Monday April 8, 2024 Christina Iverson

  

Happy Monday, everyone! sumdaze here with an eye opening puzzle from Christina Iverson.

Theme:      I See What You Mean

 

Let's see if we can shed some light on this one.

TBH, thinking about eyeball anatomy and diseases makes me feel squeamish
so I am narrowing this down to just one diagram that has
all we need for today:  ROD, IRIS, CONE, and  PUPIL.

These are the themers:

17 Across. Curtain holder in a bathroom: SHOWER ROD  

I like these curved ones. They give me just a bit more space.

25 Across. Purple flower with a fuzzy patch: BEARDED IRIS.  

These lovely IRISes belong to my former neighbor and current friend.

51 Across. Orange marker in a construction zone: TRAFFIC CONE.  

64 Across. Student at the top of the honor roll: STAR PUPIL.  

Then the reveal:

39. "We're almost there!," and what can be said about 17-, 25-, 51-, and 64-Across?: THE END IS IN SIGHT.

The ends of all the themed clues (ROD, IRIS, CONE, and PUPIL) are  parts of a human eye and are essential to sight.  

This theme seems an excellent fit for viewing today's total solar eclipse. I think that was Patti's plan. What do you think?

PSA from The Corner:  Prioritize your eye safety. Do not look directly at the sun during an eclipse.  Turn around!  

Bonnie Tyler (1983) Total Eclipse of the Heart (Turn around)

<You knew I had to work this in.>

Across:

1. Have an ugly cry: BAWL.  a baseball reference  😜

5. Fly through the air: SOAR.

9. Barked: ARFED.

14. Eight, in Spanish: OCHO.  ¡Canta conmigo! (Sing with me!)

15. Give a darn: CARE.

16. "__!" ... "Polo!": MARCO.  It's a hide-and-seek game played in a swimming pool that holds a distinction in that everyone who ever played it also cheated at least once.

19. Situation with a player at first, say: ONE ON.  another baseball reference.

A runner at first sets up the opportunity for my favorite thing about baseball -- the double play.  

20. Peaceful: SERENE.  Def.:  (adj.) marked by or suggestive of utter calm and unruffled repose or quietude.

That's you ... in the canoe.

21. Commercial lead-in to "bnb": AIR.  This clue feels like a lot of work for something as ubiquitous as AIR. "Commercial" here refers to business as opposed to a TV advertisement.  

Airbnb is an online marketplace that connects people who want to rent out their property with people who are looking for accommodations, typically for short stays.

23. Gaelic speaker: CELT.  

24. French fashion initials: YSL.

28. Country singer Loretta: LYNN.  (Apr. 14, 1932 - Oct. 4, 1922)  Her website says that she is the most awarded lady in Country music.

29. Scotch's partner: SODA.  A Scotch & Soda is an alcoholic beverage ... and the first line of this song by the Kingston Trio.  

30. Naked: BARE.  Here's a clip from a TV show called Naked and Afraid from The Discovery Channel. You can think of it as Survivor on crack. It is now on its 17 season.  

33. Stomp on the gas: GUN IT.  Let's move on from this one as quickly as possible.

36. Govt. intel org.: NSA.  National Security Agency

43. Unnaturally pale: WAN.  

44. Construct: ERECT.  

45. Film spool: REEL.

46. Root vegetable in Nigerian cuisine: TARO.  TARO, aka cocoyam (pronounced "KOH-KOH-YAM"), is a crop cultivated in many regions including Africa and the West Indies / Caribbean. The crop is a staple food in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ghana. It can be prepared a variety of ways.

48. Lawn tool: RAKE.

55. Work on a quilt: SEW.

58. Wild canine: WOLF.

59. "Dance the Night" singer __ Lipa: DUA.

60. Like some albums: DELUXE.  A "deluxe edition" usually means it contains extra content, compared to the standard edition.  This is the album cover for 59A's DELUXE edition.  

