Rebecca Goldstein and Matthew Stock have gotten together and bought stakes in a new steakhouse!
3. Card game that's really taking off?: STRIP POKER. STRIP POKER is a card game where players forfeit clothing instead of chips...unless you call their buff.
8. Namesake of Converse's All Star sneaker: CHUCK TAYLOR. Charles Hollis "CHUCK" TAYLOR (1901–1969) was an American semi-professional basketball player and an all-star shoe salesman.
15. Dance around what's really important: SKIRT THE ISSUE. To SKIRT THE ISSUE means to avoid talking about a complex or awkward topic. As in, "Does this skirt make me look fat?" Umm...
23. Links activity: ROUND OF GOLF. A standard ROUND OF GOLF consists of playing 18 holes in sequential order, though a shorter 9-hole round is also common. It's also a drink order at the 19th hole!
And what do these seemingly unrelated answers have in common? I needed the revealer for this one:
31. With a lot on the line, or a phonetic hint to 3-, 8-, 15-, and 23-Down: HIGH STAKES. Even with the revealer, it still took me a moment to figure out that STAKES becomes STEAKS. Each of the four vertical themers begin (in the HIGH position) with a different cut of steak: STRIP steak; CHUCK steak; SKIRT steak; and ROUND steak.
Our two chefs have cooked up a meaty one today. Vertical themes are rare, and always seem a little tougher, but the rest of the fill was easy to cut through. Over all, I think it was well done.
Let's see what sides they're serving with this:
Across:
1. "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" network: PBS. Fred Roger's show ran from 1968 to 2001 on the Public Broadcasting Service.
4. Collision sound: BAM. Also the sound when seasoning hits the steak!
7. Hill partner, in textbook publishing and country music: MCGRAW. Interesting parallel. Educational publisher MCGRAW Hill vis-à-vis Tim MCGRAW and his wife Faith Hill.
13. Big sellers: HOTCAKES. People scooped up pancakes quickly while they were still warm.
16. "That's old news": I HEARD.
17. "Could there possibly be a good explanation for this?": DARE I ASK.
18. Skating jumps similar to toe loops: LUTZES. Rightbrain grew up in her uncle's roller rink. The first time I met her family was at the rink, and they suggested she take her fiancé for a spin. Being my first time on skates, I'm sure they weren't thinking LUTZES but KLUTZES. That was 45 years ago, and I still appreciate that they somehow kept a straight face.
19. Ruckus: STIR.
20. Motorcycle attachments: SIDECARS. SIDECARS are also cocktails containing brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice. But best not to mix the two.
22. Hair line?: PART. My favorite PART was when they sang the Hair line, "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius."
25. Dangers: RISKS.
26. Disconnect: GAP.
28. "Get __ town!": OUTTA. No way!
30. Ski area near Reno: TAHOE.
34. Gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics?: ORO. Italian for gold.
35. Second, but not first: UNIT. A second is a unit of time.
36. Getting the check: PAYING. ON ME per 57D
37. __ choy: BOK. Florida is so flat, that various entrepreneurs have erected towers (there are three of them) in the middle of nowhere to attract tourists. The most famous is the 205' BOK Tower built in 1920's during the state's land boom. The National Historic Landmark features a 60-bell carillon that plays a concert twice daily to visitors of the surrounding 250-acre gardens.
38. Every evening: NIGHTLY.
40. Prefix with political: GEO. GEOpolitical relates to how a country's physical location, size, and resources affect its politics, power, and relationships with other nations.
41. Revises: AMENDS.
43. Assessment, briefly: EVAL. A quick EVALuation.
44. Boater or bowler: HAT. In my business, a wear a lot of HATs, but neither of these.
45. Greta of classic Hollywood: GARBO. The great Swedish/American actress often just went by GARBO. In 1954, she was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances."
46. Hustle genre: DISCO. Did you do the Hustle?
47. Texting tech: SMS. Short Message Service.
48. Some natural hairstyles: AFROS.
50. Part of QED: ERAT. "Quod ERAT Demonstrandum," said Pliny the Elder in Latin class. "It is proven. Any questions?"
52. Trench coat, wig, and big sunglasses, maybe: DISGUISE.
 |
| Yep, she'd blend in anywhere. |
55. Sando spread: MAYO. A sando is a Japanese-style sandwich. The word comes from a shortened form of sandoitchi, the Japanese loanword for sandwich.
58. Patchy-patterned horses: PINTOS. This patchy PINTO only had 54 horses. On a quiet night, you can hear it rusting.
59. Tacit: UNSPOKEN.
62. Certain spot: LOCALE.
63. Application that combats dark circles: EYE CREAM. I scream, you scream, we all scream for EYE CREAM?
64. Gobbles (down): SNARFS.
65. Some GEs: ACS. General Electric Air Conditioners.
66. __/her/hers: SHE.
Down:
1. Degs. conferred after defenses: PHDS. Knowing me as you do, can you believe I have a brother with Doctor of Philosophy degree?
