Good Tuesday Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here (yes, you read that correctly) pinch hitting for our witty and insightful Hahtoolah with the recap of a Tuesday puzzle. That's twice in one week for this blogger bringing new meaning to semi-retirement. I know that you all will miss, among other things, the wonderful cartoons that Hahtoolah finds, sorts through, chooses and shares with us but I will try to make up for that lack somehow.
In this, his LAT debut, constructor Derek Hinsey has riffed on a theme where the compound word answers to the five themed-clues can each be split into two parts (duh, M.M, that's why they call them compound words). Each of those now-separated words can be combined with the word POINT to form a common expression. Let's start with the reveal:
58 Across: Slam dunk's value, or what 16-, 23-, 34-, 36-, and 49-Across have: TWO POINTS. A basketball reference that is used here, instead, to indicate that each answer contains two "pointed" references.
Here are the five places where the gimmick is employed:
16 Across: Major multistate lottery: POWERBALL. BALL Point is, of course, a type of pen.
23 Across: Opening bid: STARTING PRICE. The STARTING point is when/where to begin and the PRICE point denotes the niche in the market price-wise (the price point of a Cadillac, for example, places it in competition with other luxury vehicles.
34 Across: Final part of a chess match: END GAME. The END point is where, well, something stops and GAME point is a sports reference for what might turn out to be the final play of a game.
36 Across: Florida home of the Harry S. Truman Little White House: KEY WEST. A KEY point is the gist of the matter and WEST Point is the U.S. military academy.
49. Cool way to keep food fresh?: FLASH FREEZING. FLASH FREEZING is a rapid freezing process that uses cryogenic temperatures, such as liquid nitrogen at −196 °C (−320.8 °F), to quickly freeze an object for food and tissue preservation. A FLASH point the origin of a conflagration (physical or intellectual) and the FREEZING point is where water turns to ice.
This is how the completed grid appears:
Here are the more numerous non-themed clues and answers:
Across:1. "Furthermore ... ": PLUS. Hand up for first thinking of ALSO which we then got at 65 Across.
5. Moral transgressions: SINS. Everyone knows Las Vegas is SIN City but are you familiar with Den City? Mass over volume.
9. Picnic race bag: SACK.
15. Stash: CACHE. The juxtaposition with ACHE is interesting. Should CACHE be pronounced like CAKE?
18. Salsa ingredient: ONION.
19. Music genre with Jamaican roots: SKA. A genre with which most regular solvers are quite familiar. . . at least in name.
20. Japanese currency: YEN.
21. Began gradually: EASED IN.
26. __ Allen furniture: ETHAN. All You Might Wish To Know
28. Dog's warning sound: SNARL.
29. Animation frame: CEL. Back in the day when cartoons were hand drawn the movement was achieved by drawing and then photographing a series of individual, slightly altered hand painted CELs. Now it's all computer generated.
30. Sharp-witted: KEEN.
31. Short time?: SEC. Shortened form of SECond
32. Break a fast: EAT. Sometimes you can get two points on a fast break.
40. Buckeyes' sch.: OSU.
41. Way cool: RAD. 80's slang. Bitchen. Far out. Groovy. Boss.
42. __ vera: ALOE. A plant that seems to thrive in our puzzles
43. Six-pack muscles: ABS. ABdominal MuscleS
46. "Jurassic World" actor Chris: PRATT. Thanks, perps.
48. Demon: FIEND.
52. Let go: RELEASE. Ever hear Eddie Izzard riff on this guy's name?
53. Meh, slangily: MID. New to this solver but it does make sense.
54. Viper in 43-Down: ASP. How's your ASP been? (a skier's joke).
57. Volunteer's phrase: I WILL.
61. Long for: COVET. As in "Thou shall not COVET."
62. Door fastener: HASP.
64. Santa __: hot California winds: ANAS. Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry winds that blow from inland desert areas across coastal Southern California, often bringing hot, dry conditions and very low humidity.
65. "Furthermore ... ": ALSO. See ALSO 1 Across.
66. Small salamander: NEWT.
1. Domino spots: PIPS. By definition.
2. "Check this out": LOOK.
3. Like dirty dishes: UNWASHED.
4. NNW opposite: SSE. A direction/navigation reference.
5. Curved fencing sword: SABER.
6. "Down in front!": I CANT SEE.
7. Anaheim Ducks' org.: NHL. National Hockey League
8. Gomez of "Only Murders in the Building": SELENA.
9. More rational: SANER.
10. Not basic, in chemistry: ACIDIC.
11. Beef grade below prime: CHOICE.
17. Olympic swimmer Lochte: RYAN.
22. "I was thinking the same thing": AGREED.
24. Dramatic ballroom dance: TANGO.
26. __ out a win: EKE.
27. Square root of 100: TEN.
31. Blue cartoon characters: SMURFS.
33. Creator of Finn and Sawyer: TWAIN.
36. Supermodel who is a contributing editor for British Vogue: KATE MOSS.
37. Refinement: ELEGANCE.
38. Anderson Cooper, to Gloria Vanderbilt: SON.
39. Apple TV's "__ Lasso": TED.
41. GPS suggestion: RTE. RouTE
43. Continent with the most countries: AFRICA. There are 54 countries in Africa according to the United Nations.
44. Tried to cool down, as hot soup: BLEW ON.
The name FIDO comes from the Latin word "fidus," meaning "faithful." It became widely associated with dogs due to President Abraham Lincoln's pet dog, Fido, who was well-known during his time.
60. Bond novelist Fleming: IAN.
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| That's Manatee, M. Manatee MM Out |
I really can’t complain
ReplyDeleteabout this puzzle. It was pretty easy, and there were few real obscurities.
FIR, so I’m happy.