A return visit from Alan whose first LAT I blogged back in July, 2013. He had three other LATs in 2015 and has three NYTs. The end of the fill are types of basic living quarters. We do have an uncommon Friday reveal telling us exactly what to look for in our puzzle. I found it like most Fridays filled with challenging clues, but overall doable. My first theme impression was the SH in shed, shack and shut but that did not last. Some very sparkly fill like BEHESTS, IN HASTE, IN SO FAR, NO NAMES, STREAKS, TEN ACRE, CAST IN STONE, MINNEAPOLIS with many of the multiple word fill so popular with the late Dan Naddor and Jeffrey Wechsler. Well let us go solve the homeless problem...
19A. Cleaned meticulously : HAND POLISHED (12). Sheds come in all sizes and types.
28A. Disdainful literary review comment : TALENTLESS HACK(14). There are many shacks to be seen driving our roads.
34A. Ironclad : OPEN AND SHUT (11). A hut can be very simple.
44A. Malice, in law : CRIMINAL INTENT (14). Tents on the other hand can be rather impressive.
53A. Classic Stones song ... and a hint to what's hidden at the ends of 19-, 28-, 34- and 44-Across : GIMME SHELTER(12). They keep on going.
Across:
1. Cotton fabric : PIMA. Pima cotton is a generic name for extra-long staple (ELS) cotton grown primarily in the U.S., Australia, Peru and apparently the long staple makes it softer. Per wiki.
5. The Cavaliers of the ACC : UVA. University of Virginia.
56. Take for granted : ASSUME. An ASS of U and ME.
59. Debt-laden fin. deal : LBO. Leveraged Buy Out. The wall street game where you purchase a company borrowing money by pledging the assets of the company being bought. LESSON.
60. Skyrocket : SOAR.
61. Arboreal marsupials : KOALAS. They look almost fake. Nice word for puzzles.
65. Pindaric __ : ODE. Wow, it really is Friday. LESSON 2.
66. Hardy soul? : TESS. Nicely clued.
Down:
1. Cries of contempt : POOHS.
2. Rashly : IN HASTE. A bonus for naming the author.
" Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure:
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure."
3. Home city of the WNBA's Lynx : MINNEAPOLIS. A CSO to our Minnesota connection.
4. "And giving __, up the chimney ... " : A NOD. Clement Clarke Moore's holiday classic.
5. Yet to arrive : UNBORN. Had me fooled even with the UN in place.
6. Spectrum color : VIOLET.
7. Standing against : ANTI. Would someone who always stands against be a PRO ANTI?
8. Department store section : LINENS.
9. "Camptown Races" refrain syllables : DOODAH. I love this VERSION (4:54).
10. Decide to be involved (in) : OPT.
11. Entrée follower, perhaps : PIE. I do like pie better than cake.
12. Coolers, briefly : ACS. I believe the perfecting of air conditioning in automobiles was the key to Florida becoming the third most populous state.
15. Commands : BEHESTS. A great old fashioned word.
20. Put (together) : PIECE. Really simple words with Friday cluing.
21. Lieu : STEAD. In the place of someone or something. More Old English.
25. Definite : CAST IN STONE. Cast is back.
26. Early 'N Sync label : RCA. Two weeks in a row and I still do not care.
27. Scratch (out) : EKE.
29. Rim : LIP.
30. Top-ranked tennis star for much of the '80s : LENDL.
35. Stars' opposites : NO NAMES. I guess they were not well cast.
36. Chili rating unit : ALARM. My wife refers to her spicy sauces as five star!
37. "Stand" opposite : HIT ME. Blackjack, twenty-one, vingt et un.
38. Exploit : USE.
39. Bygone telecom co. : MCI. MCI was founded as Microwave Communications, Inc., then World Com came along and destroyed the company; the pieces belong now to Verizon.
40. Coastal flier : ERN.
43. Barely runs? : STREAKS. I guess your laundry?
45. Ski bumps : MOGULS.
46. "Allow me" : IF I MAY. If I might, have the wish I wish tonight....