2. Large sushi order: BOAT.
 |
| Yum! Hand me the chopsticks! |
3. [theme]
4. "WonderWater" brand: BAI. So many brands to keep track of...
5. Alias letters: AKA. Also Known As.
6. "Cleanup on aisle five" impetus: MESS. It's always aisle five. If I ran a store, I'd skip 5 like they skip the 13th floor in tall buildings.
7. Half marathon's 13.1: MILES. Athens to Marathon is 26.2 MILES.
8. [theme]
9. Participate in decision-making: GET A SAY.
10. Motorola phone: RAZR. Cell phones kept getting smaller, and my RAZR was the smallest one I owned. Then screen size became a thing and now they are bigger than ever.
11. Combative Olympian?: ARES.
12. Dict. entries: WDS. Dictionary entries are words.
14. Michael of "Juno": CERA. I think he'll still look like a young boy when he's an old man.
15. [theme]
21. Opposite of noite: DIA. It's the difference between night and day! In Portuguese, that is.
23. [theme]
24. North African capital: TUNIS.
26. Emergency kit: GO BAG. It usually contains enough basic supplies to sustain you for three days after a disaster.
27. Sweet smell: AROMA.
29. Comedian Notaro: TIG. TIG Notaro is an Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar-nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. She's gotten the nod for 75% of an EGOT!
31. [theme]
32. Wee hour: ONE AM. Two am is the wee wee hour.
33. Showbiz quartets: EGOTS. The grand slam of winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
36. Come in second: PLACE. Win, PLACE, and Show are bets in horse racing. A Win bet wins only if your selection finishes 1st. A Place bet wins if it finishes 1st or 2nd (so not just "come in second"). A Show bet wins if it finishes 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
39. Sports bar sets: TVS. You can sometimes watch horse racing on sports bar Televisions.
42. Supreme court presence?: NBA STAR. Fun clue...and holding court on TVS in another sports bar.
46. Eager agreement: DO I.
49. Tricks: RUSES.
51. "Te quiero, __ mio": AMOR. "I love you, my love," in español. Sounds a bit redundant.
52. Singer Celine: DION. Her heart will go on and on and....
53. Empire also known as the "Realm of the Four Parts": INCA. The INCA Empire was a vast pre-Columbian state in South America divided into four administrative regions.
56. "Totes": YEAH. "Totes" is slang for "totally", so YEAH seems like a weak equivalent.
57. "I'll get the check": ON ME. PAYING like 36A.
58. [Praying emoji]: PLS. Please! 🙏🏻Some people use this as a "high five" emoji...don't get me started! 😂
60. Org. with LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, and Missouri Tigers: SEC. All these college teams are copy cats, and are members of the the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA.
61. WFH devices: PCS. People who Work From Home often use Personal Computers.
Okay, I'm done grilling these guys.
Be good. RB
Notes from C.C.
Happy Birthday to Lemonade, our Friday sherpa for a long long time. Hope all is well with you and Oo!
 |
It wasn’t necessarily
ReplyDeleteall that easy, but I got it. And I thought the reveal was pretty clever.
FIR, so I’m happy,
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteOnce again the reveal fell into the TLDR category, so d-o completely missed the theme. Completed the puzzle, though. In hindsight, it was a clever construction. Thanx, Matthew and Rebecca. Pintos were known for their exploding gas tanks when rear-ended. I'm only familiar with TIG Nataro as an occasional panelist on WWDTM. Interesting expo, Rusty. (I also have a brother with a PHD. His wife, too. My wife has an EDD. I'm the illiteratus of the family.)
I used to own a PINTO. My ex-wife was driving it, and it got rear ended by a delivery truck but didn't explode. Damned inconsistent cars.
DeleteMy eldest sister and her hubby have PHDs in chemistry. They do understand chemistry - they are still working through their starter marriage after more than 60 years.
From Jinx in Norfolk.
DeleteFIR, but yesh->YEAH. Guess I spend too much tome with the comic stripMutts.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I've bought quite a few technical books published by McGraw Hill. I knew Faith and Tim from country music, but forgot they were married. Tim is the son of former Mets and Phillies closer Tug McGraw.
I learned about GO BAGs from reading about an NTSB accident investigator. They have to be ready to hop on a plane right away to get to the scene of one tragedy or another.
I've always said "scarfs down." Guess its regional.
Thanks to Rebecca and Matthew for the fun puzzle. and thanks to Rusty Brain for another entertaining tour. It was most impressive to see "Two am is..." in a sentence.
The above drivel was me/
DeleteGood morning. Unlike yesterday, it was a FIR today. The clueing was tricky but easy to guess. The food connection didn't connect in my brain. I have no 'beef' with the constructors on that issue. One of the few puzzles that I didn't have to make any changes.
ReplyDeleteBAI, TIG, DIA, YEAH, PLS, PCS, MAYO- from the clues I really didn't know but the perps did it for me.
GO BAG- most important item? $$$$, change of underwear, medicine, and never let your car's gas tank get below 1/2 full in hurricane season.