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.
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| 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.
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| 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?)