Friday, February 16, 2024 - Robin C. Stears

Theme: Expletives Un-Deleted

Puzzling thoughts:

FIR with a few corrections (see the grid for the little black triangles in the squares where I flubbed)

This one was a bit of a "slog", as it took me nearly twice as long as usual to solve

I was excited when I saw Robin C. Stears on the by-line, as I've had the pleasure to re-cap a couple of hers before

True to her love of Merl Reagle-type puzzles, Robin delights us with - gosh darn it all - a series of mild, homophonic expletives in her playful entries. No reveal; just a bit of frivolity mixed in with some elegant "fill". Certainly "FRY-day" worthy! 😉

The first of the five entries (17-across. Rather impressive exclamation of relief?): QUITE A PHEW! plays off the more familiar "quite a few", with a different parsing of the adverb "QUITE"

#2 of the entries also used a slightly different meaning of the adjective, BORDER (24-across. Astonished exclamation at the Four Corners Monument?): BORDER, GOLLY!. If I am understanding this one correctly, Robin is playing off of the animal, Border collie. As one who has ventured out to the spot where the Four Corners Monument resides, I might have uttered a slightly different "expletive"

#3 of the quintet is (35-across. Exasperated exclamation over a breath mint?): TIC TAC, D'OH!. When I discussed these entries with Robin (we are Facebook friends) she volunteered that the original entry for this one was something like, "cough up the d'oh".  I think I like the one that made the puzzle, better, and of course it led me to finding a video of the Simpsons and the eponymous breath mint ...

The fourth entry is (51-across. Quiet exclamation of dismissal from way back when?): OLD SOFT SHOO. [Idioms @ The Free Dictionary dot com] defines "OLD SOFT SHOE" as: "Something, such as a speech or explanation, delivered especially carefully and skillfully in order to convince or persuade; e.g., 'This salesperson keeps trying to give me the old soft-shoe, despite the fact that I already told him I don't want a new TV!'"

And speaking of Shoe (and shoo) and today's homophones, here is an old Shoe comic that fits the bill:

And finally, the fifth entry parodies the origin of words with (60-across. Etymological story about an equestrian's exclamation?): TALE OF WHOA. Ha! Ha! Get it? A TALE (as in the story of) that reins us in to the meaning of "whoa" ...

The flip side of this might be: (Clue - The letter "e"?) TAIL OF WOE

Here is the grid, and then off to the races!

Across:
1. Cravat kin: ASCOT. This one is for Irish Miss: 😘

To my admirer Agnes:  Love, Cary

6. "Masters of Illusion" host Dean: CAIN.  How about this for a homophonic play-on-words, and mild expletive? Clue: Causing trouble in the sugar fields? "RAISING CANE"

10. Swedish pop group: ABBA.  Or perhaps, a common poetic rhyme scheme?  

Three un-rhyming poetic lines (by yours, truly) is called a "Moe-ku"; 5 lines in an AABBA rhyme scheme is a "Moe-l'ick, but what should I call a 4-liner with an ABBA rhyme scheme? Maybe a "Moe-em??" Look for one later on... in the meantime, here is a little something to formulate today's earworm:

14. Fabric: CLOTH.  No one ever has referred to a priest or pastor as "a man of the fabric" ...

15. Land unit: ACRE.  Alternate entry for today? Clue - Angry expanse above one's waistline? BELLY ACRE ... sorry Robin for stepping on your homophones 😂

16. Subatomic particle with greater mass than an electron: MUON. One dictionary definition calls a MUON: "an unstable lepton that is common in the cosmic radiation near the earth's surface, has a mass about 207 times the mass of the electron, and exists in negative and positive forms" ...

19. Peruvian people who made rope bridges: INCA. Read all about them, here

20. Server with a spigot: URN.  I tried TAP first, to no avail

21. Unoccupied: FREE.  Not a welcome sign during an airplane flight when you gotta go ...

Hurry up in there / Ándale

22. Perfect little darling: ANGEL. What many dads call their daughters ... along with princess, sweetie, et al

23. "Science Friday" host Flatow: IRA. Glass, Gershwin, and Levin? Not happy ... but to the clue's credit, this website lists IRA Flatow as the most popular IRA

27. Get back: REGAIN.  Moe-ku:

First advertisement
For famous hair growth product:
"REGAIN with Rogaine"

29. __ de Janeiro: RIO.

30. Volleyball quartet?: ELS. Golfer "Ernie" is getting a little long-in-the-tooth ... the word "Volleyball" has four "L's"

31. Biblical garden: EDEN. Where "raising CAIN" occurred

32. Brian Setzer genre: SWING. [Wikipedia]: "Brian Robert Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba". Here is another ditty for you to hum all day ...

34. "Park it!": SIT.  Have any dog owners ever been tempted to tell "Fido" to "park it"??!!

