Mat Holmes is back and preparing us for Halloween...and it's "scary!" I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
62. Punctuation that expresses skepticism, or what the answers to the starred clues may be called?: SCARE QUOTES. SCARE QUOTES are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to signal that the writer is using it in an ironic, skeptical, or derisive way, e.g., She conveniently "forgot" to send the invitation.
18. *"The Shining": HERE'S JOHNNY.
27. *"Frankenstein": IT'S ALIVE.
39. *"The Sixth Sense": I SEE DEAD PEOPLE.
53. *"Saw": GAME OVER.
I CONCUR! I caught on early to the famous lines from scary movies, but the revealer explained why they're there. Mat used a slightly wider 16-column grid to accommodate the quotes. All of these are iconic and conjured an image in my mind. Super fun and well done (except for two names in the NW). Here's looking at you, kid!
I'm a horror film (but not slasher) fan. Let's see what other scary movies I can conjure up:
Across:
1. "__ luego": HASTA. Spanish for "See you later." Or, as the Terminator would say, "HASTA la vista, baby."
6. Cold plunge preceder, sometimes: SAUNA.
11. Starboard's opposite: PORT. Starboard (from Old English steorbord, or steering side) meant the right as most people are right-handed and used an oar to steer. The opposite, larboard (ladebord, or the side facing the dock for lading) was replaced by PORT to denote the same thing but without the rhyming sound confusion when shouted in wind or battle.
15. "Stolen Car" singer Beth: ORTON. Beth who? This one is pretty weak as "Stolen Car" came out 27 years ago and only made it to #34 on the UK Singles Chart.
16. Fast-food item celebrated with multiple farewell tours: MCRIB. McDonald's McRIB is a restructured boneless pork patty shaped like a miniature rack of ribs, but contains no rib meat - or anything else edible.
17. Basic geometry calculation: AREA.
18. [theme]
20. Circle: RING.
21. Burma's first prime minister: U NU. Who knew? U NU. But I didn't know.
 |
| U Nu on the cover of TIME August 30, 1954. |
22. Roused from sleep: WOKE.
23. Wolfgang Puck restaurant: SPAGO.
25. Large agricultural knife: MACHETE.
27. [theme]
30. Toffee candy bar: SKOR.
31. Formula One event: RACE. A Formula One (F1) RACE, officially called a Grand Prix, is considered to be the pinnacle of motorsport. The word "formula" in the name refers to the set of rules all participant cars must follow.
33. Chatty starlings: MYNAS.
34. UFC sport: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts is the combat sport while the Ultimate Fighting Championship is a production company that organizes and broadcasts the events.
36. Ever so: VERY.
38. "The Simpsons" creator Groening: MATT. Mat even gave himself a shout-out! Portland, Oregon native MATT Groening has won 14 Primetime Emmy Awards. The Simpsons has been in constant production since 1989, making it the longest running American sitcom.
39. [theme]
43. Laryngitis docs: ENTS. Ear, Nose & Throat doctors, formally titled otolaryngologists. Hence ENTs.
44. Tubular pasta: ZITI.
45. Tire gauge meas.: PSI. Pounds per Square Inch.
46. Inbox party notice: EVITE.
48. South African currency: RAND. A gold coin introduced in 1967 was the KrugerRAND, and it became the first choice of investors worldwide.
50. Back talk: SASS.
53. [theme]
55. Formal agreement?: I CONCUR.
58. One of music's Allman Brothers: DUANE. Could've been his brother Gregg, who also has five letters. DUANE Allman is considered one of the best slide guitarists and reached the peak of stardom. Sadly, he was killed in a motorcycle crash at age 24. Today is the anniversary of his death in 1971.
 |
| Duane used an empty glass Coricidin medicine bottle for a slide. |
59. Stipulation for some parties, briefly: BYOB. Bring Your Own Bottle (Beer, Booze, Beverage).
60. Metallic lode: ORE.
61. Combine: MELD.
62. [theme]
66. Rock's Mötley __: CRUE. Mötley CRÜE is an American heavy metal band that loves umlauts. I güess.
67. Pisa landmark: TOWER.
68. Pizza part: CRUST.
69. Cold War initials: USSR. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
70. Crock-Pot concoctions: STEWS.
71. Hops-drying ovens: OASTS.
Down:
1. Stale: HO HUM. Ironically, this is the first one down, but it was my last fill because ORTON and UNU were unknowns.
2. Big concert venues: ARENAS.
3. Word with love or thunder: STRUCK.
4. Tot's piggy: TOE.
5. "Say something!": ANSWER ME.
