google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: David Alfred Bywaters

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Showing posts with label David Alfred Bywaters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Alfred Bywaters. Show all posts

Mar 29, 2019

Friday, March 29, 2019 David Alfred Bywaters

Insider Trading.  Each theme answer consists of two 4-letter words where the first and last letters are the same, but the two internal, or "inside", letters (in the pattern of A__ or __A) have "traded" places.  How very clever!

17-Across. Frantic activity at a clothing sale?: GARB GRAB.  The infamous Wedding Dress Garb Grab at Filene's Basement in Boston.  If you haven't experienced the original Filene's Basement, you don't know what you're missing.


26-Across. Wooden bird sculpture?: SAWN SWAN.  This was my Rosetta Stone.

52. Cereal maker's storage building?: BRAN BARN.  I couldn't find a Bran Barn, but here's the famous Bran Castle near Brașov, Romania, allegedly the home of Dracula.  Well worth the visit!


66. Dispassionate bivalve?: CALM CLAM.


40-Across. With 42-Across, white-collar crime ... and a hint to four Across answers: INSIDER.

42-Across. See 40-Across: TRADING.  Together these clues give us INSIDER TRADING, which is a big No-No with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This was a tough Friday puzzle.  It's never good when I can't get 1-Across/1-Down on the first pass.  Getting the gimmick early helped me today.

Across:
1. Result of littering, maybe: PUP.  Oh, not like the street after the parade has floated by,

but as in a dog with its babies.


4. Recipe direction: SIFT.  I remember my mother sifting flour before doing any baking.  I only occasionally used a sifter when baking.  Probably why my cooking is the way it is.


8. Round paths: ORBITS.  The orbits of the planets are elliptical .  The elliptical orbits are a subset of the round orbits.


14. Airport info: ETA.  As in Estimated Time of Arrival.  A crossword staple.

15. Minorca, por ejemplo: ISLA.  Today's Spanish lesson.  Minorca is one of the Balearic islands in the Mediterranean Sea.  The Islands belong to Spain.  Minorca is the tiny island on the far right on the map.


16. Promote: TALK UP.

19. How some insults are veiled: THINLY.  If someone ever says to you, "Oh, you lost 10 pounds?  That's a good start", then you have just been the subject of a thinly disguised insult.

20. Luster: SHEEN.  Not to be confused with Martin Sheen.


21. Electric guitar effect: WA WA.


23. Meh: SO-SO.  //  And 41-Down.  Meh: DRAB.

24. Comedy bit: GAG.

28. Recreational walk: STROLL.  My memory is a little rusty, but I think you can take a STROLL down ...


31. European relative of aloha: CIAO.  Today's Italian lesson

32. Financial claim: LIEN.

33. Heroic poetry: EPOS.  A long, narrative poem, such as Beowulf.  I was so disappointed when I learned that Beowulf was not actually about a wolf.


35. Scheming wife of Augustus: LIVIA.  Livia (58 BCE ~ 29 CE) was a Roman Empress.

44. Mongol invader: TATAR.  Probably the most famous Tatar was Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.

45. "__ Tired": Beatles "White Album" song: I'M SO.  I don't remember this song.  //  And 71-Across: SLEEPY.


47. Long-gone time: YORE.

48. Plant with therapeutic sap: ALOE.  A crossword staple.


50. Ball VIPs: BELLES.

56. Longtime NBC hit: SNL.  As in Saturday Night Live.

57. Drive-in need: AUTO.


58. Ivan IV, from 1547 to 1584: TSAR.  Also known as Ivan the Terrible.  He is considered the first TSAR of Russia.  Previous rulers were known as Grand Princes.  The title of Tsar gave him gravatis in the eyes of the European monarchs. Once he appointed himself Tsar, he and Queen Elizabeth I carried on a long correspondence, which opened up trading between England and Russia.  It is said that Ivan proposed to Elizabeth, but she declined.  Probably just as well for her.