39. "The Gilded __": Julian Fellowes series: AGE. Filled by perps, IIRC

42. Splash: SLOSH. The thesaurussaurus confirms it:

43. Once, quaintly: ERST. I've been known to throw the word "erstwhile" into my blogs, every now and again

47. Photographer Goldin: NAN. More perps to the rescue ... an example of her work:

From "Joy and Fury"

48. Exhibition funding agcy. since 1965: NEA. National Educational Association

49. Moves furtively: SNEAKS.  Or, what I called my gym shoes back in the day ... 

Jack Purcell's were my SNEAKerS of choice

55. Future louse: NIT.  Where the figurative term literally got its meaning ... having a NIT to pick

56. "Correctamundo!": RIGHT.  Anyone remember "The Fonz"?? Fast forward to about the 3:00 mark to here his famous phrase ...

57. Station under the Garden: PENN. I knew this. Why? Madison Square Garden (arena home of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers) is the venue above PENN Station ... don't believe me? Google it!!

58. Training course for an EMT: CPR. CPR should be taught to people other than EMT's; you'll never know when you'll need to perform it

59. Jai __: ALAI. Moe-ku:

Jai ALAI arena
Serves Chinese food at snack bar.
Features fronton soup

63. Governor of Georgia: KEMP.  [Wikipedia] "Brian Porter Kemp is an American politician serving since January 2019 as the 83rd governor of Georgia. A member of the Republican Party, Kemp served as the 27th secretary of state of Georgia from 2010 to 2018, and as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 2003 to 2007"

64. Paper clip shape: OVAL. So it is ... 

65. Devoured: ATE UP.

66. Dates: SEES.

67. Caresses: PETS.

68. Small pastries: TARTS. Moe-em:

For making desserts, I had lots of smarts
At Johnson and Wales, I practiced my arts.
My special sweet treats were pies shaped like hearts;
My degree, of course, was Bachelor of TARTS

Not exactly "ABBA", but as today's blogger, I make the rules around here!!! 😁😁

Down:

1. Get: ACQUIRE. Fun 1-down word; it doesn't appear nearly as often in major crossword puzzles as it should.  Nice way to get to a pan-gram

2. Spoke indistinctly: SLURRED.  For me, it's not an indistinct slur of my words ... when I have had too much to drink my slurring is QUITE noticeable

3. Neologism: COINAGE.  The word "COINAGE" has two distinct meanings:

    a) the "making" of COINS from various metals

    b) neologism - the forming of a new word (or phrase)

4. Hall of Famer Mel: OTT.  ERST and OTT in the same puzzle???  This is a nice "throwback" to old time crossword answers! 😀

5. Law org. led by Christopher A. Wray since 2017: THE FBI.  Question:  who would've gotten this answer immediately if the clue had a reference to J. Edgar Hoover?

6. Escapade: CAPER.  As our resident wit, Ray-O-Sunshine might ask:  What should you do to Supergirl if she were feeling a bit cold? ... CAPER

A different clue could've referred to the object pictured above 

7. Felt sore: ACHED. A never-ending "feeling" for the Chairman these days ... today, my neck and shoulders ACHED

8. Sore feeling: IRE.  A semi-clecho to the above answer - OR - the abbr. for the Emerald Isle

9. Still in the box: NEW. This could've been a fill-in-the-blank clue (Still ___ in the box).  Collectors know all about this condition for getting full value at auction ... what do you think the object below would be worth, "still NEW in the box"? 

This eBay listing has it for $5,800!!

10. __ acid: AMINO.  Ok, there is a fill-in-the-blank entry today ...

11. Botches: BUNGLES.  For TTP and waseeley (who I believe are fans of teams from the AFC North) - the nickname of the Cincinnati NFL football team who've now "BUNGLED" three Super Bowls

12. "Romanza" tenor Andrea: BOCELLI. Another video/audio clip (long):

 

13. Equity expert: ANALYST. And a "specific" ANALYST: (25-down. Psychoanalyst Fromm): ERICH.

18. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" memoirist Ralston: ARON. And here I thought the only ARON in crosswords was the middle name of Elvis Presley! [Wikipedia] "Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975) is an American mountaineer, mechanical engineer, and motivational speaker, known for surviving a canyoneering"

22. Whisky __: Hollywood disco: A GOGO. Their website

26. Peel: RIND. A "zesty" word, if I do say so myself ...

28. Echidna snack: ANT. [Wikipedia] "Echidnas, sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae, living in Australia and New Guinea"

32. Brown ermine: STOAT.

33. Is in the past?: WAS. Past tense of "is" is WAS

36. "Nuh-uh!": IS NOT. It is IS NOT, isn't it??

