Jeffrey Wechsler is pretty sharp. He was here last month with a CORNY puzzle, but this one has more of an edge to it. CUTTING CORNERS is never a good idea, but in this case, I'll make an exception!
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| Always hire licensed contractors (like me)! |
40A. With 42-Across, risky business practice, or what can be found in this puzzle's circles?: CUTTING CORNERS. Wrapping each of the grid's CORNERS are types of CUTTING implements: KNIFE, SNIPS, SWORD and BLADE. Circles made them easy to find.
I like that the corners are read clockwise around the grid, and that each cutter comes to a sharp point at the corner. No long themers; the grid is broken up and nothing is longer than seven letters. Very breezy for a Thursday.
And now, I'll go through the rest with a scalpel.
Across:
1. Positive reply to "How's your health?": I FEEL OK. This doesn't sound very positive, or even the proper response to this odd question. Most people would ask, "How do you feel?" but that would spoil the answer so I guess he was stuck.
8. Carrot relative: PARSNIP.
15. Reminiscent of an almond's flavor, say: NUTLIKE. If you look up NUTLIKE in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of me!
16. Guises for gamers: AVATARS. Maybe I should change my AVATAR to an almond.
17. Activity of a rogue: KNAVERY. Trickery or deceit from a Knave, originally a servant boy, the lowest rank in a royal court. In the 19th century, American card decks switched this to Jack, because Kn and K (for "King") were confused when fanning out hands. "Jack" was colloquialism for a common man, one also at the bottom of the pecking order. Originally a domain of royalty, the King was the highest card until mass production let even commoners play, and they elevated the lowly Ace during the French Revolution to reflect their rise to the top.
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| This a Swedish deck: Kn = Knekt (Knave), K = Kung (King), D = Dam (Queen), E = Ess (Ace). |
18. Voids: NEGATES.
19. Dazed and confused: IN A SPIN. I don't use this phrase, but the Google says it's popular in Britain.
21. Superlative suffix: EST. This is the averagest 21A clue ever!
22. Outfits: RIGS.
25. Sharp: ACUTE.
28. "Sorry, but it's __ from me": A NO. Simon Cowell's catchphrase on the Idol and Talent TV shows.
29. Shea successor: CITI. Shea Stadium was the iconic, multipurpose home of the New York Mets from 1964 until it closed in 2008. It was demolished in 2009 and replaced by CITI Field, a modern baseball stadium built on the former site's parking lots.
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| Citi (left) and Shea (right) briefly coexisted. |
32. Tax cheat: EVADER.
36. Hush-hush doc: NDA. A Non-Disclosure Agreement protects information that's on a need-to-know basis...and you don't need to know!
37. Carmichael who plays Lady Edith on "Downton Abbey": LAURA. Laura Carmichael is an English actress, most widely known for her performance as Lady Edith Crawley. Since I've never seen this show, I now know how others feel when a clue is about Game of Thrones.
39. Land of the Minotaur: CRETE. The Minotaur is a mythical creature (I hope) from Greece with the body of a man and the head of a bull.
40. [theme pt1]
42. [theme pt2]
44. "Will all great Neptune's __ wash this blood / Clean from my hand?": Macbeth: OCEAN. Your daily dose of Shakespeare.
45. "__ bleu!": SACRE. This French exclamation originated from "Sacré Dieu" (Holy God). But because Christians feared taking the Lord's name in vain, they substituted the rhyming word "bleu" (blue) for "Dieu" (God) to avoid blasphemy.
47. Actress Whitman: MAE. MAE was a childhood actor who has appeared in numerous films and TV shows. I've somehow missed most of them, but liked her in Good Girls, a crime/comedy drama about three suburban mothers who resort to robbery.
48. Bring out the blue pencil again: REEDIT. First you REED IT, then you RE-EDIT it.
50. Slow-cooked dish: STEW.
51. Mass. summer hrs.: EDT. Massachusetts summer hours are in Eastern Daylight Time.
52. Sings like Ella Fitzgerald: SCATS. Doo-be-doo-bah!
54. Laudatory lines: ODES.
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| Not laundry lines... |
55. "Captain's __, stardate ... ": LOG. Famous opening line from Star Trek.
58. Cause of a blank photo: LENS CAP. We had a very small wedding, and my future brother-in-law told us he had the photography covered...by the LENS CAP. That's right, we have no pictures from the big day. 46 years later we look back and laugh.
62. Really gets to: ENRAGES. While a screw-up like that ENRAGES some brides, RightBrain took it all in stride. That's when I knew I had married the right girl.