60. Passageway: AISLE.


64. Theater company: TROUPE.

68. Fairy tale sibling: HANSEL.  Brother of Gretel. The story of Hansel and Gretel is an old German fairy tale, recorded by the Brothers Grimm.  They were children of a poor woodcutter.  Their mother had died and their step-mother took them deep into the woods and left them to fend for themselves.  They came upon a beautiful gingerbread home, unaware that its owner was a cannibalistic witch.

69. Logician's adverb: ERGO.

70. "Really? Me?": AMI.  Hmm ...  Ami the transliteration for a Hebrew word meaning "my people".

72. Precious: DEAR.

73. Favorite: PET.  My late pet.



Down:
1. Coat holders: PEGS.  My first thought was a coat tree, but that didn't work well with the perps.

2. Wasatch Front state: UTAH.  This was totally unknown to me.  Apparently, the Wasatch Front is a metropolitan region in Utah, which includes such cities as Provo, Salt Lake City and Odgen.  Do any of our crossword friends live in this area?

3. Opposite of embiggen: PARE.  Embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word.  It's first known use was on a 1996 episode of The Simpsons.




4. Traffic stopper, perhaps: SIGNAL.



5. Leb. neighbor: ISR.  Israel is a neighbor of Lebanon.

6. Diamond concern: FLAW.  Can you spot the flaws in these diamonds?



7. Spicy sauce: TABASCO.  Made in Avery Island, Louisiana.  Did you know that Avery Island isn't really an island?  It's really a salt dome.  There are five such "Islands" in southern Louisiana.

8. Capital NNW of Albany: OTTAWA.


9. Cheer syllable: RAH.  //  And 25-Down. Cheer: GLEE.

10. Euphoria: BLISS.

11. "You don't need to tell me": I KNOW.

12. Home of the Drillers of Class AA baseball: TULSA.  The Tulsa Drillers are the double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.


13. Watch surreptitiously: SPY ON.

18. Colorful tropical flower: BEGONIA.


22. Middle management issues?: WAISTS.  Another good clue.

27. Satchmo's birthplace, briefly: NOLA.  Louis Daniel Armstrong (Aug. 4, 1901 ~ July 6, 1971), also known as Satchmo, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.


28. Narrow opening: SLIT.


29. Turner with numbers: TINA.  As in Tina Turner (née Anna Mae Bullock; b. Nov. 26, 1939).  Tina on her last birthday at age 79.  I hope I can look as good as she does when I turn 79.


30. Enjoy an easy chair: REST.


34. Monastic leaders: PRIORS.

36. Charmingly pastoral: IDYLLIC.

37. Member of a Baroque consort: VIOL.  A musical instrument used in Renaissance and Baroque music.  It is similar to a cello, is six-stringed, held vertically and played with a bow.


38. Memo heading: IN RE.

39. Survey range components: AGES.  On a survey form, there are often boxes to check one's age range.

43. Takes badly?: ROBS.  Nice misdirection.

46. Threatened: MENACED.


49. These days: LATELY.

51. Charm: ENAMOR.

52. Spa features: BATHS.  Here I am (way in the back) swimming in the pool at the Gellert Spa in Budapest.




53. Like much of Oregon: RURAL.

54. Make amends: ATONE.  This is becoming a crossword staple.

55. "I give up!": NO USE.

59. Uncommon: RARE.  Tanzanite is one of the world's rarest gem stones.  It is found only in Tanzania, hence its name.

61. Open-handed blow: SLAP.

62. Unconvincing, as an excuse: LAME.

63. Put out: EMIT.


65. Energy: PEP.

67. NY airport named for a mayor: LGA.  As in LaGuardia Airport, which is named after Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (Dec. 11, 1882 ~ Sept. 20, 1947).  He was only 5'2'', and interestingly, his first name means "little flower" in Italian.  He was the 99th Mayor of New York City.  He served as Mayor from January 1934 through December 1945.