37. Pitch setter: CLEF. Did anyone else try OBOE here first? I did

38. Happy sound: HEE. If a golfer tried to hit a happy sound, would they "tee" HEE?

39. Hooded gear: ANORAKS.

40. Sea fed by the Jordan: GALILEE. Where Jesus grew up

41. Final Avengers film in the Infinity Saga: ENDGAME. The trailer ... Margaret got me interested in the Avengers films during COVID

44. Major stock holder?: RANCHER. Stock, as in "livestock" - not stocks and bonds

45. Take a powder: SKIP OUT. Interesting clue

46. Features of some Mary Janes: T-STRAPS. An OLD HARD SHOE - see the T-STRAP?

Didn't we see "T-STRAP" earlier this week?

49. Prefix with -gram: SONO. I tried "MONO" first

50. Like some ice cream: NONFAT. What's the point??!

52. Uses UPS: SHIPS.

53. Wet impact sound: SPLAT.

54. Parts of a loaf or loafers: HEELS. Also, a part of Mary Janes - see photo in 46-down

60. Spinner: TOP. A kid's toy

61. Wide st.: AVE. At first, I thought this meant wide STATE (abbr.), and tried TEX

62. Coco Gauff's org.: WTA. Short for, Women's Tennis Association

And once again, the blog has come to an end ... please offer any comments below ...

Thanks Robin! I know you'll pay us a visit ...

Friday, February 2, 2024 - Amie Walker and Matthew Stock

Theme: "Slow down, you move too fast ..."

Puzzling thoughts:

Happy Groundhog Day, Cornerites! More on this, later ...

Thanks again for all of your kind comments on my puzzle this past Wednesday (Jan 31)

It took the Chairman (15-across. Re:) ABOUT 12 minutes to complete today's puzzle; less than my normal solving time for a Friday

I was expecting a Groundhog Day-themed puzzle, but this one did not disappoint

Amie Walker and Matthew Stock collaborate on this very enjoyable puzzle (whose grid is asymmetric, BTW) that uses four words/phrases as synonyms for "no running". Each of the entries - three down and one across - are "in the language" terms. Let's examine them further, shall we?

3-down. "No running" to an incumbent: TERM LIMITED. Blog rules strictly prohibit me (or any of all y'all) from discussing politics, so I will let the image below speak for itself ...

11-down. "No running" at a cosmetics store: SMUDGE PROOF.

She obviously didn't use a smudge proof mascara!

25-down. With 26-Down, "No running" to a newspaper reporter: OFF THE RECORD. Two things struck me about this entry:

1) How skillfully placed this was in the grid
2) How amazingly clever to come up with this phrase to signify "not running"

55-across. "No running" on a pool deck: SLIPPERY WHEN WET. All sorts of images crept into the Chairman's devious and puerile mind but this is the one that will be published!!

Let's get on with the other clues and entries, including the plethora of 3-letter words (sorry, Irish Miss!) ... the picture of the grid will be at the end of the blog

Across:
1. Body art: TATS, with its "clecho": (57-down. Body art:) INK. (one of the plethora of 3-letter words)

5. Split __: HAIRS. Neither "ENDS" nor "PEA SOUP" fit

10. Soft "C'mere!": PSST. This "word" is showing up often, recently, in xword puzzles

14. Begin to form: BREW. Interesting clue for this word

16. Chicano poet Luis __ Salinas: OMAR. "___ the tent maker" would've worked as a clue, too

17. World of Warcraft beast: OGRE. This filled via perps

18. Zelle alternative: VENMO. I use PayPal

19. Herding dog from Hungary: PULI. A learning experience for me, although when I went to "save" the image, I already had it in my pictures folder. Perhaps this word was used once before @ LA Times? This looks like a dog that Bob Marley would own ...

20. Veinte, por ejemplo: NUMERO. A CSO to Lucinda. Veinte is twenty, no?

22. Athena's domain: WISDOM. A bit of misdirection, as the word "domain" also means the area in which she might preside. Here is what [wikipedia] says: "Athena was the goddess of battle strategy, and wisdom. Identified in the Roman mythology as the goddess Minerva. She was always accompanied by her owl ..."

24. Fast-food chain with Epic Burritos: DEL TACO. This filled easily via perps; I don't regularly frequent DEL TACO restaurants but we have some in our area; you?

26. Tips over one's king, e.g.: RESIGNS. Chess reference when a player realizes that they are going to lose and/or face "checkmate"

27. "__ be my pleasure": IT'D. #2 of the 18 three-letter words

28. Usage charge: FEE. The third of the three-letter words

30. Dry __: ICE. The fourth of the three-letter words; Dry ICE is actually the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2), a molecule consisting of a single carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms [wikipedia]

31. "Thus with a kiss I die" hero: ROMEO. I sensed a Shakespeare quote here, and ROMEO fit

33. TV watchers?: F.C.C. Fifth 3-letter word, and another abbr.

34. Beta preceder: ALPHA. In the Greek ALPHAbet

37. Bird-related: AVIAN. It's "for the birds"

38. Howe'er: THO'. Sixth 3-letter word; another abbr.

39. "Great blue" or "little blue" bird: HERON. A HERON would be AVIAN, no?

