SEWER ENTRANCE
Sō - er en TRANCE, not this . . .
Today we have a duet of previous LA Times crossword constructors; here's one from Stacey, and one from Larry. Our Friday theme, not related to the "Thirteenth", is a play on words that could, but don't, rhyme - words that are spelled the same, but have a different pronunciations are called "Heteronyms". Two grid-spanners in the over-sized 15 x 16 puzzle frame, no circles, no outlier letters, 2 Napoleons, a few quotes, a Twurd or two. 3- & 5LWs combined equal the number of four-letter words, plus a number of proper nouns, but fair ones. The themers, no reveal;
18. Year of tears?: PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR - yeer of "tares"
The caption says "llamas at home", and in the bubble -
"Llook out Llary, it's the llandllord~!"
30. Show bow?: CURTAIN CALL - shō - bao
The Princess Bride
45. Kind of wind?: OCEAN BREEZE - kye-nd of wih-nd - a bit meh, since one would inherently read this as such - not kih-nd of wye-nd, or kye-nd of wye-nd . . .
58. Power shower?: BATTERY INDICATOR - IMHO, the best of the bunch - pao-wer shōw-er
Butte Weight, Tare's Moor~!
ACROSS:
1. Chicago team: CUBS - Major League Baseball
5. Atmosphere: AURA
9. Put in the rearview mirror: GO PAST - you can go past fast if you go past fast
15. Still working: AT IT - Yes, I know it's parsed differently, but no way the previous editor lets this fly with "TIT" in the grid as well . . . 😖
16. Apple variety: iMAC - computers, not crisps
17. Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon: EROICA - 'Hero' in Italian
Napoleon #1
21. "Hoo boy": "OH MAMA~!" - oh, Twurd(ish)~!
22. Paleozoic, for one: ERA
23. Minor progress: DENT - i.e., "I made a ' _ _' in my to-do list today."
24. Little dickens: IMP
25. Pumpkin seeds: PEPITAS - filled via perps
Straight definition
28. __-bitsy: ITSY - teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini . . .
34. Pointillism bit: DOT - coulda been tied to 30D.
35. Ribs, e.g.: BONES
36. Ashram mentors: GURUS
37. Class with makeup tests?: ANATOMY - Meh. Cosmetology would have been funnier; anatomy is the study of internal and external structures that "make up" a body
39. Countertop option: FORMICA - I still have the one from the 1950s - a product now over 100yrs old
41. One who keeps on trekkin': HIKER
42. Quaint greeting: M'LADY - "It's a bit windy, M'lady . . ."
Our dear departed Queen Elizabeth can't look
48. Some postgrad degs.: PhDs - abbrs
49. Mixture: MELANGE - a meaty mouthful
50. Poorly lit: DIM
51. Big personalities: EGOS
54. Do one's part: ACT - I prefer being behind the scenes - literally making the "scenes"
55. "You promise?": "HONEST~?" - Quote #1
62. "Shove it!": "BITE ME~!" - Quote #2
63. Outdated marriage vow word: OBEY
64. Flooring choice: TILE - I plan to redo my cheap linoleum kitchen floor with ceramic tile
65. Horse barn sounds: SNORTS
66. Gram: NANA - Grandmother nick-names
67. Solitaire foundation cards: ACES
DOWN:
1. Tool for a quick key change: CAPO - Hah~! That kind of key change - nailed it.
I say a Kay-po, You say a Cah-po - fits the theme, too - the other Capo
2. State whose license plates say "Life Elevated": UTAH - I lived in OHIO, so that four-letter state was out, and it definitely wasn't IOWA - but I couldn't recall this last four-letter one . . . and a Tuesday dupe
3. "You'll regret that": "BIG MISTAKE." - 10-letter Down, Quote #3 - and a unique fill, too
4. Torrid: STEAMY - Dah~! I had stORmy first . . .
5. Opera mentioned in the 10,000 Maniacs song "Verdi Cries": AIDA - yada yada four-letter opera~?
6. Actress Thurman: UMA - Crossword three-letter name staple
7. Word with UV or X, but not W: RAY - Took me a minute, but a great clue/answer; UV-ray, X-ray
8. Learns to live with: ACCEPTS - ABIDES was a letter short
9. Frozen Italian desserts: GELATI - the Italian plural of gelatO
10. Mine find: ORE - More ORE~! Every Friday, it seems - and a Thursday dupe
11. High-grossing film?: POND SCUM - The disgusting, "gross", water-covering kind of "film" - and one of my favorite "Edgar" scenes from Men In Black
. . . as they scurry about, in short, pointless, lives . . .
12. Staffer: AIDE
13. Read quickly: SCAN
14. Small pie: TART - I'm making fudge peanut-butter brownies for Thanksgiving
19. Concert piece: AMP
The Grateful Dead's "wall of sound"
20. Opera solo: ARIA - opera #2
25. Dinky: PUNY
26. Before, once: ERE - we had palindrome on Tuesday
Napoleon #2
27. Spitting nails: ANGRY - not IRATE
28. Craters of the Moon locale: IDAHO - more here
29. Elixir: TONIC
30. Business extension: .COM - I actually had to think about this one; ".biz" was my first notion
31. Branch of mathematics: ARITHMETIC - the other 10-letter Down
32. __ dreaming: LUCID - I try to recall all the details of my dreams in the morning - the Wiki
33. Future DAs' exams: LSATs - District Attorney, Law School Admissions Test
35. Carried: BORNE - e.g., "wind-borne" sand
Jason Bourne sand
38. Semi pro?: TEAMSTER - Didn't fool me - I knew we were looking for a "rig driver", but that didn't fit - Teamsters is the "semi" truck-driving union, which includes UPS, e.g., where I was once a member