65. Backless tops: HALTERS.
69. Makes softer, as sound: DEADENS.
70. Electric current units: AMPERES.
71. Montana neighbor: ALBERTA.
72. First name of the 28th U.S. president: WOODROW. WOODROW Wilson. In Hollywood, FL, where the longer streets are named sequentially after presidents, Wilson Street follows the much busier Taft Street. I guess Taft was more popular!
Down:
1. Calligraphy supply: INK. It takes a lot of INK to spell "calligraphy."
2. Merriment: FUN. Are we having merriment, yet?
3. Fig. texted en route: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival.
4. "Jailhouse Rock" star: ELVIS. Here he is dancing away, right out of jail!
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| Hey! Someone left the door open! |
5. Property claim: LIEN. This lean will lead to a property claim.
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6. Gumbo vegetable: OKRA.
7. Things on rings: KEYS. Things on rings: GEMS. Well, that's half right.
8. Lose it under pressure: PANIC.
9. Path: AVENUE.
10. Old cloth: RAG. Linen made from flax fibers was used in Egypt thousands of years ago, but the cloth he's referring to is probably not that old.
11. RR stop: STA. A RailRoad STAtion.
12. "The Greatest Average American" host Bargatze: NATE. I haven't seen his new game show, but I really like his stand-up specials. He is a "clean comedian" who pokes fun at everyday life.
13. Really gets to: IRES. This really gets us to a clecho of 62A.
14. Furtive call: PSST.
20. Impetus for a bluff, perhaps: PAIR. Two Knaves, perhaps?
22. Animosity: RANCOR.
23. Bring about: INDUCE.
24. Vandyke kin: GOATEE. "Van Dyke" is usually two words, just like the facial hair is in two parts.
26. Team working off camera: TV CREW. When a TV reporter comes upon a bunch of rubbernecks at a crime scene, the accompanying team is all business, lest they become CREW necks.
27. Come by honestly: EARN.
29. Care center: CLINIC.
30. Actor McKellen: IAN. 87 year-old Sir IAN McKellen has won a Tony Award, a Golden Globe, and seven Laurence Olivier Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards and five Emmys. In spite of all that, he is perhaps best known for his role as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.
31. Helpers in harbors: TUGS.
33. Thought to be: DEEMED.
34. Online NYSE choice: E*TRADE. E*TRADE is a digital investment brokerage that allows people to lose money on the New York Stock Exchange.
35. Puts back to zero: RESETS.
38. Bank holding: Abbr.: ACCT. Please enter your bank account number in the space provided: __________ I will keep this data strictly confidential. Trust me.
41. Small amounts: TADS. This is what's in my ACCT right now.
43. Bauxite, e.g.: ORE. Bauxite is the primary ORE for aluminum.
46. Org.: ASSN. An Organization can be an Association.
49. __ scout: TALENT. Have I been discovered yet?
53. Thompson of "Selma": TESSA. TESSA has appeared in numerous TV shows and movies over her 20+ year career including as civil rights activist Diane Nash in the 2014 historical film Selma.
54. Chose: OPTED.
55. Helen of Troy's mother: LEDA. According to the most legends, Zeus, the king of the gods, transformed into a swan and seduced (or assaulted) LEDA, the Queen of Sparta. As a result, LEDA laid an egg from which Helen hatched. I'm not sure I buy this.
56. Scott Turow work: ONE L. ONE L is an autobiographical book by Turow that chronicles his grueling first year at Harvard Law School. It is the only one of his 14 novels that is of interest to crossword constructors.
57. Seize: GRAB.
59. "Saint Joan" playwright: SHAW. George Bernard SHAW's play about the 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc.
60. Mil. print: CAMO. Military print is CAMOuflage.
61. Blue Buffalo rival: ALPO. Here's Buster as a pup getting ready for dinner.
63. Beverage suffix: ADE.
64. Austrian lang.: GER. The official language of Austria is GERman.
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| Wait, that's not right. |
66. Do the wrong thing: ERR. Jim Carrey meant Australia.
67. __ Speedwagon: REO. Here REO again!
68. NNE U-turn: SSW. Making a wide U-turn in a Speedwagon was like navigating a boat. It definitely wasn't a Sportwagon.
Happy Birthday, Mom! Wish you were around to see how I turned Dad's corny jokes into even cornier blog posts. The apple didn't fall far from the tree! I miss you both.
Be good. RB
I saw all the “cutters,”
ReplyDeleteeventually, in another fairly “tough” puzzle. In fact, it’s been a fairly tough week, but I guess that’s part of what makes solving them fun.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.