40. Obtain: GET. Seventh 3-letter word; I "GET" it; there are a lot of them today

41. Free of wool: SHORN. I had SHEAR first before the perps corrected it

43. Not available at the moment: OUT. #8; and I am OUT of explanations!!

44. Seasoned vet's opposite: NEWBIE. Nice clue

47. Part of JD: DOCTOR. Juris DOCTOR; a legal term; "A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law is a graduate-entry professional degree in law. The JD is the standard degree obtained to practice law in the United States, where there is no undergraduate professional law degree" [wikipedia]

50. Fizzled out: DIED. What happened to your car after you drove with a "Check Engine" light illuminated

51. Playing surface: TURF. Term used for both football and golf

52. Ooze: SEEP.

54. Sizable plot: ACRE.

62. Small horse: PONY. Or, a small beer bottle

63. "Now __ talking!": YOU'RE.

64. Line graph display: DATA.

And of course, there is another "clecho": (49-down. Line graph display:) TREND.

65. Look for answers: ASK. #9; ASK me (or Irish Miss) again, "how many 3-letter words are OK for a puzzle?"

66. Awards for "Abbott Elementary": EMMYS. One of our favorite "major" network shows

67. Break: GAP. #10 ... maybe a better clue would've been from the old commercial jingle: "Fall into the ___"

OK, it's "halftime" at the blog. Remember when I said that there would be more about Groundhog Day?? Well, I read an interesting article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past Sunday. The person writing the article began by saying that perhaps PETA would someday put an end to this annual celebration, where Punxsatawney Phil (the groundhog) is no longer the focal point of whether we do or don't have 6 more weeks of winter. She said that maybe they have a gold coin with a "heads" or "tails", and the citizens of that sleepy little Western Pennsylvania town just flip the coin ... heads = more winter; tails = an early spring. But at the end, despite so many ARGUEments for why Phil should be allowed to return to the wild, she realized that this is a huge event for the townsfolk. And, it gives all of us who don't live there a reason to celebrate. I'm all for that. Plus, it also gives us a chance to watch a little clip from the movie starring Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray. Enjoy!

Down:
1. Govt. security: T-BOND. Did anyone else try T-BILL instead? Not I

2. Go back and forth: ARGUE. One thing I have learned: you can either be right or be happy ... no ARGUEment here, eh guys??!! 😅

4. Lemonade alternative: SWEET TEA. CSO to all of our southern friends who have probably consumed more gallons of this than can be counted. The "trick" is to BREW the tea with the sugar already in the water

5. Chaos: HAVOC. Another Bill Murray clip with a reference to chaos/HAVOC

6. Dad on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel": ABE. An Emmy Award for actor Tony Shalhoub as ABE Weissman

7. + or - particle: ION. #11

8. Pirate song spirit: RUM. #12. "Spirit" as in an alcoholic libation; RUM

9. Madeleine of "Revenge": STOWE. Harriet Beecher ___ would have been too obvious (for me)

10. Stick in the freezer?: POPSICLE. A nice play-on-words clue

12. Place where one might leave tips for tips: SALON. Another nice play-on-words clue; tips (as in gratuities) for tips (as in highlights for ones hair)

13. Cuts back: TRIMS. Another SALON job

21. Hazardous gas: RADON. Are RADON detectors still mandatory in homes with basements?

23. "Da 5 Bloods" actor Whitlock Jr.: ISIAH. A Biblical prophet, perhaps? Nope. Him:

29. Helpful Amazon gadget: ECHO. We have one; it's called a "Dot"

31. Joplin work: RAG. #13

32. "The Great British Baking Show" appliance: OVEN. Even if you didn't know the show, what else COULD it be??

35. 3,600 seconds: HOUR. 60 seconds in one minute x 60 minutes in one hour = 3,600 seconds

36. Crumb-collecting insect: ANT. #14. And I bet that there are more than 14 clues for this industrious insect that have appeared in xword puzzles

41. Skeptical look: SIDE EYE. This:

42. Tally marks: NOTCHES.

45. Thin and wavy: WISPY. Like this HAIR??

How to wear WISPY bangs

46. [Time's up!]: BEEP. [Grammarly dot com] says: "Parentheses and brackets are punctuation marks used to set apart certain words and sentences. Parentheses, ( ), are used to add extra information in text, while brackets, [ ], are used mainly in quotations to add extra information that wasn't in the original quote." In this case, the "BEEP" is the extra information

48. Remedy: CURE. Despite all of the time modern medicine has had to develop one, there still is no CURE for the common cold

53. Formal: PROM. "Formal" as in the participants are dressed in formal attire for this school event

54. Off course: AWRY. Hey Moe! When are we going to get a Moe-ku? Well, this one sort of fits ...

Waggish pastry chef
Opened a new bakery.
Just bakes a wry bread.

