Wyatt Johnston is a PhD student in Operations Research at UT Austin who creates and publishes his own custom crossword puzzles. Today he makes his LAT debut. Congrats!
No revealer, just clues that pit one entity against another, and answers that end in synonyms for "conflict."
17. Gas vs. electric?: OVEN BROIL. BROIL is an outdated word for an argument. And ovens have a broiler, so there's that. This one had me speculating if the "B" was added to ROIL as part of a theme, but that was a red herring. In and of itself, OVEN BROIL isn't anything but it does characterize the gas vs. electric debate.
24. Kenwood vs. Sony?: RADIO STATIC. On the other hand, RADIO STATIC is a real thing and also depicts an argument between stereophiles.
41. Old World vs. New World?: CONTINENTAL RIFT. Here he's changed the rules and dropped a letter to create a pun. Instead of continental Drift, we have CONTINENTAL RIFT.
51. Montagues vs. Capulets?: ITALIAN BEEF. Now we're back to a real thing again. The Montagues and Capulets are rival ITALIAN families in Romeo and Juliet. Their feud may be described as a BEEF.
66. Carnivore vs. vegetarian?: FOOD SCRAP. A SCRAP over FOOD. Although after dropping a letter in "drift," and possibly adding one for "roil," I wondered if this should be SCRAPE, which also can be a fight.
These themers seem to be all over the place. Real phrases vs. meaningless ones, and complete vs. omitted letters. I also found this puzzle to be a little tricky because of the afore mentioned odd phrasing. So, I'm a bit conflicted but it's still a valiant first effort.
Let's look at the rest:
Across:
1. __ bass: SLAP. SEA was too short so we're talking about a percussive playing technique on a bass guitar. Well-known examples of SLAP bass are the scene transitions in Seinfeld.
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| My trusty 1976 Rickenbacker 4001 bass |
5. Support before a run, perhaps: T-BAR. A T-BAR is a surface lift that
9. One way to take the bull by the horns?: LASSO. Fun clue.
14. Gilded element in some religious art: HALO. A gold HALO in paintings represents divine light, holiness, royalty, and spiritual illumination. One often appears magically above me in my photos.
15. "The Good Dinosaur" dinosaur: ARLO. ARLO Guthrie may be old, but I wouldn't call him a dinosaur...
16. In base eight: OCTAL.
17. [theme]
19. Play lightly: STRUM. While I sometimes STRUM, I'd rather play lead. 🤘
20. Course selection for a student with senioritis, maybe: EASY A. A "gut" course in my old college parlance.
21. Mind: OBEY.
23. Hose shade: NUDE. Designed to look like you're not wearing hose. Go figure.
24. [theme]
27. Benders: SPREES.
31. Ruling to restart court proceedings: LET. On a tennis court, when a served ball strikes the net but still goes in, it is a do-over called a LET.
32. Arctic Monkeys lead singer Turner: ALEX. The Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band that has won seven Brit Awards (like Grammy Awards) and has sold over 30 million records. ALEX also cowrites the songs.
33. Denny's rival: IHOP. The International House Of Pancakes rebranded itself as IHOP because they were paying by the letter on signage. Probably.
37. Subtle vibes: AURAS. These are often depicted in art as a luminous cloud or ring (like a HALO) around the head or body of a deity or sacred figure.
41. [theme]
44. Katana, e.g.: SWORD. A katana is a traditional Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a long grip designed for two-handed use.
45. Average: MEAN.
46. Home of the Taj Mahal: AGRA. Luckily for xword constructors, the Taj Mahal will always be in AGRA, no matter how they clue it. And this one was as straightforward as they come.
47. The whole lot: ALL.
49. Country legend Willie: NELSON. In the '60s, Willie played a Baldwin 800C acoustic-electric guitar. In 1969, a drunk person accidentally stepped on and crushed it during a performance in Texas. When he found it couldn't be fixed, his repairman sold him the now-famous Martin N-20 classical guitar that he named Trigger.
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| Willie back in the '60s with his Baldwin 800C |
51. [theme]
57. Sufi mystic who wrote the six-volume poem the Masnavi: RUMI. A masnavi is a poem written in rhyming couplets. It is the workhorse long form of Persian poetry, the most famous of which is the Masnavi-ye Ma'navi, a spiritual epic by the thirteenth-century Persian poet Jalal al-Din RUMI.
