: NESS.
61. Cleveland's lake: ERIE. Speaking of lakes, they never ask about the other Cleveland area lakes, like Wallace, Coe or Shaker Lakes.
62. Brontë governess: EYRE. Jane EYRE from the novel by Charlotte Brontë.
64. Frame : bowling :: __ : curling: END. And a split END may result from curling.
65. Tear down to the studs: GUT.
Be good. RB
Surprisingly,
ReplyDeletenot that difficult for a late in the week
puzzle.
The simplicity of this puzzle is evidenced by the fact that it needed no reveal.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteStumbled here and there with SNEAKS OUT/OFF, EXCUSE MOI/YOU, BVDS/BRAS. (Hi, Rusty.) Still, this came together in typical Tuesday time. Congrats, Joseph, and thanx to my fellow modemuffel, Rusty. (My comfort "uniform" of choice is jeans, polo, and sneakers.)
FIR, but stoic->STONY, walks->STEPS, and (tandem) axels->SEATS.
ReplyDeleteI'm no chef, but I can't imagine pesto being enhanced by the addition of PARSLEY.
I also thought about all those four-letter names in the Bible. But there weren't all that many people back then. I'll bet they had two-digit phone numbers and three-digit social security numbers.
Thanks to Joseph for the fun Thursday exercise. I was (crossword favorite) at sea in the Northwest until I guessed AXE, then that corner fell into place. (Yes, I'm that lone Cornerite who hasn't read any of the LOTR stuff.) And thanks to Rusty Brain for another fun tour, except that I missed seeing the cactus saying "ALOE." (I linked Jerry Reed's She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft) just a few days ago, so I'll spare you from doing so again.
Jinx, Parsley is used as a substitute for the more traditional Basil, not as an added ingredient.
DeleteFIR. This was pretty easy for a Thursday puzzle. The cluing was straightforward and quite fair.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme almost immediately with "exclusive report".
So overall a very enjoyable puzzle.
FIR. Simple enough gimmick. I got it at BREAKING NEWS. The NW took a while to fill. Fun clue for SQUEAKS. SASHA was my only unknown name but easy to guess. FEE and END were all perps. I needed RB’s explanation to understand those two.
ReplyDeleteThank you RB for another fine review.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteNeither the theme nor cluing/fill were Thursday-level difficulty, but the solve was enjoyable, so no complaints. I went astray at Stoic/Stony, Sarah/Sasha, Squeals/Squeaks, and Haft/Hilt, all of which were corrected by perps. Props to the author for strong, solid themers and a clean grid with no obscurities.
Thanks, Joseph, and thanks, RB, for the fun and factual review. That cone-head canine is cuter than cute!
Have a great day.
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Joseph and RustyBrain.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in good time and saw the headline theme.
Hand up for STOic before STONY.
I waited for perps to decide that Genesis brother- (Cain, ABEL, Esau, Seth), but only ESAU was the 4-letter twin for 26D.
Some Canadian disadvantage- perps changed RaY to ROY, SASHA required perps, same for NY MET.
But I did know ERIE! (Patti should clue that as “Port Colborne’s lake” to stump you all!)
I didn’t know Dashiell but ERLE perped.
That clue for FEE was my FAVE today too.
Wishing you all a great day.
Started pen-on-paper, suspecting I would need to switch to online to get red-letter help, it being Thursday. But to my surprise, I managed to FIR pen-on-paper in 15...on a Thursday!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what a "pantograph" is, so needed some perps to get TRAMS. ELS was too short anyway.
15 names, DNK 5, but perps were fair. Two W/Os: STOIC/STONY, STOP/DONT.
WEES, a Tuesday CW on a Thursday. I like it! A few nits: "Conduit shape" is a tube, not an ELL. And a SEESAW does not go back and forth, it goes up and down. "Tandem pair" = I just don't like this as a clue for "SEATS". But overall, a fun CW with several clever clues. Like RB, IMO "FEE" was the best of them.
Thanx JAG, I very much enjoyed your creation.
Thanx too to RB for the fun, informative write-up. It is obvious you put a lot of time and effort into it. Nice cartoons, too! All your work is appreciated.
It was very easy to finish this puzzle, especially for Thursday. They seem to be getting more difficult than the Friday puzzles but this one was not up to snuff in that aspect.
ReplyDeleteBestest and FAVE-yuck for both.
END for The end of a curling inning?
ROLL of Nickels. Many stores have been rounding change to the nearest $0.05 so they can avoid using pennies.
There are many new programming languages, but programs written in UNIX very rarely had any problems.
Took 5:04 today to headline this one.
ReplyDelete"Box lunch" is unfamiliar to me. I know "lunch box" and "boxed lunch", but "box lunch" sounds ... off. I didn't know "Roy" or how to spell "Sasha."
I don't find pangrams any more interesting than a non-pangram, but I don't think there's a "J" in the puzzle either.
As other esteemed commentators have noted, this was easy for a Thursday.