55. Escape room?: SPA. #15. Don't people go to a SPA to escape the toils of daily life??

56. __ Gatos, California: LOS. #16. What else could it be, other than "LOS" for a California city??

58. "Delish!": YUM. #17. CSO to Hahtoolah with her pet word: YUMmers!! 😋

59. Tail movement: WAG. #18. Did anyone have to use a "WAG" (wild-assed-guess) to come up with "WAG"??

60. "We'll get there then" approx.: ETA. #19. Another abbr.

61. Water source: TAP. "VEINTE"!! (20) "TAP" as in faucet

And we have reached the "END" (another 3-letter word!). Let's end with a Moe-l'ick:

As your blogger I might be your shill,
And admit, didn't you feel the thrill?
I've got one thing to say
On this year's Groundhog Day
Don't you think that we've gotten our Phil??

The grid:

Comments, please ...

Friday, January 19, 2024, Gary Larson and Amy Ensz

Theme: He who hesitates is lost

Puzzling thoughts:

This is better ... back to wordplay in a Friday puzzle. And today's puzzle did not just commit wordplay in the entries; it did so, too, by its reveal: 59-across. Book supplements, and an apt title for this puzzle: ADD END UMS

Ok, if you want to nitpick, the plural for ADDENDUM is ADDENDA (which I suppose could be another puzzle theme in a few years), but a couple of googled dictionary sources say it's OK to use ADDENDUMS. Maybe Yellowrocks or Misty will chirp in and give us their expert opinion? But I digress ...

Today's puzzle is a collaboration between Gary Larson and Amy Ensz. The two of them have collaborated on puzzles here (mostly on Sunday) as well as the Wall Street Journal. In an interview, Gary refers to his wife as "Amy". I wonder if her last name happens to be Ensz??

Anyway, the puzzle has four entries and a reveal; 55 characters in all. That is a lot of theme characters for a 15x15 grid (minimum number of theme characters is usually 40)... which leads to a plethora of 3-letter entries (I think I counted 19), as well as 4-letter and 5-letter ones. I am no speed demon, but today's puzzle was completed in record-Friday-time (less than 9 minutes). Once I "got" the gist of the puzzle (adding an "UM" to the end of the entries) it solved quite quickly. But that did NOT diminish the enjoyment I had figuring it out. Here are the entries:

 

16-across. Class reunion attendee who's in no one's yearbook?: WEIRD ALUM. 

Weird Al

Weird Alum (also Weird Al)

 

25-across. Proper etiquette at the plate?: HOME DECORUM.

Home Decor

Home Decorum

 

37-across. Impulse behind the gift-giving in "The Twelve Days of Christmas"?: PRESENT MOMENTUM.

Present Moment

Present Momentum

 

47-across. Discussion panel about sheets, duvets, blankets, etc.?: COVERS FORUM.

Covers For

 

                                                                  

                       click on this to expose:       COVERS FORUM

 

Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words ... let's see how the rest of the words got THEIR moment(um):

Across:
1. Framing piece: JAMB. How about a Moe-l'ick right off the bat??

Welch's factory worker named Sam
Was found stealing. He went on the lam;
Tried escaping through door
Of the Company Store.
Don't you know he got stuck in the JAMB?

5. Swiatek who won her fourth major singles championship in 2023: IGA. Pretty sure that she does her food shopping at the "Hometown Proud" store in her area

8. Carding pre-entry: I.D.'ING. A bouncer's duty, perhaps, at a popular nightclub?

13. Vineyard measure: ACRE. The vineyards abroad generally use the term "hectare" to refer to this: "A hectare is a unit of measurement used by farmers to describe an area that is 10,000 m². Another way of looking at it is 1 hectare is equal to around 2.47 acres. As grapes for wine making are grown by farmers, the standard farm practice of measuring in hectares still stands" [Google search]

14. Russian dynast: TSAR. TSAR vs CZAR: Always remember TSAR is the head of a Russian dynast-TEE, CEE?

15. West Coast NFLer: NINER. They have a big NFL Divisional Round playoff game tomorrow vs the Packers

18. Dried poblano: ANCHO. CSO to Lucina, perhaps? I bet she knows a thing or two about peppers!

19. Off the street, in a way: GARAGED. Our subdivision has homes all with two-car garages, and allows for on-street parking on just one side to allow for emergency vehicles, et al, to pass freely

21. Irish capital: EURO. Since DUBLIN didn't fit, I knew that the "capital" meant their currency. Northern Ireland uses the British Pound, I believe

22. Touch: TAP.

27. Many of the Marshall Islands: ATOLLS. Another Moe-l'ick:

A PIRATE liked to wander afar,
On a boat, or by plane, or by car.
His next year's travel goal,
Is to see an ATOLL
Called Raroia; Its Airport Code? RRR!