(tiny writing at the bottom says "deluxe edition")

62. Show host: EMCEE.  I learned the other day on WWDTM that a British English term for an MC (Master of Ceremonies) is compere.

66. Jump back, say: REACT.  This is how it's done:

67. Sheet of paper: PAGE.

68. Hatchling's home: NEST.  A pair of intrepid birds have built a nest in my hose holder. Needless to say, I will not be using that hose for a while. I know this is not a great picture but I did not want to upset them. The mom is in there. They were well-protected during our recent storms, my dog will keep cats away, plus I have a lot of miner's lettuce going to seed in my front yard for them to forage. They chose well, don't you think?

69. Cities with harbors: PORTS.

70. Post-blizzard blanket: SNOW.  Cute clue!

71. __ and crafts: ARTS.

Down:
1. Like an overbearing older sibling: BOSSY.  Lucy immediately came to mind.

2. Is sore: ACHES.

3. Pattern of spirals on a fingerprint: WHORL.  You don't hear this one everyday.  

A fingerprint analyst is a professional scientist who obtains, studies, and analyzes fingerprints as well as palm prints and footprints as part of a crime scene investigation.

4. Actor Rob of "Parks and Recreation": LOWE.  He played Chris Traeger, an intensely cheerful and enthusiastic character.

5. Bug keeper-outer on a window: SCREEN.  

perhaps an underappreciated moment of brilliance

6. Rowboat rower: OAR.

7. Noisy, as a crowd: AROAR.

8. Fixed up again: REDID.  past tense of "redo"

9. "Yo te __": AMO.  Spanish  

10. Putrid: RANCID.

11. Allowed to roam, as chickens: FREE RANGE.

You can feed your RANCID fruit to your FREE RANGE chickens.

12. Gut bacteria: E. COLI.

13. Heading on a list of actions to avoid: DON'TS.  

18. Phonetic term often associated with they/them pronouns: ENBY.  It is "phonetic" because it sounds like N-B, as in non-binary.  

22. Sticky tree secretion: RESIN.  I learned on this U.S. Forest Service website that RESIN in hops gives beer its unique aroma and bitter taste.

26. "The Hate U Give" writer Thomas: ANGIE.  goodreads link

27. Connect the __: DOTS.  The 2018 Guinness World Record is 52,901 dots!

28. Big name in jeans: LEE.  Their marketing campaign uses a 'regular guy' approach.

30. Short "While I'm thinking of it ... ": BTW.  By The Way....

31. Exclamation of understanding: AHA.

32. Vehicle picked up at an airport, maybe: RENTAL CAR.  Good clue! It reminds me of what happened to the rental cars in Hawaii during Covid. Most tourists visiting Hawaii get a rental car. Tourists stopped flying to Hawaii during Covid. Suddenly there was no room to park all the rental cars that would normally be checked out to visitors. The solution was to park them at Aloha Stadium. They filled the parking lot!

34. Golden State sch.: USC.  University of Southern California

California has "University of ___" schools and "CSU, ___" schools (e.g., CA State University, San Diego). Both are 4-year degree schools. UC schools operate as residential campuses focusing on research and graduate education. CSU schools, in contrast, tend to enroll more commuter students. The UC system is generally considered more prestigious -- and more expensive.

35. The "N" of TNT: NITRO.

37. "__ Persisted": children's book by Chelsea Clinton: SHE.  goodreads link

38. Ga. capital: ATL.  Atlanta is the capital of Georgia.

40. Maker of squishy darts: NERF.  

super squishy

41. Humanlike robot: DROID.  

For the record, I want our future AI overlords to know that I supported them

by posting this very favorable 1:20 min. video.

42. Anger: IRE.

47. Move emotionally: AFFECT.

49. Composer Lloyd Webber: ANDREW.  (b. Mar. 22, 1948)  I learned from reading his bio on his website that he has EGOT status.  This is Patti LuPone singing With One Look from his musical, Sunset Boulevard.  

