AMERICA'S MOST HAUNTED
Wanted Dead, or . . . Undead~?
We have a Halloween-themed puzzle a day early; I was unaware that we would have a similar theme yesterday, as I wrote today's blog earlier in the week, but solve the rest of the week's puzzles as they come out . . . The LA Times editor, Patti Varol, is back again with a crossword that takes common in-language phrases and gives them a trick-or-treat-ment . . . 🙄 Five themers, including a grid-spanner, totalling 61 squares, that become "creepy" puns in a timely fashion. A solid Friday construction, maybe more names than I would care for, but I did some historical research, and found even our host & crossword master C.C. has "bemoaned" them - on Halloween, no less. Huh. Standard grid, no circles, no outliers, a Twurd, and thirteen names - we have a Friday the 13th coming in November. The themers, no reveal;
17. Suggestion at the start of a Halloween decoration workshop?: MAKE-A-WITCH - Make-A-Wish; I don't have a tree in my front yard, or I'd put one of these up . . .
23. Expectation during a Halloween concert?: RHYTHM AND BOOS - Rhythm & Blues
Bminor, same key as Hotel Cali- . . .
36. Apparition who only appears on Halloween in the Golden State?: CALIFORNIA GHOST - I had ghoul first - as in California girl, but no, it's the California Coast, which I see is currently threatened
Ghost, "Faith" 🠟
49. Got separated from a spooky friend at a Halloween party?: LOST ONE'S GHOUL - Lost One's Cool - the "nameless Ghouls" are the members of the Swedish rock band Ghost, behind "Papa Emeritus V". Now for a song about that vampire from Transylvania . . . not the Muppet, the other one
Nosferatu, off "Spectres", from Blue Öyster Cult
59. "My Halloween monster costume is so disappointing!"?: I DON'T SCARE - "I. Don't. Care."
"We're Ready to Believe You"
Buuuuuut Waaaaaait There's Mooooooan~!
ACROSS:
1. Oodles: ALOT - A Twurd to start us off
5. Mattress material: FOAM - I do the Downs first, had perps
9. Tablet downloads: APPs
13. Kidney-related: RENAL - my dad had a kidney transplant, so I heard this word ALOT growing up
15. Red inside, maybe: RARE
16. Victory lap speed: TROT
19. Depend (on): RELY
20. Sugar suffix: OSE - fructose, sucralose ( OK, that's fake sugar ), etc.
21. Shoreline shaper: TIDE - The King Tide is the threat to the west coast
22. Yaz's team from 1961 to 1983: BOSOX - abbr for abbr - Carl Yastrzemski, played for the Boston Red Sox - not a baseball fan, but I knew this name, #1
27. Athletic honor: ESPY - The award given out by ESPN, the sports network; I see our favorite crossword WNBA player made the list . . .
28. Horn of Africa nation: ERITREA - Geo name #2
31. Omnia vincit __: AMOR - Latin, "love conquers all"
34. "Right on!": "AMEN~!"
These Halloween tights are right on
35. Dragon boat steerer: OAR - Chinese "ship", but when I punched "Dragon Boat" into Google, I get more Chinese restaurants than rowers; more here