29. Order member: NUN. Moe-ku:

Sister at convent
Was brash. Superior said,
"We'll have NUN of that!!"

30. Seldom seen: RARE. Also, the way that Chairman Moe likes having his steaks cooked (beef or tuna)

Perfect sear

31. IRS action: AUDIT. Has anyone here been AUDITed by the IRS?? Want to talk about it??

34. Place for a mineral scrub: SPA. Believe it or not, the Chairman had a mineral scrub (Dead Sea salt) when he visited Israel 15+ years ago ...

41. "__-boom-bah!": SIS. I rather doubt that modern-day cheerleading squads utter this

42. "The __ in Me": Britney Spears memoir: WOMAN.

43. Senior advocacy group: AARP. AARP counts seniors as those over the age of 50; I never referred to myself as a senior until I was eligible for Medicare

44. Bank of China Tower architect: PEI. CanadianEh!, can you confirm that he once lived on Prince Edward Island??

45. Hot Wheels maker: MATTEL.

53. Go out with: SEE.

54. Again: ANEW.

55. Sang high notes?: YODELED. Old commercial for Swiss Miss:

57. Shopping aids: LISTS. Our shopping LISTS have one of two titles on them (depending on who's shopping): naughty or nice

63. Looks down?: MOPES.

64. Pharmacy orders, informally: MEDS.

65. Far offshore: ASEA.

66. Catch in a trap: SNARE.

67. Hindu title of respect: SRI.

68. Business review app: YELP.

Down:
1. Giant part of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton: JAW. Took me a couple of tries to get this; I knew it wasn't an ARM

2. Big heart?: ACE. Fun clue

We only play with Jumbo Index cards!!

 

3. Sports doc's order: MRI.

4. Part of an icy breakup: BERG. Another fun clue; iceBERG

5. Quran faith: ISLAM.

6. Speedometer, e.g.: GAUGE.

7. Set, as an alarm: ARMED. Moe-ku:

My first alarm clock
Was shaped like an octopus
ARMED and dangerous

8. Cookbook writer Garten: INA.

9. Make a meal of: DINE ON.

10. Run up, as debts: INCUR.

11. Jacket style named for an Indian leader: NEHRU. This brings back memories

12. Best man's best friend, often: GROOM. Another fun clue

14. Need for poi: TAROS.

17. Arlene of classic cinema: DAHL. Or, Willy Wonka creator Roald

20. Sturdy material: DENIM. This clue threw me off for a few moments

22. Infield protectors: TARPS. Abbr. for TARPaulin

23. Centipede platform: ATARI. Centipede is an old arcade game

24. Sponge features: PORES.

Sponge, au naturel

 

26. Adorable: CUTE. This little guy, maybe?

Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen (PBGV)

 

28. Guitar legend Paul: LES.

31. 24/7 money source: ATM.

32. Thurman of "The Producers": UMA.

33. __ Quixote: DON.

34. Sports figures: STATS.

35. Blender setting: PUREE.

36. Copious: AMPLE.

38. Washbasin jug: EWER. Moe-ku:

Famous artist was
Asked to paint still-life. He said,
"EWER kidding, right?"

39. Loud: NOISY.

40. NL East player: NAT. Washington NATional

44. Tin alloy: PEWTER. PEWTER is an alloy composed primarily of tin with varying quantities of hardening agents such as antimony, bismuth, copper and lead

45. Grand Canyon rentals: MULES. Not now; overnight lows are in the teens and high temp's are barely above freezing

46. Hymn finale: AMEN. This is a beautiful rendition of Gloria Patri

47. Settles: CALMS.

48. Gibson garnish: ONION. A martini usually is garnished with an OLIVE or LEMON peel; a Gibson is garnished with a pickled ONION

49. Italian scooter: VESPA. Moe-ku:

Italian priest rode
A scooter to evening Mass
VESPA, for vespers

50. Bubbles up: FOAMS.

51. More eccentric: ODDER.

52. __-wip: dessert topping: REDDI. Anyone ever do this with a can?