6. Barbecue apparatus: SMOKER.
7. Ibuprofen target: ACHE.
8. Catering container: URN.
9. Diarist Anaïs: NIN. Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira NIN y Culmell was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Her given name is very long, but on the plus side, it has an umlaut. Perhaps she inspired Mötley Crüe.
10. Bottomless pit: ABYSS.
11. Elite wheelchair rugby player, maybe: PARALYMPIAN.
12. Fresh: ORIGINAL.
13. Get ready to flip, perhaps: RENOVATE.
14. Size indicator: TAG.
19. Put (down): JOT.
24. Nonstick spray brand: PAM.
26. One with a self-sufficient lifestyle: HOMESTEADER.
27. Stranded until a thaw: ICED IN.
28. U. of Maryland athlete: TERP. The university's athletic teams are called the TERPS. They're named after the diamondback terrapin, a turtle native to the Chesapeake Bay.
29. Approximate fig.: EST.
32. Online representative: AVATAR.
35. Woodworking tool that resembles an axe: ADZ. An ADZ (usually spelled ADZE) is like an axe except the blade is at right angles to the handle. It is used to scoop out or smooth wood.
37. "Reckon so": YEP.
39. Space trailer of the 1970s and '80s?: INVADERS. Trailer because INVADERS follows Space in the game's name. An Atari 2600 was our first home video console, and Space INVADERS was the hit game. However, it wasn't long after that I tired of video games and I don't play them at all now. Somehow, they grew into a multi-billion dollar industry without me.
40. Agent that produces a reaction: STIMULUS.
41. Word on Irish stamps: EIRE.
42. Dish whose name means "bone with a hole" in Italian: OSSO BUCO. "I'll have the bone with a hole, please."
43. Brain test letters: EEG. As we learned a week ago, I should use an ElectroEncephaloGram to see if I have any electrical brain activity. I sure hope so.
47. Long, long time: EON.
49. Handy types: DIYERS. Do-It-Yourselfers.
51. Fed. bench nine: SCOTUS. The Supreme Court Of The United States.
52. Most certain: SUREST.
54. Confers, as authority: VESTS.
56. __ au vin: COQ.
57. Takes a breather: RESTS.
59. Cauldron concoction: BREW.
61. CGI-heavy superhero franchise: MCU. Movies in the the Marvel Cinematic Universe use a lot of Computer-Generated Imagery. I know, you're surprised that it's not all real.
63. Hotel bonus bed: COT.
64. Fill with wonder: AWE.
65. __ pro nobis: ORA.
Hope you enjoyed going to the monster movie matinee! In the meantime, I think I'll slip into my handy Halloween costume.
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| Trick or treat! |
Be good. RB
FIR without erasure.
ReplyDeleteEasy puzzle for a Thursday, even though I don’t know ORTON, UNU, or MCU. It didn’t help that I also didn’t know SCARE QUOTES, or anything about SAW and never heard of The Sixth Sense.
Thanks to Mat for the challenge, except that the theme was more suited for a showbiz magazine. (I golf with a Scot and a Scott. Their last names both start with “C,” so I refer to them as “one tee” and “two tee.”) And thanks to Rusty Brain for the fun. You really searched for those extra and extra-obscure flicks.
Good morning!
ReplyDelete"HERE'S JOHNNY" clued me that we'd be looking for movie quotes today. All of 'em were familiar, or at least made sense. I CONCUR is also a movie quote. Leo says it frequently while trying to pass as a doctor in Catch Me If You Can. Julius Caesar is also famous for it: "I came, I saw, I concur." ORTON and UNU were unknown to me, too, but HOHUM seemed obvious and went in immediately. Fun Thursday, One-T Mat. Nice expo, Rusty. (Did you notice my email on the Garland guitar store?)
This puzzle uses the same theme, revealer, and almost the exact same quotes as yesterday’s NYT puzzle. Very disappointing.
DeleteHmm, very curious. I do not get the NYT, and puzzles are made and selected months in advance. Pray tell, who was the constructor of the NYT? Could this puzzle have been submitted to both papers?
DeleteProbably both papers kept these puzzles to run Halloween week, since they don't communicate with each other - just a coincidence, not a disappointment for me
DeleteTook 6:10 today for me to see that ... they're here.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of "scare quotes" or this "Orton," which seems highly obscure.
I didn't like these individually or collectively: hasta, Unu, ora, coq, & eire.
"Burma's first prime minister" makes a late in the month run for worst clue.
Very clever theme, but not being familiar with "scare quotes" I would have rather not had the reveal and all those unfortunate fill words spoiled it for me.
PS. Great review, RB.
ReplyDeleteI was slow catching on to the SCARE QUOTES, then I was STRUCK with enlightenment. Cute theme even though I didn’t know “SAW”. My few other unknowns perpped easily like ORTON, UN U, MATT, DUANE, and MCU. Some erasures: skewer for SMOKER and RElOcaTE for RENOVATE. So, ended up with a FIR.