41. Meadow mouthful: CUD - cow candy - alliteration 😜
42. Turn off the security cameras for, maybe: ABET
43. Iowa college town: AMES - Geo name #3
44. Accessory that may match cuff links: TIE CLIP
46. Sportages and Tellurides: KIAs - autos
54. Copious: AMPLE
56. Covent Garden solo: ARIA - yada yada four letter solo~? ARIA - more about the centre here
57. Cold-sounding commercial prefix: SNO - Sno-cone, sno-caps, sno-balls, etc.
58. Rich soil: LOAM - AND - 53. Windborne sediment: LOESS - Both good for wine-making, it seems
63. Alaskan gold rush town: NOME - Geo name #4
64. __ fun at: POKES - hard to see the 'plural'
65. Mystery writer?: ANONymous - frequent visitors to the Corner comments section
66. "The Crying Game" writer/director Jordan: NEIL - Friday vague, and I did see the movie, back in 1992; name #5
67. Intervals: GAPS
DOWN:
1. Medieval museum display: ARMOR - When I build my castle, I'll have a suit of armor on display
2. Spot checker?: LEASH - Dog humor, har-har
Cooper-checker
3. Harmonious, in a way: ON KEY - a bit meh.
4. __ kwon do: TAE
5. End of the workweek, for some: FRIDAY - Technically, it's the "start" of my "work" week 😜
6. Like some breakfast bars: OATEN - I made my own granola, but the calories in a tray are outrageous
I divvy it up into 20 squares, 238cals each
7. Part of a circumference: ARC
8. Underwhelmed review: MEH - Friday's puzzles have been 50/50 Yeah/Meh of late
9. Intrinsically: AT ROOT
10. Briefing setting: PRESSROOM - Brief setting = Dressing room
For the ladies
11. See 24-Down: POLO - AND - 24. With 11-Down, "The Fosters" actress: TERI name #s 6 & 7
12. River that made Achilles (mostly) invincible: STYX - dipped all but his "heel", hence the "weak" term
14. Plastered strips: LATHS - Meh in the plural
18. Fraidy-cat: WIMP - fitting clue/answer
22. Sound of spring?: <<BOING>> - Har-har
25. Lovato with the 2025 album "It's Not That Deep": DEMI - name #8; her website
26. City near Anaheim: BREA - west coast, again - I get it - it's the LA Times . . . 😑Geo name #9
29. Smooth sailing: EASE - Dah~! I tried CALM
30. Newspaper section: ARTS - not op-ed
31. Checkbook no.: ACCT
32. Home of Kahului Airport: MAUI - sounded Hawaiian, tried OAHU to start - Geo name #10
33. Tex-Mex brand: OLD EL PASO - I usually buy their flat-bottom taco shells
34. Echidna snack: ANT - learning moment; did not think of Echidna as an animal, but a place . . . turns out it's another Greek mythology figure, and the mother of Cerberus, for one
37. "F" on a test: FALSE - Five letters, therefore, not "FAIL"
38. Notice in passing?: OBITuary - Standard crossword humor
39. Credit report blot: REPO - A repossession, typically of a vehicle - I own my two cars
40. Leftovers dish: HASH - I toyed with STEW but waited on perps
45. "The Favourite" Oscar winner Olivia: COLMAN - looks like it might be a funny movie; name #11
46. Seed: KERNEL - corn - candy corn
47. Skeptical reply: "IS IT~?"
48. Showing shock: AGASP - Dah~! Not AGAPE
The Scream
50. With 51-Down, 2019 and 2021 Australian Open winner: NAOMI - AND -
51. See 50-Down: OSAKA - tennis, a Corner shout-out, and name #12
52. General Assembly fig.: UN REP - United Nations representative - the list, here
54. __ mater: ALMA
55. Bellyache: MOAN - Bark at the Moan . . .
OZZY~!!!
59. Travel stop: INN - How about a stop at "The Stanley Hotel"~? it's the one from The Shining
60. Generic surname: DOE - lucky #13, didn't hafta be one . . .
61. Horologist's piece: COG - I was thinking astrology, but this is a watchmaker
Splynter
Grid Flow 24.1
It wasn’t easy, but I
ReplyDeleteeventually solved this very topical puzzle.
In fact, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but suvs->KIAS, lost ones ghost->LOST ONES GHOUL, debt->REPO, and waited for tai/TAE. I got all the theme puns except I thought it was "lost one's soul" instead of "lost one's cool," which sounds closer.
ReplyDeleteI don't get "victory lap speed" for TROT. Is there a contest other than car racing where the winner does a victory lap? Cars don't TROT. My guess is that this usage was idiomatic, but if so, better clues abound. Kinda a minor nit, but it's fresher than my usual rant about all the A&E dreck.
This week's king TIDE wreaked havoc on the east coast as well.
At first I thought that "horologist" should begin with a "W."
