In keeping with MalMan's second-in-a-row from Sala and Dena yesterday, I raise him a Jeffery Wechsler. This is his third Thursday puzzle that I've reviewed. People are starting to talk!
No reveal, just answers that start with CHE plus one letter in an alphabet run: V, W, X, Y and Z. Why CHE? Maybe Jeffrey was trying to be revolutionary! He certainly revolved through some letters.
17. Car named for a California beach city: CHEVROLET MALIBU. For a while there, Chevy named several of its models after trendy places on or near the ocean: Laguna [Beach], Biscayne [Bay], and Bel Air (upscale coastal neighborhood).
23. Carefully considering something: CHEWING IT OVER. This idiom may have derived from how farm animals like cows "ruminate" by bringing up food and chewing it a second time.
35. Cereal-based snack: CHEX MIX. An old friend in Kansas sends us a batch every Christmas so we can get our annual CHEX MIX fix.
46. Home of the Frontier Days rodeo: CHEYENNE WYOMING. The capital city of Wyoming.
55. California restaurant opened by Alice Waters in 1971: CHEZ PANISSE. The Berkley restaurant lost it Michelin star years ago, but apparently, it's still pretty good.
The solve went smoothly with only one monkey wrench - I'm looking at you, TITI. The mirror image symmetry and extra-tall grid made for an interesting visual. Is that CHE's face?
Let's CHEck out the rest:
Across:
1. Thompson of "Creed": TESSA. She played Bianca Taylor in 3 Creed movies that spun off from the Rocky franchise.
6. One crunch, e.g.: REP. A single REPetition.
9. Accord, for one: SEDAN. It's also available as a 2-door coupe.
14. Dined on, quaintly: ATE OF.
15. Big bird: EMU.
16. Año Nuevo month: ENERO. ENERO is January en español, the beginning of a New Year.
17. [theme]
20. South American monkey: TITI. TIL that TITIs are small furry primates also known as "jumping monkeys" because of how the leap from branch to branch.
21. In and of itself: PER SE. I found PER SE hard to PARSE.
22. Toolbar image: ICON. Tool ICONs prior to personal computers:
23. [theme]
26. Alien-seeking field: Abbr.: SETI. The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. They didn't find any down here, so they started looking elsewhere.
27. Pin number?: TEN. Fun clue, as in bowling pins.
28. Loch with a legend: NESS. Lock with a legend: ELVIS. A lock from his pompadour sold for $115,000 at an auction in 2002!
29. Mach 1 breaker: SST. SuperSonic Transports are jets that exceed the speed of sound (approx. 767mph = 1 Mach).
31. Author Rand: AYN. Her novel, Atlas Shrugged, constantly ranks near the top in reader's polls. I read it but it wasn't my cup of tea.
32. Catch a few winks: NAP.
35. [theme]
39. With 59-Down, "Tommy" band: THE. THE? THE who?
42. Land measure: ACRE.
44. Strong suit?: ARMOR.
45. Due, as an apology: OWED.
46. [theme]
49. "__ hoping!": HERE'S.
50. Nav. rank: ENS. Naval ranks in xwords are always ENS (Ensign) or ADM (Admiral), which is odd because Ensigns are the lowest ranking officers in the Navy, while Admirals are the highest.
51. __-nez: PINCE. When I first start wearing reading glasses, I found them uncomfortable when using headphones. I briefly tried PINCE-nez that "pinch the nose", but they were even more annoying and kept falling off. Growing old is no fun.
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| Besides, I didn't look cool like Morpheus. |
52. West Texas city: ODESSA.
54. Having raised surfaces, as teeth: CUSPED. Cuspids have one point (aka canine teeth) while bicuspids have two.
55. [theme]
59. "Hold your horses!": WHOA.
61. Yank at: TUG ON. How my dentist removed my bicuspid. Note to self: get better dental insurance.
62. Pet food brand: IAMS. This is as good a place as any to pander to the crowd:
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| Buster and his cuspids |
65. Like some cheese: HARD.
66. Revise, as prose: EMEND.
67. Gumbo vegetable: OKRA.
68. Shoppe adjective: OLDE. It could've been a MALT shoppe.
69. "Mighty" batter who strikes out in a classic poem: CASEY. As a high school English project, I made an 8mm movie of this poem starring several classmates. I narrated over the edited film and got an A. Watch out Spielberg!