56. June 6, 1944: D-DAY. My dad enlisted on D-Day; he had his 18th birthday just a few days before

58. London-to-Paris dir.: SSE. Directions, anyone??

60. "__ your head!": USE. What I usually say to myself when trying to figure out the puzzle themes

61. Airport code for Australia's second largest city: MEL. Airport code for MELbourne

62. Plant juice: SAP.

Here's the grid: Thanks to sumdaze for showing me how to caption my pics!! 😘

For those who asked for a grid showing the answers to the 01/16/2024 Universal Crossword puzzle:

Friday - January 5, 2024, Aidan Deshong and Nate Cardin

Theme: 55-across. Corporate symbols, or how to make the answers to 15-/22-Across and 34-/46-Across match their clues: TRADEMARKS.

Puzzling Thoughts: Happy New Year, Cornerites. I guess that since this is my first blog of 2024 I can still utter this cordial wish. That said, did we have to start the New Year with such a difficult Friday puzzle? Or did you find both the puzzle AND the reveal/theme easy? Well, I didn't. I had a few minutes to collect my thoughts after solving the grid before writing this blog ... and my thought was, "what happened to the puns/wordplay or the add/subtract letter puzzles that were standard Friday fare in 2023"??

So first, let's find out about the collaborators for today's crossword. According to the puzzle editor, this is their debut puzzle at LA Times. Congrat's guys! A quick google check offered this info about them. Maybe if they know about us they'll stop by and give us some more input to how they came up with this puzzle, and about themselves

Today's puzzle has four 10-letter entries and a 14-letter reveal. That's a lot of characters to squeeze into a normal-sized puzzle, let alone one that's a 14x15 square grid (one column short). And because of the number of theme characters, there are a higher-than-normal count (21) of 3-letter answers (sorry, Irish Miss)

So how does this puzzle make sense to its entries and reveal? Here's how: 15-across. TV series that may have high costume budgets: DASH DRAMAS with 22-across. Recording device in a vehicle: PERIOD CAM. If you trade "DASH" (from 15-across) with "PERIOD" (from 26-across) you get "DASH CAM", which is a trademark (corporate symbol) from Garmin Dash Cam™. This supports the clue for 22-across

The "traded" pair becomes "PERIOD DRAMAS" which supports the clue for 15-across, as a period drama is a trademark (defined as "a distinctive characteristic or object) of a TV series that has lavish costumes (this: Marie Antoinette - 2006)

The next "trade" is between 34-across. (Fan-written story that romantically links same-sex characters: BRACKET FICTION) and 46-across. (Office competition during March Madness: SLASH POOL). SLASH FICTION is a common descriptor/trademark of two same sex characters - or as defined by [bustle dot com] "Slash fiction — named for the slash that separates the two main characters in the story description (for example, "Sirius Black/Severus Snape") — is a subgenre of fanfic that focuses on pairing up two characters (usually male) and describing their time together, often explicitly". This is not a phrase that the Chairman was aware of, but crossword puzzles should cater to more than one generation.

BRACKET POOL is a name known to fans of the NCAA "Final Four" men's and women's Basketball Tournament; aka "March Madness". The object here is to amass the most points within your wagering group (in this clue's case, an office of workers) by choosing the most winners within the BRACKET (see diagram). There's more to it than that, but my 2024 resolution was to be more brief in my comments ...

Still confused? If so, please add comments at the bottom. I thought it quite clever once I "got" the gist of it. Here is the grid, and then on to the rest of the clues, briefly ...

Across:
1. Nothing more than: MERE. May I ask d-otto if he got this one? I had something else scribbled into this spot until perps came into focus

5. Software-driven FX: CGI. FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment business segment and division of The Walt Disney Company. "Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in art, printed media, simulators, videos and video games. These images are either static (i.e. still images) or dynamic (i.e. moving images)." [wikipedia]

8. K-pop band with a community of fans known as ARMY: BTS. The only explanation I could find for this was at [wikipedia]: "BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material." The ARMY part of the clue (I think) is based on ""RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook (band members) will fulfill their required time with the military by enlisting in the army. RM and V will be enlisting according to their respective procedures, while Jimin and Jung Kook are scheduled to enlist together," the statement read." [today dot com]

11. Colombian street snack: AREPA. Also available in Venezuela. I had my first arepa at one of the Autopista (3-down. Stops on the interstate:) REST AREAS located west of Caracas

13. Laptop slot: PORT. PORT, as in a USB Port, e.g. Chairman Moe knows that PORT can also mean a fortified wine

14. Sass: LIP.

17. Alias indicator: AKA. What Chairman Moe is

18. Lag: TRAIL. Follow me on this; don't LAG too far behind ...

19. Uses one's noggin: THINKS.

21. Bun in a bamboo steamer: BAO. This is fast becoming crossword-ese

24. Radish kin: TURNIP. The Chairman loves radishes but can't stand TURNIPs

26. Digging: INTO. A hipster's description

27. "There you __!": ARE. Maybe I should've placed this clue/answer at the end of my blog ...