Thanks to Patti for the seasonal puzzle. My favorite was "sound of spring" for BOING. And thanks to Splynter for another fine Friday review.
I thought of the baseball batter who trots around the bases after swatting a homer.
DeleteHi there~!
DeleteI had a horse race in mind, but the baseball reference is much more apropos
Splynter
The best example would be a winner of an event at a track meet. This is especially common at the Olympics, where the winner trots around the track, waving his country's flag.
DeleteUsually, the winning team of a relay race will carry their country's flag at an Olympic track meet.
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteYay, d-o remembered Carl Yastrzemski. But he had no idea what team he played for. Boo. Papusas are common in these parts. I pass "Papusas and More," a little roadside stand, on my M-o-W route. I lived for a spell in SOCAL fifty-odd years ago, so I should'a recognized the GHOST/coast substitution with "California." Didn't. D'oh. Patti served up a timely Halloween treat. Enjoyed your expo, Splynter.
How surprising. A Halloween themed puzzle today. After the Make-A-Wish knockoff, WITCH, the rest of the fills were predictable. The usual A&E unknowns today with TERI POLO, Olivia COLMAN, and NEIL Jordan filled by perps. But that's normal for me, as I DON'T S-CARE. To be expected.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought for the 'Horn' was SOMALIA but knew ERITREA and Djibouti were in the region.
OLD EL PASO Stand N Stuff shells- don't buy them because they do stand up, but as soon as you take the first bite, the bottom cracks and you have a mess. DW won't learn not to get them.
Poor NAOMI OSAKI. She worn her first US Open against Serena, who was having a bitch-fit because she was called for a foot fault when serving with match point against her. All the cameras were watching Serena have a melt down while the winner-Naomi- was sitting calmly by.
LOESS is windblown soil formed by glaciers grinding rocks. The soil particles are sharp-edged, unlike normal soil. There are huge deposits of loess in the Vicksburg-Natchez, MS area.
Splynt- your "Right on" photo's girl makes Twiggy look fat, Probably AI enhanced.
Osaka, I. Bad spelling on my part.
DeleteFIR. This was a tough one as befits a Friday presentation. The perps helped "a lot" in figuring the answers to very often hard cluing.
ReplyDeleteI wondered when we would see a Halloween themed puzzle. I guess today's the day. Quite clever in fact.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
I suppose Olympic runners go into a victory TROT after a win, but they don't do a whole lap
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteWell, Patti gave us a Trick and a Treat today. A tricky theme that became a solver’s treat. This word play is what I enjoy about Patti’s puzzles and hope to see more of her originality in future appearances. Seeing two full names, Teri Polo and Naomi Osaka was an unusual occurrence, rarely seen. Favorite C/A was Spot Checker=Leash. Overall, a timely and enjoyable solve.
Thanks, Patti, and thanks, Splynter, for the great review and analysis. Always enjoy a Cooper pic!
Have a great day.
I FIW with four errors. I also struggled quite a bit on the puzzle. I dislike clues for names and in this case, we also had first and last names for an athlete and an actress that I never really heard of. I also had to look up the definitions of Copious (which I should have known right away) and Horologist. It also didn’t help that for some reason I put “ANNO” instead of “Anon”. I did like the Halloween theme and got all the longer answers right. Happy Halloween to all, and also have a great Día de los Muertos!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patti, for the "scare" quotes! Round two of our Halloween-themed puzzles. I initially didn't warm up to LOST ONES GHOUL, thinking it was based on LOST ONES GOAL, but Splynter set me straight.
ReplyDeleteMy only nit was too many names, but RightBrain is a tennis buff so NAOMI OSAKA filled right in and that helped some.
Splynter, your opening paragraph was aces! And the corny jack-o-lantern was apropos.
Decent puzzle, mediocre gimmick. Is OATEN a word that anybody here has encountered in conversation? Ever?
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-What a fun and timely puzzle! AGAPE/AGASP was my only speed bump.
-Spot checker/LEASH is the kind of clue/fill I enjoy.