47. Discouraging words from an auto mechanic : IT'S BAD.
48. More than discouraging words : NO HOPE. I like the sequential cluing.
52. Rich tapestry : ARRAS.
54. Muppet who always turns 3½ on February 3 : ELMO.
55. Future atty.'s ordeal : LSAT. Law School Admission Test.
56. Blotter letters : AKA. Also Known As.
57. Prince George, to Prince William : SON.
58. Didn't start : SAT. On the bench.
Well it is time for me to sit and send this off through cyberspace. See you next week. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
Happy 70th Birthday to dear John Lampkin, our gifted constructor and blog friend. John is truly a master in designing grids and cluing. He was so incredibly kind to me when I started blogging & later making LAT puzzles. He answered every little questions I had. He even called me. Such a generous soul!
Alan's fun gimmick is to take the names of four of the BEARS shown above and not only use them as the first word in 4 starred fills (two great vertical spanners!) but have them go DOWN the grid to complement the reveal in 55 Across - BEARS DOWN. Therefore we not only have the names of four BEARS but they are literally going DOWN. Wonderful! Theme Reveal: 55. Focuses even harder ... and a hint to the starts of the answers to starred clues : BEARS DOWN Theme Answers - All our ursine crossword visitors are pictured above 3. *Rhode Island school : BROWN (BEAR) UNIVERSITY 5. *Like Southern California beaches : SUN(BEAR) DRENCHED 24. *One of two cold atmospheric cyclones : POLAR(BEAR) VORTEX 11. *Title female "trying to make a devil out of me," in a Santana hit : BLACK(BEAR) MAGIC WOMAN Across 1. "Mamma Mia!" group : ABBA - Fun music!! 5. Tunes : SONGS 10. Fundamentals : ABC'S 14. Talking iPhone feature : SIRI - "Quick, SIRI, should I hit 15 or stand?" 15. Destroyer destroyer : U-BOAT - The Imitation Game told of breaking the Enigma Code so the Allies could destroy their destroyer's destroyers
16. Messy stuff : GLOP 17. __ smasher : ATOM - What the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is
18. "I'm innocent!" : NOT ME - Middle School Theme Song 19. Hindu deity : RAMA - also known as Raghava, is the seventhavatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, but you knew that
20. High-speed war plane maneuver : POWER DIVE 22. Hunter's device : DECOY - Some DECOYS placed near Dover made the Germans think D-Day would happen at Calais not Normandy
23. Gets close to : NEARS 24. Cheat, in a way : PEEK 25. Seasonal malady : FLU 27. Find work : GET A JOB - Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip, Mum mum mum mum mum mum, GET A JOB, but you knew that
30. Shakespearean fairy queen : MAB 33. Large-leafed tree : LINDEN 35. Batman portrayer Kilmer : VAL - Everybody gets a turn
36. Skating commentator Lipinski : TARA 37. Passionate : AVID 38. Dishes for company : CHINA 40. Eagerly excited : AGOG 41. Golfer Ballesteros : SEVE - The late SEVE had every shot!
42. Furrow maker : HOE 43. Ruling period : REGIME 45. Charlemagne's realm: Abbr. : HRE - According to Voltaire - Neither Holy, Roman nor an Empire 46. Avant-garde : NEW WAVE 48. Low or no follower : CAL 49. Insert for a 6-Down : REED - Double REED actually 51. Shoot well under par, in golf lingo : GO LOW - Who better to tell you how than the #1 golfer in the world Jordan Spieth?
53. Syria's Bashar al-__ : ASSAD - Many groups are waging war in his country
59. Letters after phis : CHIS
60. "The Planets" composer : HOLST - A Philistine like me (I?) needed the H in HEF to finish this 61. Texter's "If you ask me" : IMHO 62. Adorable : CUTE
63. Wipe off : ERASE 64. Dismissed, with "off" : LAID - Schools call it RIF - Reduction In Force. "Losing your job by any other name..." 65. "Until next time," in texts : TTYL - Didn't all of us know it's "Talk To You Later"? OMG, LOL! 66. Oscar's roommate : FELIX 67. Tolkien's Treebeard et al. : ENTS Down 1. PDQ : ASAP 2. __-Honey : BIT-O - My teeth hurt just typing this
4. Pop singer Mann : AIMEE - Bassist and vocalist for 'Til Tuesday, but you knew that
6. Duck player in "Peter and the Wolf" : OBOIST - Didn't we all learn this in grade school?
7. Punishment with a grounding : NO TV - or iPad, iPhone, laptop, Wii, Xbox, PS4... 8. Risk, e.g. : GAME 9. Canonized Mlle. : STE 10. Feel the same way : AGREE
12. "¿__ está?" : COMO - Adding "usted" is very formal 13. Fix, as a pet : SPAY - We paid the Lincoln Humane Society $133 for Lily which included SPAYING. What a bargain!!