39. Put off one's game: FAZE - most of us are fazed by too many names in a crossword
40. Many a poem by Clint Smith: ODE - no clue, but yada yada three-letter poem~?
42. Bring up: MENTION - did I mention there were 18 3LWs today~?
43. Limb lifted in a développé: LEG - I can't believe I tried ARM first - I'm so ashamed . . .
Frawnche #1, the ballet move, "unfolded"
46. Plays loudly: BLARES - Like one's stereo
Quiet Riot - "Cum on Feel the Noize" -
the YouTube link
47. Somewhat blue: RACY - Ah. That kind of "blue"
48. One hanging around a party?: PIÑATA - Har-har
50. MS Word file: .DOC
51. Starts to peter out: EBBS - Dah~! not DIES
52. Profit: GAIN
53. Inflatable pilot in "Airplane!": OTTO - Ah, the all-time best comedy movie~?
Blazing saddles, Young Frankenstein are in the running, too
55. "Hey there!": "HI-YA~!" - I tried PSST first
56. Single: SOLE - Dah~! Not LONE, but 75% correct
57. "__ chic!": "TRES~!" - Frawnche #2
59. Vitals checker, briefly: EMT - Emergency Medical Technician, but I thought "RNs" was better
60. Org. for Suns and Rockets: NBA - Basketball from Phoenix & Houston - not NASA 😁
61. Guest room, in a pinch: DEN
Splynter
Grid Flow 52.4
Notes from C.C.:
Happy birthday to Big Easy (George), husband of Louisiana Tennis Hall of Famer Diane! Hope you have a wonderful birthday and a great year ahead, George!
No reveal - but no matter.
ReplyDeleteI got through it just fine.
FIR, so I’m happy.
And Happy Birthday, Big Easy!
Hope you enjoy your day!
FIR, but anatamy->ANATOMY (I knew better,) tort->TART, and psst->HIYA. Didn't get the theme until Splynter 'splained it, but I don't put much weight on themes anyway.
ReplyDeleteCSO to our own inane HIKER.
To paraphrase Sally Field, I really, really liked this puzzle. Plenty of trickery, but mostly free of obscurities.
Our constructors showed their seniority with DOC instead of DOCx, and .COM instead of .biz. I guess there wasn't any way to crowbar in "COBOL" and "23 skidoo."
HBDTY, Big Easy. I always enjoy your musings.
Thanks to Stacey and Larry for the fun challenge. And thanks to Splynter for another fine Friday review.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteYay, gotta love a themeless Friday. I once lived in IOWA, forgot about OHIO, so immediately went to UTAH, and that was correct. I'll take the CSO at OTTO. Went sideways with SultrY/STEAMY and irate/ANGRY. POND SCUM and TEAMSTER were cute. Hats off to Stacey and Larry for a fun Friday fest. I'm glad Splynter had to 'splain this one and not I. (Somehow I can picture you making a scene.)
Big HBD to B-E. Have a good one, young man.
Can you say tough puzzle? I did finish but the clues took second looks and thoughts.
ReplyDeleteFills like GELATI instead of OS, PEPITAS, MLADY,
I don't know what happened above but I didn't hit 'publish'
DeleteCan you say tough puzzle? I did finish but the clues took second looks and thoughts. No movies, singers, or actors-OTTO doesn't count.
DeleteProper words today? EROICA, and FORMICA.
POND SCUM had the best clue. TEAMSTER was a close second.
It seemed as though every clue sent me in the wrong direction before I could figure it out. The 'tears' almost had me crying before I finally got to the PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR.
MLADY, said "It's a BIG MISTAKE if you think I'm a TART and am wearing this RACY outfit showing a TIT for you. BITE ME you little STEAMY IMP or I'll call the mafia CAPO (not the one on your guitar)".
I've got to send C.C. another picture of us. DW looks great but I've aged.
FIR. What a workout! So much misdirection throughout. Pepitas was an unknown for me, so that section was the last to fall.
ReplyDeleteI eventually saw the theme but had a difficult time with several of the theme answers. I second guessed myself several times.
But overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 9:01 today to unrhyme my way through this.
ReplyDeleteI knew the Actress of the Day (Uma), but I didn't know "lucid dreaming" and the French (leg clue & tres). Somewhere in the deep chasm of my memory "pepitas" appeared.
We had "Utah" & "Idaho", "atit" & "tit", and "bones" on top of "anatomy", although I didn't care for the "makeup" clue. I did enjoy the clues for "teamster" and "page a day calendar".
FIR, so that’s good. OH MAMA I had to work at the long answers having just a vague sense of the theme. The rest filled with not much trouble. I too had sultry before STEAMY and I needed perps for BITE ME as clued. That’s a total unknown for me, not the answer but the clue.
ReplyDeleteI too liked the clue for TEAMSTER and like Splynter I was not fooled. 😎 and the clues for POND SCUM and PIÑATA. Such a long clue for a tiny TIT.
Thank you Splynter. Great review. And Happy birthday to Big Easy. 🎂🎊🎉
“Bite me” is actually an obscenity, or rather, refers to one
ReplyDelete-SubG
Not quite a walk in the park, but surprisingly easy for a Friday. Finished in under eight minutes, with no real stumbling blocks.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Otto make an appearance.