-MASA and Horologist is part of the ranks of words “I learned only through crosswords”
-I’m retired, what is this “work week” you speak of?
-I vividly remember the last day of 5th grade when Mrs. Elvers provided an assortment of oddly shaped snacks for us at recess. She late told us they were deep fried ants, cockroaches, etc.
-I never liked test questions where I had to determine whether all statements were TRUE, FALSE or some were TRUE and some were FALSE
-At our age, we find ourselves searching OBITS more and more frequently online
-Nice job, Splynter!
Took 7:28 today to give it the boo.
ReplyDeleteI knew the Actresses of the Day (Teri Polo & Colman).
Brea crossing Eritrea was a bold choice.
Patti loves her foreign foods (masa/papusa).
Last square was the intersection of cog & gaps.
Finally changed skis (got fooled by “Telluride”) to KIAS and in awe to A GASP for the win in the last-to-fall SE. The Halloween 🎃 theme puns were fun and helped along the way.
ReplyDeleteAfter I corrected KIA the reveal page was literally littered with pictures/ads of KIAS and where to shop for them as well as 5 repeated identical cartoons of a lady doing TAI Chi. Sheesh.
Started to fill Ethiopia but ran out of squares.
“…..but delivers us from evil… right on!!”
Down or FOAM mattress. Tempted to fill flunk for F but that woulda been FALSE. op-ed/ARTS, oops
Not a fan of jumping around to complete an answer. Especially an unknown name. TERI POLO and NAOMI OSAKA plus a Natick with NEIL
AT ROOT?
Shout out to all our ANON buds
Have a great day.
Patti - Enjoyed the punny play w/ Halloween! &, Splynter, Enjoyed the “jams” while reading! Thanks!
ReplyDelete[We always get a great crowd of kids - next to a park and two elementary schools. Might be a rainy one this year (El Nino)!]
Happy Halloween, to all!
Started off easy enough, (except 1a clue ending in "s" made me ink "lots," easily corrected) and then got increasingly harder... Teri Polo? Brea? Naomi I only knew from previous xwords. However I did like the theme, and it had lots (a lot) of aha moments, and a few learning moments (watchmaker?) I did have one total brain fart some how mixing up Horn of Africa with South Africa... (why won't South Africa fit in here?) and then going sideways thinking, well the clue and the answer can't be the same, what's going on here... it only took a second cup of coffee to straighten that mess out...
ReplyDeleteRe: anon/Oaten, yes, sounds weird, but a Google search proves it valid...
Oh, from last night. Yes those Ads are incredibly annoying! I can't tell Blog from Smog half the time! On an IPad, you can choose "reader mode," and they are all gone, but sometimes the comments are gone too... I finally got so mad at those sites that give song lyrics, (needed for my guitar playing) because they get so greedy, and cram so many ads that my IPad totally freezes up, and I have to reboot to do anything. That I download a free AdBlocker. (P.s., you can get the free version only if you refuse to pay...) so far it's wonderful, not a single Ad on the Blog! (Sorry C.C.,) but many sites will block you for blocking them. I have found most of these to be clickbait anyway...
Just testing something out, instead of linking the share button, with includes a lot of thumbnails, I wanted to try a direct copy from my local newspaper. I don't think it's going to work without a subscription, so tell me if you can see this Halloween comic.
ReplyDeleteThe invisible man on Halloween...
Ack! It does not work!
ReplyDeleteBut double Ack!! My trash can delete button is missing!
Ok attempt#2
ReplyDeleteThe Invisible Man
Egyptology got it wrong...
I really want to try this at home...
"Alot" is not a word. It's "A lot." Does that mean it isn't a twurd after all?
ReplyDeleteFreaky FRIDAY (5D). Thanks for the fun, Patti and Splynter (with eye candy for both the men and ladies today).
ReplyDeleteI FIRed and saw the Halloween exchanges for those phrases with WITCH to wish at the first themer. But it was a workout as befits a Friday.
Several inkblots to change LEASe to LEASH, OATEy to OATEN, dunes to LOESS.
