Friday, February 7, 2020 Andrew Linzer

"SOCIAL GATHERINGS"


20. Soirée for woodchip manufacturers?: SPLINTER PARTY.    Splinter group just flew off my fingertips.  Bzzt !

26. Soirée for certain divers?: PEARL JAM.


37. Soirée for spreadsheet creators?: CELL RECEPTION.

47. Soirée for fake coin makers?: SLUGFEST.

55. Soirée for army enlistees?: PRIVATE AFFAIR.

LET'S SOIRÉE ! - The last word of each theme answer is a type of social gathering.  OK, slugfest is one word, but you get the idea.

This is Andrew's third LA Times puzzle.   His first was a Wednesday.    His second was a Thursday.     He's back to party with us on Friday ! 


Across:

1. Component of an Olympic bronze medal: ZINC.    The metals used in this year's Olympic medals have been primarily sourced from recycled electronics.   Japanese citizens donated over 6 million discarded and unused cell phones ! 

5. Off-road vehicle maker?: TONKA.

10. Peddle: HAWK.   First thought was sell.

14. Brand in a studio, maybe: IKEA.   Studio apartment.

15. Chooser's choice: EVENs.

16. Onetime capital of the Mughal Empire: AGRA.   It was the first four letter city name that came to mind.   Never did think of a second city name...

17. Seats facing the altar: PEWs.

18. Alley button: RESET.    Boomer uses this button when the rack didn't set the pins down correctly.   He also uses it to clear the pins left standing after the prior bowler finished (e.g. after a third ball in the 10th frame.)

19. Genesis problem: RAIN.   CAIN was a problem too.    Just not with the perps in this puzzle.

23. Energized: AMPED.

25. Inspection: LOOK SEE.  Formal and then informal.

30. Govt. stipend: SSI.   Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a Federal income supplement program funded by general tax revenues (not Social Security taxes):

	It is designed to help aged, blind, and disabled people, who have little or no income; and
	It provides cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter.

31. Angel dust letters: PCP.   Phencyclidine (PCP) is a mind-altering drug that may lead to hallucinations (a profound distortion in a person’s perception of reality). - Drugs.com

32. Neural transmitter: AXON.

34. Powerful 2017 hurricane: IRMA.

41. Solo number: ARIA.

42. Gear for Lindsey Vonn: SKIs.   American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team.   She won four World Cup overall championships—one of only two female skiers to do so, along with Annemarie Moser-Pröll—with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012 - Wikipedia

As an aside, Lindsey and I both skied Garmisch.   She won multiple world competition level Super G and Downhill races there.  I won a bunny hill slalom competition among the other beginner students held at the Armed Forces Recreation Center there.   I'll lean on that as a conversation starter if I ever meet her.   Still remember the AFRCS instructor.  Glenna Bliss.  I believe she was a prior member of the US Ski Team.  

43. Service reward: TIP.

45. PETA concern: FUR.

50. Need for big dos: CATERER.

54. Spherical extremities: POLEs.

59. Green hue: LIME.   Not exactly lime, is it ?   But too cool to pass up.

60. Louvre Pyramid architect: IM PEI.   How I.M. Pei’s Louvre Pyramid Broke the Mold

61. Chatroom spammers: BOTs.    They've been pounding this blog lately, but most are routed to the moderation folder.

64. Manipulates: USEs.

65. Really funny ones: RIOTs.

66. City-circumventing road: LOOP.   Loop 610:

67. Hot message: SEXT.

68. American in Paris, perhaps: EX PAT.

69. One of 11 for Julia Louis-Dreyfus: EMMY.

Down:

1. 12345, for Schenectady, NY: ZIP.   Evan Kalish knows this.  Postlandia

2. Turner on a turntable: IKE.   Rolling Stone magazine ranked Ike and Tina Turner at # 2 of the "20 Greatest Duos of All Time" in 2015.  # 1 were the Everly Brothers.  I'd never heard of some of the duos.  

3. Times, at times: NEWSPAPER. 

4. Spirited toon?: CASPER.

5. Actress Hatcher: TERI.

6. "Top Chef" set piece: OVEN.

7. Building project for cranes?: NEST.

8. Get down to earth?: KNEEL.

9. First pro team to play on artificial turf: ASTROs.   It was 1965.   NY Yankee Mickey Mantle hit the first homerun in a spring exhibition game shortly after construction ended.   Dick Allen of the Phillies hit the first regular season homerun.   The natural grass died, and was replaced by the first iteration of Astroturf for the 1966 season.