58. See 48-Down: POOL.
59. "You got that right": FACTS. FACTS is slang to express strong agreement. FACTS!
64. Green shade: OLIVE.
66. [theme]
68. Stanley's "The Devil Wears Prada" role: NIGEL. Stanley Tucci portrays NIGEL Kipling, the sharp-witted Art Director at the fashion magazine Runway.
69. Not on board with: ANTI.
70. Whipped up: MADE.
71. Twitch: SPASM.
72. Overflow (with): TEEM.
73. Quaint cry: EGAD.
Down:
1. Card dispenser: SHOE. A dealer's SHOE is a gaming device used mainly in casinos to hold multiple decks of playing cards.
2. Heavy-duty soap made by WD-40: LAVA. The key natural ingredient of LAVA is pumice (ground volcanic ash). It works very well to remove heavy grease and even TAR.
3. Some drafts: ALES.
4. Petting zoo ride: PONY.
5. Paving gunk: TAR. If you get some on your hands, try using LAVA.
6. Clutch: BROOD. These aren't quite the same. A clutch is a group of eggs laid together in a nest, while a BROOD is the group of young offspring that hatch from those eggs.
7. "I was home watching TV all night," e.g.: ALIBI. "I was watching crime dramas."
8. Birling contest: ROLEO. Birling is commonly known as logrolling. It is an event at a lumberjack ROLEO (a twist on a RODEO).
9. Spanish article: LOS.
10. "Quick, look like you're not up to something!": ACT NATURAL. "Hey, I'm just watching TV!"
11. Confident gait: STRUT.
12. __ Arabia: SAUDI.
13. Early Mesoamerican civilization: OLMEC. Like last week, the answer wasn't Aztec (which I tried) or Mayan. The OLMEC civilization was the first major culture in Mesoamerica (southern Mexico), dating approximately from 1200 to 400 BCE.
18. Expose: BARE.
22. Runway letters: YSL. Yves Saint Laurent.
25. "That is to say ... ": AS IN. This one doesn't quite click either.
26. Aqua kin: TEAL.
27. Egg pouches: SACS.
28. Snowbank creator: PLOW. In South Florida, our garbage trucks double as snowplows.
29. Silver State city: RENO.
30. Boosts in some games: EXTRA LIVES.
34. Cutting edge of fashion?: HEM. Winner: Best Clue. 🏆
35. Common Scrabble tile value: ONE.
36. School org.: PTA. Parent-Teacher Association.
38. Semis: RIGS. Semi-trailer trucks are big RIGS.
39. Curly coif: AFRO.
40. Superfan: STAN. I'm finally getting the hang of this one. It only took twenty-five years.
42. Asian rice cake: IDLI. "An IDLI cake is the devil's food." Or something like that.
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| IDLI is a traditional South Indian steamed rice cake |
43. Green Gables girl: ANNE.
48. With 58-Across, exercise venue: LAP.
50. Really bad grades: EFFS. Why no "E"s on a report card? I once got straight "E"s and I told my parents that meant Excellence, not near failing. They almost bought it.
51. Does a laundry chore: IRONS. I wrote FOLDS at first, which briefly screwed up the SW corner.
52. Spring bloom: TULIP. Last March, my son and DIL visited the Skagit Valley TULIP Festival near Seattle. Amazing fields of color!
53. Latina friend: AMIGA.
54. Like some lean products: NO FAT.
55. Yankees manager Aaron: BOONE. The former infielder has been the Yankees manager since 2018.
56. Street corn often topped with cotija: ELOTE. ELOTE is a popular Mexican street food consisting of grilled or boiled corn on the cob slathered in a creamy sauce and topped with cheese and spices.
60. Cartoon supplier of instant roads: ACME. ACME also makes Portable Holes.
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| I think that's where our highway department gets them. |
61. Steep rock: CRAG.
62. "I did it!": TADA.
63. Went fast: SPED.
65. Shade tree: ELM.
67. Darken: DIM.
Be good. RB