50. Save: KEEP.

51. Little troublemaker: TWERP.

52. Juliet's partner: ROMEO.

53. Zodiac transition points: CUSPS.  These are the days bordering the sun's transition to a new sign. For example, those born between April 17-23 are in the Aires-Taurus CUSP. They are said to be influenced by both the Aires and Taurus zodiac signs.

54. Board game that dropped "The Settlers of" from its name: CATAN.  I have blogged this fill before but I still could not remember it. Oof! Perhaps another visual image will help lock it into my cerebral cortex. If not, my neurons will play CAT ANd mouse looking for this name.  

55. "Terrific!": SUPER.  

56. Are: EXIST.

57. Swollen marks: WELTS.

61. Name that means "moon": LUNA.  If you are around anyone named LUNA while watching the eclipse today, you can say, "Down in front!"

63. UFO pilots: ETS.

65. Back in time: AGO.

"Now in time", we will take a look at the grid:  

See you later!

Thursday, August 10, 2023, Christina Iverson

 

Christina Iverson was Patti's assistant when the latter took over editing duties from Rich Norris.  Here's Husker's bio for Jeff Chen and Christina's Saturday themeless on May 21, 2022.  This will be her 20th solo or collaborative appearance on the Corner.

Before we start the review here is a related public service announcement [TL;DW] on

Toxic Cookware

[Too long; Don't Watch]

Christina's theme today concerns some not quite so toxic types of COOKWARE as in the above PSA, but they barely registered on the YELP* scale ...

18A. "Two stars! My spaghetti always sticks to the sides!": PASTA COOKER.  Maybe Christina should have given this a look instead -- an Oster Sangerfield Stainless Steel Cookware 5-Quart Pasta Pot w/Steamer & Strainer Lid -- 4.5 stars from 17,972 reviewers ...

Pasta Cooker

27A. "Half a star! The ceramic is flaking off the cast iron!": DUTCH OVEN.  Or how about this one? -- Lodge 6 Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven with Lid – oven safe up to 500° F or on stove top - use to marinate, cook, bake, refrigerate and serve -- 4.8 stars from 30,583 reviewers ...

Dutch Oven

37A. "One star! Chocolate gets clumpy, and sauces always separate!": DOUBLE BOILER.   -- or this ExcelSteel 3 Piece Boiler, 2.5 quart, Stainless Steel --  4.5 stars from 3,855 reviewers.

Double Boiler

51A. "Zero stars! It spits hot oil everywhere!": DEEP FRYER. -- or go deep with this Presto 05420 FryDaddy Electric Deep Fryer, Black -- 4.7 stars from 24,366 reviewers ...

Deep Fryer

And as we might have expected, Christina finally reveals that each of those themers were PANS for POTS ...

61A. Kitchen array, or an apt title for this puzzle?: POTS AND PANS.  (I think that Christina is a great crossword constructor, but I wonder if she might need the help of a personal shopper? 😉)

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Rain's counterpart: SHINE.

6. Bottomless pit: ABYSS.

11. Scoundrels: CADS.  The greatest CAD in opera was Don Giovanni.  Here's his servant Leporello, reading the catalogue of all the women his boss has seduced ...

15. Quartet voice: TENOR.  They say that Enrico Caruso's voice was like gold and Swedish TENOR Jussi Björling's was like silver.  Here is Björling as Rudolfo singing Che gelida manina  to Mimi, sung by SOPRANO Victoria de los Angeles, in the greatest recording of La Boheme ever made, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham (lyrics) ...

Three other famous voices in this recording are BARITONE Robert Merrill as Marcello and BASS Giorgio Tozzi as Colline.  There was no ALTO -- SOPRANO Lucina Amara sang the coquettish Musetta.