10. Samurai ritual: HARAKIRI.   No images.   Doesn't pass the breakfast test.

11. Lab gelatins: AGARs.

12. Pen: WRITE.

13. GOOD Music record label founder: KANYE.    Kanye West created the GOOD Music record label in 2004.   It is a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams.

21. Cholesterol letters: LDL.   Waited to see if HDL (high-density lipoproteins - the "good" one), or LDL (low-density lipoproteins - the "bad" one).

22. Presume: POSIT.

23. Common 99-cent purchase: APP.

24. Hajji's destination: MECCA.

27. Potter's creation: JAR.

28. Plot lines: AXES.   Thought of  arcs at first , but that's more of story lines.

29. Imitates derisively: MOCKs.

33. "American Gods" author Gaiman: NEIL.   No idea.  Perps.

35. Traveler's overnight spot: MOTEL ROOM.   Waited to see if Motel or Hotel.

36. Seasoning seed: ANISE.   Anise, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor has similarities with some other spices, such as star anise, fennel, and liquorice. -  Wikipedia

38. Buoyant protection: LIFEVEST.

39. Actress Dern of "Twin Peaks": LAURA.

40. Sch. with a Harrisburg campus: PSU.   Penn State University.  

44. NBA stat: PTS.   Points.

46. Hang up the spikes: RETIRE.    Hung up mine in 2015.

48. 2.3, perhaps: Abbr.: GPA.    Grade Point Average.

49. Slight character flaw: FOIBLE.

50. 2.3, roughly: C PLUS.   Grade

51. Come up: ARISE.

52. Big name in stopwatches: TIMEX.   John Cameron Swayze told us, "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking" and the TV ads seemed to prove it.


53. Compilation album add-on: REMIX.

56. Per item: APOP.

57. Spanakopita cheese: FETA.

58. Solidarity symbol: FIST.

62. First of a generic trio: TOM.   Tom, Dick and Harry.   Hi Tom !

63. Expert on bugs?: SPY.   Bugs are covert listening and recording devices.

Thursday, April 25th 2019 Andrew Linzer

Theme: Hipster Talk: The first word of each theme entries is a slangy form of "nice" as suggested by the clues:

21A. "Dude, nice triatomic molecule!": FRESH WATER. Three atoms, two hydrogen and one oxygen.

23A. "Dude, nice metered text!": EPIC POEM. Those Homeric staples the Iliad and the Odyssey are not strangers to the crossword.

34A. "Dude, nice root vegetable!": SWEET POTATO

49A. "Dude, nice riding crop!": COOL WHIP. The odd man out in the theme entries. The others are what I would call self-referential - the phrase as a whole is a variant of the second word. In this one "whip" and "Cool Whip" are completely different things.

51A. "Dude, nice buzzer collection!": KILLER BEES

Inventive theme from Andrew today. I'd not heard of "fresh" in the slang usage before, but it didn't slow me down much. There did seem to be a lot of three-letter fill, especially around the middle section, but nothing too irritating.

I did think the COOL WHIP entry was a little out of left field, and rather pointed up that the rest of the entries were just modifiers of the second word. Not a cardinal sin, but - gave me a little of a "meh" moment. Also "buzzer" for "bee" seemed a little contrived. Anyway ....

... let's take the tour.

Across:

1. Color in a darkroom: SEPIA. Sepia toning is still used to give black & white photographs a warmer quality, and to improve their life. The technique was common in 18th-century portrait photography. Check out this English couple from 1885:

6. "May I say something?": AHEM?

10. Flat for an artist: LOFT.

14. Lake named for a tribe: HURON

15. Folk hero Crockett: DAVY

16. Song for one: ARIA. Resisted the temptation to plonk SOLO in here until I had some confirmation from the crosses.

17. Olympics infrastructure project: ARENA. Sadly, quite often never to be used again. There is very rarely any long-term economic benefit to be gained from building Olympic facilities. Los Angeles, hosting the Olympics in 2028, is not building any new permanent facilities for the games.

18. One not found on a violin: FRET. I don't know how violinists do it. I tried to play a fret-less electric bass guitar once and I was lost.

19. Communist icon: MARX. Karl, buried in Highgate Cemetery in North London.

20. Former U.N. leader Annan: KOFI. I can never remember this fellow, I always wait for the crosses.

25. Free bakery treat?: AROMA. Nice clue.

26. Letters after T?: REX. I resisted the "UVW" run.

27. Get a lode of this: ORE

28. Muddy home: STY

30. Scabbers, in the Potterverse: RAT. I don't know the Harry Potter canon too well, but the crosses were solid. There's another Potter reference later on.