ReplyDeleteThank you RB, ye with the three arms, for a very nice recap.
Actually, I have a fourth arm you can't see. I wanted to be forearmed just in case...
DeleteI FIR but SCARE QUOTES, I SEE DEAD PEOPLE, and HERE'S JOHNNY (other than Johnny Cardon) were all unknowns, along with UNU (or any Myanmar PM) , ORTON. JOT, and MCU. Other than those, it was a HOHUM puzzle-not. It took a lot of perps and guessing for me and I was lucky to finish.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing about this offering is that a same-themed puzzle ran yesterday in that other paper. It had the exact reveal of Scare Quotes and one and a half themers with Here’s Johnny and It’s Alive, It’s Alive. The other themers were I See Dead People, Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, and I Want To Play A Game. Just proves how difficult creating an original, fresh theme is. The Shining is the only reference I was familiar with but the perps did their job throughout the grid so I FIR w/o any difficulty. It was a fun and timely solve, IMO.
Thanks, Mat, and thanks, RB, for the great review and extensive research necessary for all those related references. Tummy rubs to Buster. Does he get dressed up for Halloween, too?
Have a great day.
Buster does have a costume. One of my boys gave him a little saddle with a jockey on it. But he barely tolerates it long enough for a photo op! LOL
DeleteFIR. This was tough as can be expected on a Thursday. I had to really work at today's puzzle and thank heavens for the perps.
ReplyDeleteI got the gist of the theme from the first long answer, but without coming here I would never have gotten the connection to the reveal. Scare quotes is not in my everyday usage.
Overall a so-so puzzle.
I struggled quite a bit on the NW and SE. It didn't help that I put "Scare Movies". With a bit of white out and due diligence and perseverance, I eventually finished it right. Always surprised when I see folks talk about how fast they finished it. I sometimes think back to the first time I ran a dash in elementary school, and the timer told me he needed a calendar, not a stop watch to time me. Kind of the same for me with today's crossword puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThat brings to mind a famous quote by Tommy Lasorda, referring to a particularly slow player. “In a race with a pregnant woman he would finish third.”
DeleteFilled fairly rapidly ‘cept for the SW till I had the STIMULUS to complete it. But FIW: What is an HOnEST EADER? 🙄
ReplyDeleteTook a few heartbeats to cipher DIYERS. (AWE now I get it!) W0KE (aware) is now a 4 letter word. I remember PORT is “left” by saying “we left PORT”. I also CONCUR that ORTON is pretty remote as is the clue for INVADERS. MCRIB , “Multiple farewell tours” because it’s discontinued then often brought back?
Anaïs welcome back!
“Hey Wildebeest , yeah I’m talkin’ to U Nu”
Why doesn’t “umlaut” have an ümlaut? Perfesser Google says: In German, the two dots are only placed over the vowels a, o, or u when they undergo a historical sound change (vowel fronting, such as u changing to ü). The word Umlaut itself contains a base "u", not an altered sound that requires the mark. Hüh? Whät?
Anyway have a nice rest of the day 😃
Help! I feel iCE:D in!
ReplyDeleteI like the theme, but I am still a bit hazy on the reveal clue, "punctuation that expresses skepticism." Shouldn't it be punctuation that expresses fear?" (Im skeptical...)
Oddly, scare quotes aren't scary. They just indicate sarcasm as in my example at the top. Mat repurposed the definition for the sake of the theme - which apparently is a common one this time of year.
DeleteHola! Although I am definitely not a fan of SCARY or horror movie, I caught on to this one and finished it, to my surprise. The only one I have seen is "The Sixth Sense" and that was a very long time ago. In fact, the young boy is now in his thirties or forties. But, anyway, I'm always pleased when I can finish a puzzle. So, thank you, Mat, with one T.
ReplyDeleteI knew DUANE because I already had the N.
People from Burma are certainly economical with names. Remember U Thant?
Enjoy your day, everyone!
Took 17 minutes to FWH: red-letter help and two alpha runs. 14 names, 6 DNKs. Never heard of "scare quotes" as a term.
ReplyDeleteNot my favorite CW, but thanx anyway for the entertainment, MH.
Best part of the day is RB's terrific write-up. Thanx for all the time and effort, RB.
I'd never heard of "weeun" before that was in a crossword on Tuesday thinking it might be a bad answer. So I asked a buddy in Aberdeen about it. His reply: It is a well known phrase in Scotland Mainly restricted to the Glaswegian area Also known as 'weeyin' (small one). So I was wrong.
ReplyDelete