21. Blow one's top : RAGE 22. Cotillion honoree : DEB
25. Jiffy : FLASH
26. Iron-rich meat : LIVER - I might opt for anemia! 28. Miller's "__ From the Bridge" : A VIEW - Miller's tragic protagonist informed on people in his Brooklyn neighborhood. Later Miller himself refused to do that in front of the HUAC committee. 29. First calendar pg. : JAN 31. Food court attraction : AROMA - That food court AROMA might be coming from our sometime cwd visitor
32. Something to pick lox for : BAGEL 34. '50s political monogram : DDE 36. Label : TAG 39. "__ so?" : HOW 44. Fish caught in pots : EELS 46. Author Buntline : NED - Dime novelist NED (actually Ezra Zane Carroll Johnson) may or may not have presented Wyatt Earp with one of these Colt Buntline Specials he commissioned
47. Tennis great Andre : AGASSI 50. Studio piece : EASEL 52. "Swan Lake" swan : ODILE - But you knew that 53. Customer holding: Abbr. : ACCT 54. Closed : SHUT 55. Produced, as fruit : BORE 56. Tel Aviv airline : EL AL 57. Smidgen : WHIT 58. Quiet yeses : NODS - Subtle
60. Celeb with a mansion : HEF Now that you have your BEARINGS, let's hear your assessment.
39-Across. School area workers, and what the four pairs of intersecting starred answers depict : CROSSING GUARDS.
Eight synonyms for GUARD cross each other in this puzzle. Here they are:
21-Across. *Former Ford compact : ESCORT. crossing 4-Down. *Hypnotist's prop : WATCH.
23-Across. *Orlando newspaper : SENTINEL. crossing 10-Down. *Janitor : CUSTODIAN.
59-Across. *German __ : SHEPHERD. crossing 49-Down. *Regulation-sized fish : KEEPER.
66-Across. *"Heaven Can Wait" (1978) Oscar nominee Jack : WARDEN. crossing 42-Down. *Lawyer, at times : DEFENDER.
70 theme letters is a whole ton, leaving very little wiggle room to sparkle with the fill.
Across
1. "__ go, into ... " : OFF WE. So yes, off we...
6. Top level : ATTIC.
11. Night school subj. : ESL. English (as a) Second Language.
68. __ Miss : OLE. Shout out to DH - his Alma mater.
69. Defamatory text : LIBEL.
70. Strip, as of rights : DIVEST.
71. Poetic adverb : E'ER.
72. Rodeo catcher : LASSO.
73. "Star Wars" title : DARTH. It is reserved for Sith Lords.
Down
1. Shocked letters : OMG."Oh My Goodness..."
2. Like much court evidence : FORENSIC.
3. More kittenish : FRISKIER.
5. This, in Toledo : ESTO.
6. JFK's UN ambassador : AES. Adlai Ewing Stevenson.
7. Barrette target : TRESS.
8. "Pencils down!" : TIME!
9. Coast-to-coast hwy. : I-TEN. The southernmost east-west hwy. in the continental US.
11. Blissful : EDENIC.
12. Star sometimes eclipsing Venus? : SERENA. The Williams sisters of tennis.
13. Stahl of "60 Minutes" : LESLEY. I can never remember if it is "ie" or EY at the end.
15. Fertile Crescent land : SYRIA.
20. Reward in a jar : TIP.
22. NFL six-pointers : TDs. Touch Downs.
24. Come to the rescue of : AID.
26. Prefix with biology : ETHNO-.
30. URL ending : ORG.
31. Actress Joanne : DRU. Born Joan Letitia LaCock. (Really!)
34. Steal ... or the one who catches the thief : COP.
35. War of 1812 commodore : ISAAC HULL. No clue.
37. Considered figures carefully? : OGLED.
38. Like some wit or wine : DRY. I like both that way. ;-)
40. "The Simpsons" disco guy : STU. I don't even have to think about these characters any more.
disco = STU
store = APU
bar = MOE
smart = LISA
etc etc etc...