16. Quality: TRAIT.

17. Fly-fishing need: LURE.  The fish taste better if you tie your own flies.

Les Korcala tying flies

18. [Theme clue]

20. North __ Sea: Kazakh lake: ARAL.  So it's been downsized to a lake?  Here are the latest satellite photos ...

Pretty soon, despite its high vowel content, it might disappear entirely from crosswords.

21. Son of Hera: ARES.  Not the kinda' guy you'd wanna' run into on a cloudy night ...

Ares

22. Actress Ortiz: ANA.  ANA Ortiz (born January 25, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Having pursued a career in ballet and singing from a young age, she eventually attended University of the Arts. Ortiz began her acting career in theatre, in early 2000s.  Ortiz garnered widespread attention for her role as Hilda Suarez in the ABC comedy-drama series Ugly Betty from 2006 to 2010.

Ana Ortiz

23. Part of SCOTUS: SUPREME.  We don't generally discuss politics on the Corner, so how about this instead ...

25. Magnate: TYCOON.

27. [Theme clue]

29. Established: SET.

30. The Falcons, on scoreboards: ATL.

32. Munro pen name: SAKI.  Hector Hugh Munro (Dec 18, 1870 - Nov 14, 1916) was a witty British author who published under the pen name SAKI or H.H. Munro. The inspiration for the pen name "Saki" is unknown, it may be based upon a character in a poem or on a South American monkey.  As a writer, Munro (Saki) was a master of the short story form and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. E.F. Benson shares his sardonic style.

H. H. Munro

33. Poem of homage: ODE.

34. Poolside piece: CHAISE.  Comme ça ...

chaise longue

36. Kit letters: DIY.

37. [Theme clue].

41. Not cool: OUT.

42. Planet Fitness payment: GYM FEE.

43. Conclusion: END.

44. SoCal school: SDSU.  San Diego State University, home of the Aztecs ...
 

47. Tanqueray, for one: GIN.

48. Behave: ACT.

51. [Theme clue]

54. Words mouthed while holding an imaginary phone to one's ear: CALL ME.

56. Like a colorful garden: IN BLOOM.  Here's Teri at Sherwood Gardens on a beautiful Spring day in Baltimore ...

57. "Now I see!": AHA.

59. One-named "Locked Up" singer: AKON.  AKA Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam (born April 16, 1973), known mononymously as Akon (/ˈeɪkɒn/).  I guess that's why he just goes by AKON.  Akon is an American singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of Locked Up (featuring Styles P), the first single from his debut album Trouble (2004), followed by the second single Lonely. 

Akon

60. Spelling of "BH90210": TORI.  Nice misdirection.  For a minute I thought it might be in EBCDIC, but that alphabet stops with F.  It's actually a reality series about the reunion of the cast members of the original 1990 teen drama Beverly Hills 90210.  Here's a trailer for the reboot ...

61. [Theme reveal].

64. School near Windsor: ETON.  See last Thursday.

65. Useless: INEPT.

66. Bowen of "Modern Family": JULIE.  JULIE Bowen Luetkemeyer is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which she received critical acclaim and six nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2011 and 2012.  Another Baltimore success story.

Julie Bowen

67. Office fixture: DESK.

68. Razz: TEASE.

69. Some dance elements: SPINS.

Down:

1. Day when everyone's a little Irish, familiarly: ST PATS.  Faith and begorrah -- this clue brought this air to mind ...

2. Town crier's cry: HEAR YE.  A history of the Town crier.

3. Walking stick, e.g.: INSECT.  The Phasmatodea AKA "walking sticks" are an order of  INSECTS, who through a long series of accidental mutations have developed the perfect camouflage, making them virtually indistinguishable from the tree limbs they inhabit ...