Now here's the GIRD GRID:


QOD:  Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself for hours.  ~  Eric Idle (b. Mar. 29, 1943)

Mar 8, 2019

Friday, March 8, 2019, David Alfred Bywaters

Title: G that was a cute puzzle!

DAB is back with our second week in a row with an add a letter to the end of a phrase to create a new and fun phrase theme. He adds a really perfect reveal. You are directed to reparse ENDING into three parts - END IN G. As with all of his work, we get a variety of topics and some easy and some hard fill. He gave me lots of opportunities to link music so I had extra fun. Speaking of which, there were many 3 and 4 letter fill but lots of excitement with DELIGHT, OFF GRID, PERSONA, PRESETS, REMARKS, SARONGS, OBAMA CARE  and PAVAROTTI.

18A. Didn't just knock?: ALSO RANG (8). Logical and for me, revealed the theme immediately.

29A. Barbecue dinner followed by dyspepsia?: RACK AND RUING (12). My favorite, as I see people suffering after bbq.

49A. Part for a robot vampire?: ELECTRIC FANG (12). Very cute image of the vampire. 

62A. Eagerly excited for an extended period of time?: LONG AGOG (8). Is AGOG an A word?

73A. Conclusion ... or, in three parts, what four answers in this puzzle unexpectedly do: ENDING.(6).

Time for the rest
Across:

1. Fencing needs: SWORDS. Did anyone think PANELS?

7. Soup holder: POT. Where you cook it, not serve it.

10. Web creation: SITE.

14. "Amen": SO BE IT. Another interesting array of letters. I am surprised we do not see this more.

15. Complement for a tango: TWO. The SAYING. The song...

16. Sharp: ACID. Like a tongue.

17. Fill with love: ENAMOR.

20. Like a male lion: MANED. A typical Friday stretch, correct but who uses it?

22. Housecleaning aid: SPONGE. This needed perps, there are so many.

23. Arctic trout: CHAR. Interesting not only this fish but a house cleaner in Britain.

25. Completely erase: WIPE. Interesting, not only what you do when you sell your phone, but one of the things you do with a sponge.

28. PC key above Shift: ENTER. Not CAPS LOCK.

32. Audibly amazed: AGASP.

33. Period: ERA.

34. Bad Ems and Marienbad, for two: SPAS. I knew MARIENBAD, (actually, it is Czech) but I never heard of BAD EMS.

38. Animal protection agent: FUR.

39. Public face: PERSONA. This from the Latin word - an individual's social facade.

43. Muhammad's son-in-law: ALI. He married Fatima. This is RELIGION but educational.

44. Ready to drive: TEED. I think you really need "UP" but it is a Friday.

46. Contend: VIE.

47. Trailer follower: MOVIE.

53. Prop for a Tell skit: APPLE. William Tell that is.

56. Label caveat: AS IS.

57. Wandering the range, say: FREE.

58. Thinking things: BRAINS.

60. Game with 25 squares: BINGO. I call Bingo for a 13 week winter season at our condo when the snowbirds are in town. Come on by, we have fun. I play Pat and Oo is Vanna.

65. Containing more lemon: TARTER.

68. O.T. book after Neh.: ESTH.er. Purim is coming.

69. Pedi pinkie: TOE.

70. French teacher: MAÎTRE. If you remember Zazie's French lesson, the circonflexe becomes an "S" giving us MASTER.

71. Remainder: REST.

72. "I think my love as rare / As any __ belied by false compare": Shak.: SHE. Another Friday Will S. This time a Sonnet. 130.


Down:

1. Memphis-to-Mobile dir.: SSE.

2. Outplayed an opponent: WON.

3. 2010 health statute, informally: OBAMACARE.

4. They may be nasty: REMARKS. Yes, they may, especially on Fridays.

5. Belmonts frontman: DION. From my childhood.

6. Thrown around: STREWN. Old English strewian, streowian "to scatter," from Proto-Germanic *strawjan- (source also of Old Frisian strewa, Old Saxon strowian, Old Norse stra, Danish strø, Swedish strö, Middle Dutch strowen, Dutch strooien, Old High German strouwen, German streuen, Gothic straujan "to sprinkle, strew"), from suffixed form of PIE root *stere- "to spread." Related: Strewed; strewn; strewing. I like this word.