31. Nonprofit URL ending: ORG

32. Like: À LA

33. Producer of cones and needles: PINE

37. Oompa-Loompa creator: DAHL. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author Roald.

39. Tear: RIP

40. Conan's network: TBS

41. Novelist Umberto: ECO. I remember reading "Foucault's Pendulum" when I was on vacation in Greece a number of years ago. I clearly remember where I was while I was reading it and thoroughly enjoying it. Now I can remember absolutely zero about the book itself. Ripe for a re-read.

42. Cyclops organ: EYE

43. Animal that sounds like a musical note: DOE. Not re? Doh!

44. Sports bar fixtures: TV'S Remember when they were not flat-screen and had to sit on steel-braced shelves or mounts to support the weight?

47. Open, as oysters: SHUCK. I used to host an oysters and Guinness party on the last Sunday before Christmas back in my London days. We went through a ton of oysters, I got to be a pretty good shucker. I provided the oysters and the kegs of Guinness, the guests brought Champagne. Happy Sundays!

54. Aid in battling blazes: HOSE

55. Yoda trainee: JEDI

56. Many millennia: EONS

57. "Sesame Street" woman for 44 years: MARIA. She was bilingual. The actress who played her, Sonia Manzano, felt the human characters on the show were getting less and less of the script action, so she moved on in 2015.

58. Broiling spot: OVEN

59. Crumb carriers: ANTS

60. Yoga pose similar to a push-up: PLANK. I try to plank most days, it's good for the central core. My record time for planking is the entire song "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart, which runs 6:21 on YouTube. One of my favorite songs from the '70s.

61. "Sesame Street" Muppet: BERT. Second character of the day from the show.

62. Mexican coin: PESO. Maria knows this.

63. Bad spells: HEXES

Down:

1. Salt dispenser: SHAKER. I don't use shakers, I use bamboo wood pots, easier to get at. I have one each for kosher and finishing salt.

2. Where Andorra is: EUROPE. Between France and Spain in the Pyrenees. It's a beautiful part of the world. Pretty cracking food too, sitting between France and the Basque Country.

3. In or out, at times: PREFIX. Challenging clue. For example, in-swinger or out-swinger in baseball.

4. Jefferson Memorial column type: IONIC. Here's a few of the columns:

5. Gasteyer of "Lady Dynamite": ANA. No clue, thank you crosses. This show passed me by.

6. Like some subscription-based sites: AD-FREE

7. Word from Arabic for "sacred, inviolable place": HAREM

8. Party times, often: EVES

9. Bit of folklore: MYTH

10. 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Kendrick: LAMAR. The Compton-based rapper won for his album "Damn".

11. "Messiah," e.g.: ORATORIO 

12. Relief pitcher, in baseball lingo: FIREMAN. I hadn't heard this term before, it made me smile. I can't hear Metallica's "Enter Sandman" without seeing Mariano Rivero heading to the mound. The band played the song live for him at Yankee Stadium when the Yankees retired Rivero's number 42.

13. IRS table column: TAX RATE.

21. Fake: FORGERY

22. Method: WAY

24. Opening on a sweater?: PORE. Nice clue. There were a couple of humid days in Jamaica last week where my pores were definitely open!

28. __-mo replay: SLO

29. Parlor pictures: TATTOOS. Took me a while, I was thinking about family portrait photographs in the parlor (or parlour).

31. Hermes, in the Potterverse: OWL. Had the W, so didn't hesitate here.

32. Handy program: APP

33. NBA stats: PTS. Points, simple enough.

34. Place to pull over: SHOULDER

35. Rare NFL result: TIE. Donovan McNabb, then the Eagles quarterback, famously didn't know that an NFL regular season game could end in a tie when he played in a 13-13 tie with the Bengals back in 2008. "I've never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book,"

36. Genesis casualty: ABEL

37. Office position: DESK JOB

38. Accomplish: ACHIEVE

42. __ out a living: EKE

43. Playground retort: DOES SO. Some of these are tricky to parse. I saw "DO ESSO" first.

44. Insect midsection: THORAX

45. Redness-removing brand: VISINE. I use it sparingly, my optician tells me it's not good for your eyes. It's a lot cheaper than the brand she wants me to use though.

46. Appeals (to): SPEAKS

48. Director Eastwood: CLINT

49. They're beside the point: CENTS. Another nice clue. $9.99

50. Pod member: WHALE

52. Bring in: REAP

53. Study, with "up": BONE

57. Indy 500 stat: MPH

And with that, it just remains for me to post the grid and then skedaddle.