41. Rankle : IRK.
43. Most unemotional : STONIEST.
46. "Help! We're sinking!" : SOS.
47. '70s-'80s tennis star Tanner : ROSCOE. He was not a huge star, and might be more well known to the police than to any tennis fan.
I
have not seen this constructor before, but I have seen a grid like this
before - and typically not on Saturday. Very few long-letter fills and
simple corners, but a complex array of answers and clues that needed to
be mined for hints made this one a healthy challenge. Have to admit to
two bad cells, both relating to "country" music - oh well. We have two
9-letter crossings, and two 10's crossing 12-letter spanners;
21A. Quantum theory pioneer : MAX PLANCK
10D. Disaster : CATACLYSM
6D. "... forswear thin potations and to addict __ to sack": Falstaff : THEMSELVES - that's a long way to go for a personal pronoun
32A. Facetious Appalachian portmanteau : PENNSYLTUCKY
- I am familiar with this type of slanderous nick-name; I lived just
north of Cincinnati, near a town called Hamilton; the local yokels were
said to be from "Hamiltucky"
53A. Rare pro golf feat : GRAND SLAM - there's some ambiguity on this one; the Wiki
So, what do 10 and 12 have in common, but skips 11~?
ONWARD~!
ACROSS:
1. Handhold : CLASP - don't like
that we start with a 'meh'; I think of a CLasp as the little thingy that
closes a necklace; a handhold is more of a GRasp
6. Part of a comparison : THAN
10. Montreal Protocol concerns : CFCs - here's a little from the UN environment programme
14. "Men in Trees" star : HECHE - Anne; did not know of this TV series
15. Roadside chain, for short : HO JO - Howard Johnson's - they've vanished out my way
16. Take __ at: try to wallop : A RIP - tried "A RUN" - 50% correct
17. Sean who played Samwise Gamgee : ASTIN - that would be the character from "Lord of the Rings", which sadly I could not get in to
18. Dash : ELAN - this could also be "A RUN"
19. Arum family tuber : TARO - a crossword educated WAG
20. Egyptian menace : ASP
23. Glides : SASHAYS
26. Heart part? : COCKLE - I am still looking for the girl who will "warm the cockles of my heart"
27. Texter's "... but that may just be me" : IMO - In My Opinion
28. Fertile deposit : LOESS - WAGed
31. Elizabeth of "Martha Marcy May Marlene" : OLSEN
35. Old blade : SNEE - had this last week
36. Like some grazers : OVINE - I went with VEGAN first, and I like it better
37. Span. girl : SRTA
44. Complexity : DEPTH
47. Inscribed marker : STELA - dah~! I had an "E" at the end first
48. High-tech worker : 'BOT - Robot
49. Taken out, in a way : ON LOAN
51. Back in the day : LONG AGO
56. Daughter of Loki : HEL - unknown to me, hence one bad cell....
57. "We Three Kings" kings : MAGI
58. Joining device : YOKE
59. Ring material : ONION - semi-fooled me, but once the "---ON" was in place
62. Desierto's lack : AGUA - once I figured out this was not a personal name, but Spanish for desert....
63. Ravel's "Gaspard de la __" : NUIT - considered to be one of the most complex solo piano pieces - watch here at about 16:30 to see how he crosses his hands back and forth
64. Nice book : LIVRE - French for "book". Ugh, enough with the foreign stuff, OK~?
65. Treated : SEEN - like doctors; I was thinking "ON ME"
66. Mdse. containers : CTNs - I C a lt f ctns @ UPS
67. Pool events : MEETS
DOWN:
1. Chinese tea : CHA
2. Nessman of WKRP : LES
3. Be a team : ACT AS ONE
4. Turkish skewer : SHISH - kebabs~!
5. Friends you may never see : PEN-PALS - I saw that this was part of a popular discussion this week
7. Havana "How do" : HOLA
8. Trojan War hero : AJAX
9. Like some rude jokes, briefly : NON-PC
11. Cookout fare : FRANKS
12. Wait to land, perhaps : CIRCLE
13. Reserved, with "for" : SPOKEN
22. Style : LOOK - here's where I twas thinking "ELAN" first
23. Takes it slow, in a way : SIPS - I don't take it at all - Jan 8th was my 10-yr AA anniversary
24. "Yes!" : AMEN - huh; I had the "M" and "N", so I went with "I'm In"
25. Chuckleheads : YO-YOs
29. Hitch : STINT - Got it this time
34. Songwriter Green : CeeLo - had a huge hit with "F*** You"
38. 1991 "Favorite Album - Country" American Music Award winner : REBA LIVE - Reba TIME~!? Nope. Reba VIBE~!? Uh-uh. Dang.
39. 1970 sci-fi film starring Joan Crawford in her last big-screen performance : TROG - Never heard of it - IMDb
Blue Oyster Cult had fun with her, tho ( more piano, too~! )
40. Regarding : AS TO
42. Start of a favorite-meal reminiscence : I HAD
43. 1998 "King Lear" Olivier Award winner : IAN HOLM - I know him from "Alien"
44. Doctrines : DOGMAS
45. Anger : ENRAGE
46. Harass : PLAGUE
50. "This I Promise You" band : *NSYNC - not that I heard the song, but with the "C" in place....
52. Bottled-up type? : GENIE - har-har
54. Boor : LOUT
55. Similar : AKIN
60. Scrap for Fido : ORT
61. Video game letters : NES - Nintendo Entertainment System
Splynter
Note from C.C.:
Please click here for a Caesar
coleslaw recipe Yellowrocks (Kathy) sent to me last night. Here is what a savoy cabbage looks like. As Kathy says, you have slice it thinly, the leaf has a kale-like quality.
Examples of this confusing PLANT, are hidden within six sets of consecutive answers using 14 of the 15 squares available in rows, starting in row 1 and ending with row 15, with the a central reveal telling you what are hidden are types of beans, and they are "jumping" across the black square. It is not common to have a reveal on Friday, but without it, this might have been too hard. A variation on the overlapping fill revealing a hidden word, as here the overlap is between to different answers. A total of 95 squares in the theme, yet in a format that looks like a Saturday themeless, with triple stacks of 9's in the corners. I think the challenge to put this together was amazing, and while I am really confused by 22A and 44D, I think this what appears to be the debut puzzle by, I am guessing, a Dentist from New England who coincidentally went to Tufts, and went to the ACPT this year, captured your attention and was a bumpy but satisfying ride.
1A. *Seat often against a wall : DIVAN. with 6A. *Antsy : ILL AT EASE. and VANILLA (bean) us revealed. There are many multiple word answers like ILL AT EASE which made the solving harder.
15A. *Microscopic menace : E. COLI. with 16A. *The economy, in many debates : MAIN ISSUE.= :LIMA(bean).
29A. *100 centavos : ONE PESO. with 31A. *River spanned by the Three Gorges Dam : YANGTZE= SOY. (Or SOYA). Both clues required some knowledge.
43A. *Forage plant also called lucerne : ALFALFA. with 47A. *Garlic avoider, traditionally: VAMPIRE.= FAVA. I did not know Alfafa (not from little rascals) had another name.
63A. *Cultural artifacts : AMERICANA. with64A. *Struggling : VYING.= NAVY.Again like Saturday, no gimmes.
65A. *Game piece that can stand on either end : CANDLE PIN, with 66A. *Sycophant : TOADY= PINTO. Another hint to the New England tie, as this form of bowling is popular in few places, though it was a TV regular when I was a child. ARTICLE.
and the reveal
36A. Seed containing moth larva, and what is aptly hidden in each puzzle row whose clues contain asterisks : JUMPING BEAN. Is it un-pc to say Mexican Jumping Bean?
Across:
17. Music genre : METAL. One of my favorites. LISTEN.(3:26).
18. It's not always met : POTENTIAL. Ah, wasted.
19. Cow-horned goddess : ISIS. I like the Brazilian version LINK.
20. Emma of "Dynasty" : SAMMS. One of my favorites.
21. Co-star of Ingrid in "Autumn Sonata" : LIV. ULLMANA. A 1978 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann and Lena Nyman. It tells the story of a celebrated classical pianist who is confronted by her neglected daughter. It was Ingrid Bergman's last performance in a major theatrical feature film, and the film won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1979 Golden Globe Awards. (per wiki).