Walking Stick
pretending to be a skinny little sloth

4. False: NOT SO.

5. Memorable span: ERA.  Here's a very memorable span ...

6. Buckets: A TON.

7. Wide: BROAD.

8. Source of Tibetan butter: YAK.  Yak butter is butter made from the milk of the domestic yak . Many herder communities in China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan and Tibet produce and consume dairy products made from yak's milk, including butter. Whole yak's milk has about twice the fat content of whole cow's milk, producing a butter with a texture closer to cheese.

Domestic Yak

9. Afternoon rest: SIESTA.  Today's Spanish lesson and a reminder that it's time for my nap.  I'll be back in an hour.

10. Occurred to: STRUCK.

11. Mild cigar: CLARO.  CLARO is Spanish for "clear" or "light" and refers to the color of the leaf used to wrap the cigar. For those of you who are cigar aficionados, here are the meanings for some common cigar terms.

Claro

A pale-green to light-brown wrapper,
usually shade-grown.

12. French farewell: AU REVOIR.  One of several actually -- today's French lesson.

13. Genre portmanteau: DRAMEDY.   DRAMA/COMEDIES are the stock-in-trade of many British mysteries, e.g. Midsomer Murders, The Queens of Mystery, The Brokenwood Mysteries, and Agatha Raisin -- here's the trailer for episode 1 of Agatha's The Quiche of Death ...

14. Greek moon goddess: SELENE.  In ancient Greek mythology and religion, SELENE (/sɪˈliːniː/; Greek: Σελήνη pronounced [selɛ̌ːnɛː], meaning "Moon" is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene, she is traditionally the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and sister of the sun god Helios and the dawn goddess Eos.  She also fell in love ...

19. Soda opener: CAN TAB.  AKA POP TOP, the BANE of Jimmy Buffett in Margaritaville -- for all the parrot heads and guitar geeks on the Corner ...

24. Chi preceder: PHI.

26. "The Gathering Place" island: OAHU.  The nickname for the largest Hawaiian island.  Here are some others.

Oahu Island

28. Date line?: USE BY.

31. Tiny, made tinier: LIL. E.g. a lot of tiny RAP singers.

34. Barracks bed: COT.

35. Transition: SEGUE.

36. Kaitlin's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" role: DEE.  Also the 4th letter in the alphabet.  The 16 season comedy series has been described as "like Seinfeld on crack".  You're welcome. 

37. Disparaging term for some frat guys: DUDE BROS.  Hand up if you were a frat guy?  Did any uncool dudes ever call you DUDE BRO?

38. "Holy wow!": OMG.

39. Not exactly promising words: IF I CAN.

40. Actress Headey: LENA.  Lena Kathren Headey (born 3 October 1973) is a British actress. She gained international recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister on the HBO epic fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Lena Headey

41. Flat, in a way: ONE NOTE.  Well it's certainly not going anywhere ...

43. Improved, hopefully: EDITED. Teri EDITS these reviews, and almost always improves them.

44. NorCal airport: SFO.  San Francisco International Airport in Northern California.

San Francisco International Airport

45. "You need to let this go": DROP IT.

46. 2021 winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race": SYMONE.  I guess she was the fastest runner in the posse.

48. Acid neutralizer: ALKALI. 

49. Informal invitation at the door: C'MON IN.

50. Stiffens: TENSES.

52. Toy piano sound: PLINK.  Even grown up pianos can go PLINK ...

53. Carpentry files: RASPS.  BASTARDS was too long.

55. Drink like a kitten: LAP UP.

58. "Stop the __": protest sign: HATE.  Start the LOVE instead!

62. Oolong or rooibos: TEA.  Today's Chinese and Afrikaans lessons.  For the latter see last Friday.

63. Club VIPs: DJS.

A related topic ...

We do a lot of cooking and have a small kitchen.  We really don't have the cupboard space for all of our cookware, but have found the  DIY POTS and PANS organizer shown below to be very useful. It hangs over the kitchen sink and consists of a open box attached to the ceiling, with a metal rack held in place by dowel inserts, and metal hooks to hang the pots from.   The dishwasher is to right below the sink counter and as soon as the pots are dried they can be quickly hung in their proper places ...