Steve

Wednesday, July 11 2018, Andrew Linzer

Theme:  Now I herd everything.

7. One in the headlights?: DEER.

8. Critter on XING signs: DEER.

32. Ref, slangily: ZEBRA.

33. Last critter in an ABC book: ZEBRA.

61. Throat trouble: FROG.

62. Kissable fairy-tale critter: FROG.

12. Craft for six puzzle answers: NOAH'S ARK.

41. 12-Down queueing pattern depicted by six puzzle answers: TWO BY TWO.

Melissa here. Wow! Eight theme answers! A fresh theme, and from what appears to be Andrew Linzeritsyit's debut - at least here at the corner. Note the special 16x15 grid - an extra column was needed to accommodate all the down theme answers. The visual of the center answers in two vertical rows makes me think of animal tracks.

Across:

1. Teensy: ITSY.

5. Box for tea leaves: CADDY.


10. Japanese box lunch: BENTO.

15. Tree with an oil-rich seed: SHEA.

16. Streamlined: SLEEK.

17. Frank __ Wright: LLOYD.

18. "Long time no see" follower: HOW YOU BEEN.

20. Old enough: OF AGE.

21. "Lady and the __": TRAMP.

22. Traffic signals: ARROWS. There is an intersection near me that I avoid because so many drivers don't know (or don't care) that you can't turn right on a red arrow. I wait my turn (pun intended) for the green arrow only to be honked at by impatient drivers behind me.

24. Possesses: HAS.

25. Stage of grief: ANGER. Not quite the same, but okay.

26. Smartens (up): WISES.

28. Manhattan liquor: RYE. A Manhattan is made with whiskey (traditionally rye whiskey), sweet vermouth and bitters. 

29. Full of activity: ABUZZ.

34. "Ben-Hur" extras: ROMANS.

37. "Now it's clear": OH I SEE.

38. Sonogram subject: EMBRYO.

39. Sticks (out): JUTS.

42. Had a nice chitchat: GABBED.

44. __ out a living: EKED.

45. Ahead: ONWARD.

47. Not for kids, filmwise: R-RATED.

49. One whose wages come from wagers: BOOKIE.

50. Slugger Hank: AARON.

51. Feel crummy: AIL. Aw.

54. Rum-flavored cakes: BABAS.

56. River mouth formation: DELTA.

58. Far from friendly: ICY.

60. Steep headlands: BLUFFS.

64. With deleted scenes included: UNCUT.

65. Passover staple: MATZO.

67. Likely to goof: ERROR PRONE.

69. Dam that created Lake Nasser: ASWAN. Built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt.

70. Simoleons: MOOLA. Slang.

71. Cookie cooker: OVEN. Object, not a person.

72. Pork cuts: CHOPS. What is a CHOP?

73. Goad: EGG ON.

74. Twitter headquarters?: NEST. Nice.

Down:

1. Beatty/Hoffman box office flop: ISHTAR.

2. Sticky: THORNY.

3. Water treatment plant input: SEWAGE.

4. "I did good!": YAY ME.

5. Fort Collins sch.: CSU. Colorado State University.

6. Actress Jessica: ALBA.

9. Informal "See what I mean?": Y'KNOW.

10. Come into one's own: BLOSSOM.

11. Pixie: ELF.

13. Rapper whose name sounds like a big cat: TYGA.

14. Poems of praise: ODES.

19. "A Wrinkle in Time" (2018) actress: OPRAH.

23. Electrically connected with: WIRED TO.

27. Plant firmly: EMBED.

30. "So what?!": BIG DEAL.

31. Can. neighbor: USA.

35. TV's "Science Guy": NYE.

36. Lawn starter: SOD.

37. Honshu port: OSAKA.

39. Chore: JOB.

40. "One card left!" game warning: UNO.

43. Corn unit: EAR.

46. Science fair awards: RIBBONS.

48. Ultimately become: END UP.

51. Nook: ALCOVE.

52. 58-Down default music program: ITUNES.

53. Under the surface: LATENT.

55. "So I was wrong!": SUE ME.

57. Defunct scandal-plagued company: ENRON.

58. Apple computer: IMAC.

59. Toll lane choice: CASH. Cashless tolls (EZ Pass or by mail) are becoming more and more common now. Nice that cars don't have to stop, but also a little creepy.

63. Unaccompanied: SOLO.

66. Ray gun sound: ZAP.

68. Legged it: RAN.
 
Note from C.C. :

Happy birthday to dear CanadianEh!, who's been with our blog since 2012. Love your insightful and caring comments, CanadianEh!