22. Bean cover? : HAT. Man, this clue confuse the hell out of me; eventually I thought it was accepted as not conflicting with the theme because it did not relate to vegetable life but an expression for the human head.
25. Long in films : NIA. Very actress intensive. Another LINK.
26. U-boat, e.g. : SUBmarine.
33. Rod Stewart's first wife : ALANA. Another female; Alan where was your mind. Also married to George Hamilton.
35. Subvert : RUIN. She did not ruin his career.
40. Ship's spine : KEEL. Let's keep ours even.
42. Ziggurat features : TIERS. Pyramid like structures built in ancient Mesopotamia and coming to the FUTURE.(1:25)
51. Overtime cause : TIE.
52. Portugese pronoun : ELA. Similar to Spanish and French.
53. Common ___ : ERA.
54. Considerable amount : TON.
55. Work with, as clay : KNEAD. If you need to relax it is good to knead.
57. Cole Porter's alma mater : YALE. An obscure New England fact 41D. 57-Across grad : ELI.
58. UMass athlete : MINUTEMAN. Another one.
62. With 38-Down, Arctic denizen : POLAR. and 38D. See 62-Across : BEAR.
Down:
1. Venus ___ : DE MILO. Poor girl lost her arms. The back STORY. Venus is the Roman Aphrodite.
2. Strands in winter, perhaps : ICES IN. My meh of the day in an otherwise awesome creation.
3. Offered for a special intention, as a Mass : VOTIVE. You buy the candles.
4. Pained cry : ALAS. Another near ALAN word (like Alana).
5. Zippo : NIL. Zilch, nada, bubkis.
6. Rambunctious sort : IMP.
7. Vientiane's land : LAOS. A remnant of the French influence in Indochina, LINK.
8. Long account : LITANY. She had a litany of complaints.
9. Lack of vigor : ANEMIA. Well the cause of a lack of vigor.
10. Heartless guy? : TINMAN. A shout out to our prodigal son, who is loaded with heart.
11. Neighborhood figures?: Abbr. : ESTS. It cost me something in the neighborhood of $200.00.
12. Faulkner's "___ Lay Dying" : AS I. many think this was his best novel.
13. Latin possessive : SUA. In the law, when a judge does something on his own accord, it is called SUA SPONTE.
28. Son of, to an Israeli : BEN. An odd sort of clecho.
30. Golfer Creamer : PAULA. Is this a sub-theme for the men or what!?!?
32. Apprehend : GRASP. I grasped where he was headed.
34. Picnic pest : ANT.
36. Barcelona boss : JEFE. Also, in the Mexican and Colombian cartels, the chief.
37. Buckle : GIVE. When Shaq sat down the chair....
39. Aretha's singing sister : ERMA. Rough to be Aretha's SISTER. They say she did this song first.
40. Kit ___ : KAT. Candy bar of choice in one of the offices where I work.
44. Soup bean : LENTIL. Really?????
45. Take for a ride : FLEECE.
46. TripTik, notably : AAA MAP.
48. Roma's home : ITALIA.
49. WWI French aviator Garros : ROLAND. They named the tennis stadium where they play the French Open after this man.
50. Einstein's "E" : ENERGY= mc2
55. Southeastern Turkey native : KURD. They know whey?
56. "___ California": Red Hot Chili Peppers hit : DANI.
57. It has its ups and downs : YO YO. Fun clues.
58. Bub : MAC.
59. The Beatles' "___ Loser" : I'M A. Someone else can link.
60. Three-time All-Star reliever Robb : NEN. He was one of the many All-Stars the Marlins gave away. His father Dick Nen was a major league first baseman.
61. Bread served with chicken tikka masala : NAN. Love the placement, nen nan.
62. Cpl.'s inferior : PVT. Well I wonder what Alan's private thoughts were when he built this entertaining Friday foray. Mine are: it is time for me to head to the hills, until the next time. I leave you with these two classic BEANS.(0:56) and BEAN.(2:29).