7. School org.: PTA.

8. Hogwarts mail carrier: OWL.

9. Discard: TOSS.

10. Simple island garments: SARONGS. This will always be my image of a sarong.

11. "__ even!": I CAN'T. Valley speak.

12. Bit of color: TINGE.

13. Landscaping tool: EDGER.

19. Taking customers: OPEN. For business.

21. Completed: DID.

23. Boat, or the building of one: CRAFT.

24. World Court site, with "The": HAGUE. All that you need to KNOW.

26. Car stereo conveniences: PRESETS.

27. Continental currency: EURO.

30. Dictionary on a phone, say: APP.

31. Scottish John: IAN.

35. "King of the High C's": PAVAROTTI. A publicist long ago gave Luciano Pavarotti the sobriquet King of the High C’s, for his remarkable ability to hit and sing the heck out of one of the highest notes of the tenor voice. NYT

36. Dress style: A-LINE. A bit of the history. LINK.

37. "Iliad" topic: SIEGE. This was perps. The PLOT.

40. Party time: EVE.

41. Costa __: RICA. I have a friend who always says Costa Rico. I go crazy.

42. "Preacher" airer: AMC. No longer its original American Movie Classics name, this channel creates original TV programs like this one based on a DC Comic Book. Seth Rogen is one of the writers. LINK.

45. Gladden: DELIGHT.

48. Independent of public utilities: OFF GRID. Very important to SURVIVALISTS.

50. Singer Horne: LENA. A wonderful talent.

51. Tease: RIB.

52. Self-reflective thought: IS IT ME?

53. Not so ham-handed: ABLER. Ham-handed is such an old phrase; do you all know it?

54. Verse alternative: PROSE. Here we get both, with OKL starting off most days.

55. Slacks: PANTS.

59. PD ranks: SGTSPolice Departments.

61. Bread with tikka masala: NAAN.

63. "That's amazing!": OOH.

64. "That's interesting": GEE. A little tongue in the cheek fill from DAB to amuse himself about the theme.

66. Fish-eating bird: ERN. There are many fish-eating birds.

67. Brief rule?: REG.ulation.

We march inexorably to Spring, and once again DAB entertained us along the way. Hope you enjoyed. Lemonade out (somewhat frazzled).



Feb 1, 2019

Friday, February 1, 2019, David Alfred Bywaters

Title:  Want a fun night? You can bet on Texas hold'em.

DAB is back for his first Friday of the New Year on the first one in February. White Rabbit White Rabbit. Today we are presented with the addition of the word/trigram "ALL" to some common phrases.  Once again symmetry and 1/4 with ALL added to the first part and 2/3 added to the second. Two are grid-spanners. We are also given a Friday gift of a reveal. With a passel of 3 and 4 letter fill, you had to expect some very challenging cluing which for me started with 1 Across. The entire North took me much more time and I needed some perps and some educated guesses to get going. The fill was not obscure, but the cluing was difficult to parse. He worked AGENDAS, DELIGHT, RANCHES, RIPENED, MELANGES, and TIDE POOL into the puzzle to give some sparkle. Lots of excuses to link music so enjoy.

17A. Up-tempo music lover's aversion?: BALLAD INFLUENCE (15). If you just read the black letters you see BAD INFLUENCE is the base phrase, with ALL added to create an amusing picture of someone changing the station on the radio when a ballad comes on. Cool.

30A. Large garlic relative?: BIG SHALLOT (10). The shallot is a type of onion with its close relatives - garlic, leek, chive, and Chinese onion. Nero Wolfe was a fictional BIG SHOT who used shallots with his chef Fritz Brenner.