A plethora of names (some unfamiliar to me) but they perped eventually.
Not MEH today.
I knew the Latin AMOR and ARIA, but the Spanish MASA was unknown even when it perped.
Hand up for thinking 37D was “FAil”, but it was too short. Oh, not the mark, but a True/FALSE test.
Another hand up for thinking of AGApe before AGASP.
Favourite today was the clue for BOING, with CUD being a runner-up.
Wishing you all a great day.
Hola! Masa is right in my wheelhouse and makes me think of my mother and this is the season for making tamales. I'll go to my sister's home for that ritual.
ReplyDeleteI saw The Favorite with Olivia COLMAN; that was a long while ago.
I had many errors on this grid and it made a mess of it. OLD EL PASO not ORTEGAS.
Thank you, Patti, for the Halloween workout and splynter for the reveal.
Have spooky weekend, everyone!
A fun puzzle from our “beloved Editor” — I actually enjoyed this one (although I still wonder how she can be author of and editor of her own CW… 🤷♂️). The only beef I have, as always, is the A&E garbage; I can think of multiple ways to clue POLO and OSAKA without doubling up on a name. ==sigh==. Much to my surprise, however, LATHS as plural is a viable word, although I’ve never heard anyone refer to a wall as being made of LATHS and plaster…go figure. And crossing two types of Tex-Mex foods was kinda snarky…but, y’know what, Patti’s theme and most of the other fills were so entertaining, I’ll forgive those little faux pas in trade.
ReplyDeleteI’ve flown into Kahului a couple of times, so that one was a fast gimme. It’s fairly big as Island airports go, since, like Kailua-Kona, it’s a destination airport for the big TransPac jets, unlike, say, Lihue on Kaua’i.
Another sterling expo, Splynter, with your usual good musical inserts and humorous jibes; and nice Halloween tights on your ubiquitous Legs motif (plus you included some fun for the ladies on the Corner — equal time, right? 🤣). I’m also amazed at how many of our folks here are guitarheads; now I see Cross-Eyed Dave is also an axe grinder, along with you & R.B (and me). I wonder how many other of our illustrious Corner denizens play instruments (I seem to recall someone here mentioning they play trombone…)? Pipe up, people, don’t fiddle around, sing out!!
====> Darren / L.A.
Jazzbumpa plays trombone.
DeletePiano player here
DeleteI can play the stereo.
DeleteOjai Guy. Constructor/Editor? I also think it a bit odd. Way too many names and a Natick to boot.. Not a fun Friday.
DeleteI was so sure I would not finish this puzzle, but the longer I stayed with it, I realized that it was one of the most clever that I had ever worked. So many favorite clues…F on a test/false…Notice in passing/obit. I had Somalia before Eritrea. Thanks Patti! Loved your review, Splynter! The Candy corn pumpkin!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this one.
ReplyDeleteFrom Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteDarren and AnonT Thank you for the kind words on the occasion of the death of Patrick Stewart, who played Picard.
Hi Picard, you probably didn’t see my comment posted today on yesterday’s blog. But I did think of you immediately when I saw the announcement about Patrick Stewart’s death. RIP
DeleteThank you @CanadianEh! Sorry I missed that!
DeleteI, too, thought of our own Picard.
ReplyDeleteThank you, MalMan!
DeleteTimely Halloween puzzle. Finally saw the puns in the themes. “oaten”? Whatevs.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the timely scary-difficult Halloween puzzle, Patti.
Thanks for counting up the names, Splynter. I was ready to toss the towel 'cuz of them. The theme's whimsy kept me going.
Excellent musical expo, as usual, and the puns were extra fun.
WOs: BronX -> BO SOX, TIE tack
ESPs: 12 of the 13 names
Fav: BOIoioiNG!
I enjoyed reading everyone today!
Cheers, -T
The haunted theme was a fun fit for the end of October, and the title alone made me want to solve it. A couple of the longer answers took me two passes, which is exactly what I like in a Friday.
ReplyDeleteSolveDaily