70. Tiny amt. of time: NSEC. A Nanosecond is one billionth of a second. In that time, light travels one foot!
Down:
1. Social finesse: TACT.
2. Standards of right and wrong: ETHICS.
3. Stew: SEETHE. SEETHE seems a lot stronger than stew, but I SEE THE ire.
4. Sputnik launchers: SOVIETS. I thought of ROCKETS at first, but dismissed it while waiting for the Russian equivalent. Turns out he wanted the people who launched it, not the vehicle.
5. Chad's continent: Abbr.: AFR. Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central AFRICA.
6. Cave: RELENT. Ah, cave as a verb, not a NOUN.
7. Come to light: EMERGE.
8. Antes up: PUTS IN. "You put your right chip in, you take your right chip out"...wait, that's Hokey Poker.
9. Zooplankton habitat: SEA. Zooplankton are tiny, drifting animals in oceans, but they are also found in lakes and rivers.
10. Jazz up: ENLIVEN.
11. Frees of frost: DEICES. Frees of Frost: NIXON. Richard Nixon rued the day in 1977, three years after the Watergate scandal brought him down, when he selected British TV personality David Frost to conduct a series of interviews believing it will be easy to mislead Frost and rehab his image. It didn't turn out well for Tricky Dick when he publicly admitted abusing power and obstructing justice.
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| Frost vs. Nixon |
12. Leafy retreats: ARBORS.
13. Gin or tonic: NOUN. NOUN for me, thanks.
18. Nail polish brand: OPI. It's taken years, but I finally wrote this in without hesitation. What can I say, my brain is rusty.
19. Came together: MET. This couple MET at the Met.
24. Cheesehead's st.: WISC. Wisconsin is the largest cheese-producing state, so I guess residents there are born this way.
25. Semiprecious stone with black-and-white bands: ONYX.
30. Holier-__-thou: THAN.
31. Well-ventilated: AIRY.
32. __ cheese: NACHO. In Wisconsin, they say, "It's NACHO cheese, it's mine."
33. Was sore: ACHED.
34. Prepare for later broadcast: PRERECORD.
36. Coastal raptor: ERNE.
37. Marvel Comics mutants: X-MEN. And as we've recently learned, X-Men are a cohort.
38. Does lawn work: MOWS.
39. Cult classic of 1990s TV: TWIN PEAKS. I missed this quirky crime-drama when it first aired on ABC, but have seen it since. I liked the surreal aspects of it.
40. Therefore: HENCE.
41. "O, turn thy __ sword another way; / Strike those that hurt, and hurt not those that help": "Henry VI, Part 1": EDGED. Your daily dose of Shakespeare.
43. Sun visor: EYESHADE. Turns out that OPI only makes nail shades, not eyeshades.
45. Sin of __: OMISSION. I could've done without this one.
47. To be, in Latin: ESSE.
48. Cataloged work: OPUS.
53. Pyramid builders of Mexico: AZTEC. I'm hoping to visit these or the Mayan ones this fall.
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| Aztec (L) and Mayan (R) |
54. Supermodel Crawford: CINDY. How can it be that she just turned 60? I guess it's time to take down her poster.
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| Cindy with her daughter Kaia Gerber |
56. Big cat: PUMA.
57. Seemingly forever: AGES. That's when Crawford first appeared on poster.
58. Zip: NONE.
59. See 39-Across: WHO. Oh, THE WHO!
60. Shakespearean prince: HAL. "I'm Henry the Fifth, but you can call me HAL." Prince HAL is William Shakespeare's dramatic name for the young Henry V of England. Not to be confused with Henry VI quoted above.
63. Army fare, briefly: MRE. A Meal, Ready-to-Eat is a self-contained individual U.S. military ration.
64. Cul-de-__: SAC. And we've reached the end of the road.
Be good. RB
I didn’t know if the theme
ReplyDeletewas anything but “v w x y z” so I came to this site to see if I could be further enlightened. I see I was right, with the vital addition that “che” started each theme phrase. I thought it was novel and fun.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.