48A. Classical dance minus the lifting, throwing, and such?: SAFE BALLET (10). This is pretty funny picturing old people doing ballet. It's a SAFE BET not many would watch. I wonder if the connection to the "ALL IN"  bet got this puzzle started?

62A. Genetic determinants of Southern linguistic variations?: Y'ALL CHROMOSOMES (15). This is also very cute - morphing CHROMOSOMES into a Southern accent.
and the reveal:
73A. Totally committed, and a hint to four puzzle answers: ALL IN (5).

On to the rest

Across:

1. They may be scraped off in bars: FOAMS. The one below promotes Guinness. I had to work my way back to get this.

6. Hamlet's "A little more than kin, and less than kind," e.g.: ASIDE. It is Friday so we must have Shakespeare. Today, it is not so much a quotation as it is a convention which Will used extensively where the characters speak directly to the audience.

11. Cut short: BOB. You have to first understand he is referencing HAIRSTYLES.


14. Atlas box: INSET. This also was not difficult except it hid from me for too long, as atlases all have those insets showing cities etc. I was looking for some device called an "atlas box."

15. Got a lode of: MINED. Notice the spelling - it is not "load" but "lode."

16. Half a pair: ONE. Reminiscent of Monday's Half and half: ONE

20. Tune: AIR. I had forgotten this meaning. Thank you blog mates for all your help. I guess it comes from an anglicization of ARIA.


21. Pond fish: KOI. Koi (鯉, English: /ˈkɔɪ/, Japanese: [koꜜi]) or more specifically Nishikigoi (錦鯉, [ɲiɕi̥kiꜜɡoi], literally "brocaded carp"), are colored varieties of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens

22. Sticks in: ADDS. Your two cents?

23. Meeting organizers: AGENDAS. Not the people but the program.

27. Belg. neighbor: GER.

29. Oil-yielding Asian tree: TUNG. Tung oil, also known as China Wood Oil, Lumbang oil, Noix d'abrasin (fr.) or simply wood oil, is made from the seed kernels of the Tung tree (Aleurites fordii and Aleurites montana, family Euphorbiaceae). (woodwork details). FRIDAY HARD.

36. Striped animal: TIGER.

38. South side?: GRITS. A very cute Friday misdirection. I recall my first breakfast in Gainesville.

39. Time to mark: ERA.

40. Employed: IN USE.

41. Negative prefix: NON. Essential?

42. Amazon business: E-TAIL.

44. Disney Store collectible: CEL. It is back with no clue controversy.

45. Weakling's lack: BRAWN.

47. Performed well enough: DID OK. An odd string of letters at first glance.

51. Sign of elimination: DELE.

52. Wise __: MEN.

53. Matured: RIPENED.

55. Siamese, nowadays: THAI. A CSO to my sweet bride. I also have had only one cat and it was a Siamese.

58. One seen on most 46-Down: COW. 46A. 58-Across homes: RANCHES. Not on the farms.

61. Bar valve: TAP.

68. Vietnamese soup: PHO. Phở or pho (UK: /fɜː/, US: /fʌ, foʊ/, Canada: /fɒ/; Vietnamese: [fəː˧˩˧] (listen)) is a Vietnamese soup consisting of broth, rice noodles called bánh phở, a few herbs, and meat, primarily made with either beef (phở bò) or chicken (phở gà). Chicken is GAI in Thai.


69. Irritant: PEEVE. Often kept as a pet.

70. Drudges: TOILS.

71. Polish off: EAT.

72. Good thing to have: ASSET.



Down:

1. It's petty but misleading: FIB.

2. Brahms' "Variations __ Theme of Paganini": ON A. Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35, is a work for piano composed in 1863 by Johannes Brahms, based on the Caprice No. 24 in A minor by Niccolò Paganini. wiki.