Pots and Pans Organizer

Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley  


 

Friday, August 4, 2023,Taylor Johnson, Christina Iverson

 

Good Morning Crucibverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here once again with a recap of a Friday puzzle.   Today's puzzle setters are Taylor Johnson and Christina Iverson.  We have previously seen puzzles by each of them in the L.A. Times.

Today's "theme" is something of an odd duck and I find it to be a bit difficult to explain.  First of all, it is meta.  At five places within the grid (each clue ending with a question mark for a bit of added helpfulness), portions of the clues themselves are used to form the answers.  In each case the letters that are employed in this capacity frame the opening portion of the clue.  The relationship that each answer has to its clue is the "letter play"and the use of words such as border, case, frame, etc,.  Let's look at the first example and see if things might not become a bit clearer.

17 Across:  Op-ed column feature?:  OPEN BORDER.   If we look at OP-ED COLUMN we see that the O P E and N form the word OPEN.  OPEN forms, and frames, the left BORDER of the clue (exclusive of the word "feature").

25 Across:  Spa service feature?: SPACE CASE.  .   In the second-from-the-top themed clue/answer, we are presented with  SPA SERVICE in the clue.   The S,P, A, C, and E of the answer (SPACE CASE) originate in the clue.  They could be said the enCASE the clue.  The fact that we have two C's and two E's from which to chose might be a wee bit confusing but since we are going with edges and sides we'll go with the first C and the last E for the highlighting, below. Making things a bit more interesting or confusing is that, in this instance, SPACE can  frame both the clue and the answer.

The other three theme answers are:

35 Across:  Free booze feature?: FREEZE FRAME.  FREE BOOZE.    As with the previous theme answer, things are a bit more interesting / confusing because FREEZE FRAMEs both the clue and the answer.

48 Across:  Lotus pose feature?:  LOOSE ENDS.  LOOSE frames the ENDS of the clue LOTUS POSE.

58 Across:  Chocolate mousse feature?: CHOSE SIDES.  CHOCOLATE MOUSSE.

I found the theme, and its execution, to be both clever and a bit unwieldy.  YMMV.

In the grid things look like this:

Now, if we are not tuckered out from exploring the machinations of the theme, we can take a look at the rest of the puzzle.

Across:

1. Neck, in Nottingham: SNOG.   Neck as in canoodle.  We have seen this bit of British English before. 

5. Antlered ruminants: STAGS.

10. European range: ALPS.  Mountain range.

14. Cab, for one: WINE.  Not a taxi, CABernet Sauvignon.

15. Young trainee: CADET.

16. Spring, essentially: COIL.

19. "Un-Break My Heart" singer Braxton: TONI.

20. Reply "stop" to a text message campaign, say: OPT OUT.

21. One of a kind: UNIT.  Not a "one off" but one of many (of a type or kind).

23. Nickname that drops -in: KEV.

24. MIT __: business school: SLOAN.  

27. Mother clucker: HEN.   Also the name of quite a few restaurants.

28. School of whales: GAM.  Hand up for first going with POD.

30. __ sauce: seafood dressing: TARTAR.  COCKTAIL would not fit the allotted space.

31. Garnish in Mexican cuisine: PEPITA.  A subset of pumpkin seeds.

34. Rascals: IMPS.

38. Singer Parks with the 2023 album "My Soft Machine": ARLO.  A clue for the newer kids on the block.  Most of us would have gone with Guthrie.

40. Tick off: ENRAGE.

41. Rose ominously: LOOMED.

44. Poetic contraction: O'ER.  Over.

45. Path: WAY.  Hand up for wondering if it might be TAO.

51. Lyric poem: EPODE.  Fortunately, we have previously seen this one in our puzzles so it was easier to perp than would otherwise have been the case.