28. Energy bar brand: CLIF. KIND and LUNA also fit here

30. Crypto-linked collectibles: Abbr.: NFTS. "NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated. NFTs can represent digital or real-world items like artwork and real estate"

38. Mediocre: SO SO. Might some of our followers of this blog describe today's puzzle thusly?

39. "Hey, you!": PSST.

40. Regret: RUE.

41. Like Robin Hood's beneficiaries: POOR. Good clue

44. Military directives: ORDERS.

50. Printing measures longer than ens: EMS. Does anyone else recall when the words "ENS" and "EMS" were part of the crossword puzzle lexicon?

51. Gibson of the "Fast & Furious" films: TYRESE. I had to look this one up

52. Parkinson's drug: L-DOPA. We haven't seen this clue/answer in a published puzzle in a few years; sadly (on a personal note) my mother may have to be prescribed with this as she is exhibiting Parkinson's desease symptoms

54. Do one's part?: ACT. Nice mis-direction; doing one's part - in a play - is ACTing

59. Tax org.: IRS.

60. Regatta equipment: OARS.

61. "Good __!": GRIEF. I witnessed this expression often when watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" during the holiday season

62. Bit of sunshine: RAY. The word "RAY" brought to mind this comedy sketch:

63. Trident-shaped letter: PSI. [wikipedia] "Psi /ˈ(p)saɪ, ˈ(p)siː/ (P)SY, (P)SEE (uppercase Ψ, lowercase ψ or 𝛙; Greek: ψι psi [ˈpsi]) is the twenty-third and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet and is associated with a numeric value of 700. In both Classical and Modern Greek, the letter indicates the combination /ps/ (as in English word "lapse")

64. Like DoorDash meals: TO GO.

Down:
1. Hot under the collar: MAD.

2. Reliever's stat: ERA. As in MLB; a reliever's statistic can also be a "hold" or a "save" but neither of those are abbriviated; ERA = Earned Run Average

4. Writer/director Nora: EPHRON.

5. URL ender: COM. "COM" seemed too obvious, at first; I was thinking that "NET", "EDU", "ORG", or "GOV" might have been the answer

6. Potatoes au __: GRATIN. GRATIN = cheese

7. "I am melting!": IT'S HOT. We don't "melt" here in AZ when IT'S HOT because it's a "dry heat"

8. White vin: BLANC. Your resident sommelier knew this one; BLANC = white. Look at some Champagne bottles: BLANC de BLANCs means "white (juice) of white grapes". BLANC de Noir means "white (juice) of red/black grapes"

9. Marinated tandoor dish: TIKKA. As in, Chicken TIKKA Masala

10. Jerk: SPASM. TIC did not have enough letters

12. Limón who is the first Latina to be Poet Laureate of the United States: ADA.

13. Not very bright: PALE. I tried DULL, first

16. __ effect: RIPPLE.

20. Terse denial: I DON'T. "No" would be an even terser denial, but 2-letter words are verboten in crossword puzzle

21. Pack animal: BURRO.

23. Musical phrases: RIFFS.

24. Can openers: TABS. According to [Industrial Physics dot com] " it was in 1959 – First all-aluminum beer can. Ermal Fraze (Kettring, Ohio) invents the easy open can! 1960 – Easy-open can introduced. 1962 – Beverage can pull-tab was introduced

25. "How nasty": ICK. GROSS didn't fit, thank god!!

29. Genius Bar employee, e.g.: IT PRO.

31. Video game hero who defeats Goombas with flaming projectiles: FIRE MARIO.

Which corresponds with: (33-down. Classic game console, for short:) SNES. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo

32. Around-the-world jaunts: TOURS. Another fill-in-the-blank clue could've been: ___ of duty

35. Thicket: COPSE.

36. Tristan's beloved: ISOLDE.

37. Pos. for Lisa Leslie: CTR. Lisa Leslie is a WNBA player who played for the Los Angeles Sparks from 1997 to 2009 as a center (CTR). She is 6' 5" tall. The "normal" abbr. for the basketball position of center is "C", so this clue seemed "forced"

42. "You're embarrassing me!": OH,STOP!.

43. Met expectations?: OPERAS. Another clue mis-direction as Met is the nickname for the Metropolitan Opera Company

45. Leave: DEPART. EMBARK also fits

46. Flight unit: STAIR. Not an "airline" flight

47. Wetsuit material: LYCRA.

48. Quirkily creative: ARTSY.

49. Auto pioneer: OLDS. FORD also fits

53. "!!!": OMG. Odd clue; but the perps solved it

56. "Consider This" co-host Shapiro: ARI.

57. Brewpub cask: KEG.

58. OAK alternative: SFO. Airline reference; OAK is the airport code for OAKland; SFO is the airport code for San Francisco

"There you __!": ARE. Please comment below ... brief enough for you??!