3. Comm. system with hand motions: ASLAmerican Sign Language.

4. Mixtures: MELANGES. I know that definition, but I also know that Melange, often referred to as simply "the spice", is the name of the fictional drug central to the Dune series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert, and derivative works. In the series, the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe is melange, a drug that gives the user a longer life span, greater vitality, and heightened awareness;

5. Serious: STAID.

6. "Moi?": AMI. Again, while they are both French words (Me and Male Friend) I cannot say I understand.

7. Set, as the sun: SINK. A personal CSO to our Gulf of Mexico Cornerites.

8. Collection of spies?: INFO. They collect it.

9. Make happy: DELIGHT.

10. Email suffix: EDU.

11. Investor's alternative: BOND. Stocks or...

12. Like most '80s-'90s commercial music: ON CD.

13. Winged collectors: BEES. They collect pollen.

18. Uninteresting: DRAB.

19. Countess' spouse, perhaps: EARL. The wife of a substantive peer is legally entitled to the privileges of peerage: she is said to have a "life estate" in her husband's dignity. Thus a Duke's wife is titled a "Duchess", a marquess's wife a "marchioness", an earl's wife a "countess", a Viscount's wife a "Viscountess" and a Baron's wife a "Baroness." England does not have Counts.

23. Storage areas: ATTICS.

24. Old U.K. coin worth 21 shillings: GUINEA. Learn about British CURRENCY.

25. Swallow up: ENGULF.

26. Lighthouse output: SIGNAL. We have some nice ones in Florida including one we toured. LINK.

28. Facilitated: EASED.

31. Unhappy utterance: GROWL.

32. Everyone, to some believers: SINNER.

33. Oppressively heavy: LEADEN.


34. Colorful songbird: ORIOLE. I always looked forward to seeing these beauties return in the spring.

35. Rapped: TALKED.

37. Hasidic teacher: REBBE. This is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word rabbi, which means "master, teacher, or mentor". Like the title "rabbi" it refers to teachers of Torah or leaders of Jewry.

43. Quahog's quarters: TIDEPOOL. A quahog is a clam but a clam isn’t necessarily a quahog. Steamers are clams but they aren’t always steamed, in fact, fried clam strips can be made from steamers. Cherrystones are bigger than little necks but smaller than quahogs and they are all clams.

49. Oscar winner Jannings: EMIL. He won the first Oscar in 1929. LINK.

50. Puente of mambo fame: TITO. This PERFORMER.

54. Noodles: PASTA.

55. Class: TYPE.

56. "Yeah, that's funny": HA HA.

57. Tons: A LOT.

59. Tram loads: ORES. That is how they transport the ores from the mine.

60. Masterminded, as a complex plan: WOVE. "What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."  Sir Walter Scott.

63. Many an IRS employee: CPA.

64. Made the acquaintance of: MET.

65. Thickness measure: MIL. This is one-thousandth of an inch.

66. __ Gold, Alan Cumming's "The Good Wife" role: ELI.

67. U.S. ID: SSN. Social Security Number.

February 1, 1945, was the day my parents married - here they are on their 25th anniversary. Love them.

February is here and we have 5 Fridays done and David has joined the ranks of the 2019 entertainers. There was some serious difficulty in the solve, but it all came out in the end. Thank you, DAB and all who read.


Dec 13, 2018

Thursday, December 13th 2018 David Alfred Bywaters

Theme: Eying "OR" - we look and find an alternative within the theme entries:

17A. Should we name the kid after the eldest Brady son or the James Bond author?: GREGORIAN? Greg or Ian?  Mr. Fleming had rather a rakish look about him:


I worked for the family bank in London a number of moons ago - Robert Fleming & Co. are no longer with us. Not my fault, or at least, not all my fault.

26A. Should we roll this old piano away or put it in order?: WHEEL OF FORTUNE? Wheel off, or tune? This one was the standout of the theme answers - the OR is not in any way at all easy to parse.

45A. Should we read a religious pamphlet or watch a movie ad?: TRACTOR TRAILER? Tract or trailer?

61A. Should we work on the experiment or go for a swim?: LABOR POOL? Lab or pool? Fortunately for the US audience, "labour" has lost the apparently superfluous "U".