53. Former Russian orbiter: MIR.  MIR means peace or world.

The MIR Space Station

54. Plotting spot: LAIR.  Often clued with an animal reference but, hey, it's Friday.  Criminals plot capers in their LAIRs, I suppose.

55. __ wheel: FERRIS.

56. Some early PCs: IBMS.

IBM PC AT

60. "Marriage Story" writer/director Baumbach: NOAH.  Unknown to this solver.  Thanks perps.

61. Desert refuges: OASES.  Plural clue, plural answer.

62. Pivot around: SLUE.

63. Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, for one: ESPY.  Named in honor of North Carolina basketball coach Jim Valvano.

64. Some piercing spots: NOSES.  First thought was LOBES.  Three out of five wasn't going to work out.

65. Toy (with): MESS.

Down:

1. Sportswear logo: SWOOSH.  A Nike athletic apparel reference.

2. Baby bottle topper: NIPPLE.

3. Pickup spec: ONE TON.  Not a pickup bar reference.  A truck reference.

4. Ligurian port on a namesake gulf: GENOA.  Often clued with a salami reference but, hey, it's Friday.

5. Glasgow citizen: SCOT.  Not Glasgow, Montana.

6. Road goo: TAR.

7. Total: ADD UP.  If this had been a truck reference the answer could have been WRECK.

8. Davis of "Beetlejuice": GEENA.

9. Stern: STRICT.

10. Pretend: ACT.

11. Cry for attention: LOOK AT ME.

12. Turpentine ingredient: PINE SAP.  First went with PINE TAR.

13. Tweezers targets: SLIVERS.  SPLINTERS was too long.

18. Jumper cable?: BUNGEE.

22. 39-Down, e.g.: TEA.

25. Portmanteau coined by Tyra Banks on "America's Next Top Model": SMIZE.  Smile with your eyes.  Perhaps in some circles Tyra-isms are as accepted as Yogi-isms are in other circles.  However, at this point in the solve the only thing my eyes were doing was rolling.

26. Harlan Coben genre: CRIME.

29. Simian: APE.  What do you call a simian who lives in a ventilation system?  A duct APE.

31. Dances with queens: PROMS.  Dances is used here as a plural noun.

Julie Brown

32. Sundial X: TEN.  Roman numeral.

33. Some natural hairstyles: AFROS.

35. Blueprint: FLOOR MAP.  More often, FLOOR PLAN but that would not fit.

36. "Black Beatles" hip-hop duo __ Sremmurd: RAE.  Ear Drummers spelled backwards.  Yo!

37. Matches: AGREES.
 
38. "None for you!": ALL MINE.

39. Herbal red 22-Down: ROOIBOS.  A new one for me but, apparently, not all that obscure.

42. Unadon fish: EEL.  A sushi reference.

43. Church official: DEACON.  A couple of locals DEACONs stood by the side of the road holding up a sign that read, “The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it’s too late!” They held up the sign to each passing car.  “Leave us alone you religious nuts!” yelled the first driver as he sped by. From around the curve they heard a big splash.  “Do you think,” said one DEACON to the other, “we should just put up a sign that says ‘bridge is out’ instead?

45. Guessing game where the answer can be false, but not true?: WORDLE.  A gimme for many here.  Tough for many others.

46. Farewells: ADIEUS.  Could have been ADIEUX.

47. Approvals: YESSES.

49. Hangzhou "Hello": NI HAO.  Today's mandarin lesson.

50. Metallic waste: DROSS.  SLAG was too short.

52. Spectrum-maker: PRISM.

55. Own (up): FESS.  It might have been clued as "Actor and wine maker ____  Parker".

57. Short: SHY.  Not a height reference.  As in to owe money that one does not have.

59. "The thing is ... ": SEE.

The thing is... that about wraps things up for today.  Have a great weekend, everyone.  I will be traveling and taking time off from blogging for a while.  See you in September.

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