I liked this one. The OR appears mostly where you might expect, and then the "Wheel of Fortune" entry quite takes you by surprise. I wonder if this was the seed entry that David saw and then went looking for more?

I didn't speed through this, I had a more NW-SE progress, then worked back and across. The top right corner was tricky, I didn't know Ngaio Marsh, but the downs eventually filled that in for me.

Let's see what else we can find:

Across:

1. "__ just won't do": THIS

5. "What a relief!": PHEW!

9. New Zealand mystery author Ngaio __: MARSH. So far from my wheelhouse that the house didn't even have a place to put the wheel. I'll need to go and read some back catalog from one of the "Queens of Mystery".

14. Automaker whose name means "Hark!" in Latin: AUDI! Very festive. "Audi" is more literal than the more poetic "Hark!" - "Listen!" would more fit the bill. However, let's try this stab at translation - I probably butchered it, but I gave it my best grammar school shot:

Audi! En canentes angeli:
 "Gloria Regi infanti;"

15. Peace of mind: EASE. Crackly audio but this will never get old. I sounds like it did coming out of my cheap stereo when I was a kid.

16. Expiate, with "for": ATONE

19. Done in: SLAIN

20. "Cray" and "totes adorbs," e.g.: SLANG. Oddly, I know that it should be "cray cray" for completely crazy. Why "adorbs" means "adores" I'm lost. The "totes" part is obvs, being as I live in the Valley. Totally. Whatever. Talk to the hand.

21. Same old routine: RUT

22. Moans and groans: CARPS. "Totes Carps Deems". "Seizes the Day" in the Valley.

23. Trip letters: LSD. Bad trip, good trip, roll the dice. Interesting history for the drug though.

25. __ it coming: HAS. Jumped in with "HAS". Should have waited.

34. Word in many hymn titles: PRAISE!

35. Bit: IOTA

36. Unheard-of?: NEW

37. '50s-'60s car features: FINS. Cadillacs. If you want a fun read, "How the Cadillac got its Fins" by Jack Mingo is an old book I found in my Hilton hotel room back in 1994. Want to know how the Post-It note came about? It's all in there.

38. Continental currency: EUROS. Sneaky plural.

40. As it happens: LIVE

41. Swampy area: FEN

42. Places for me-time: SPAS

43. Some party reminders: EVITES. Usually annoying.

48. Operate: RUN

49. Neutral possessive: ITS. Not IT'S. Not sure? Learn from "It's an apostrophe". I love that, saved my grammatical life a few times.

50. Sharp: ACRID

53. Mass vestment: ALB. I paid enough attention as an Altar Boy to know which was what.

55. Swear words: OATHS

60. Self-reproach: SHAME

63. Low prime: SEVEN. 1, 3, 7, 11, 13 ...

64. Lying on: ATOP

65. Austen's aspiring matchmaker: EMMA. My eldest nephew is getting married in Winchester next week - site of Jane Austen's tomb and the home of my Alma Mater. I'll be blogging from the UK next week.

66. Unexpected pleasure: TREAT

67. Mailed: SENT

68. Move slowly: SEEP

Down:

1. License plates: TAGS. Really? I put my tags on my license plate, they stick in the upper-right corner. I just renewed mine.

2. Spew, as insults: HURL. Also a less-pleasant act into a handy receptacle.

3. Notion: IDEA

4. One finger for a fastball, say: SIGN

5. According to: PER

6. Salon creation: HAIRDO

7. Isaac's eldest: ESAU

8. Departed: WENT

9. It may run during a sad movie: MASCARA. This one I loved. Thank heavens I don't wear mascara, I'd be blotchy-cheeked most movies. I cry at the slightest provocation.

10. Classic song title words before "my love has come along": AT LAST! Etta James classic.

11. Bust a gut: ROAR 

12. Tonsorial sound: SNIP. A tonsure is a monk's haircut - the "pudding bowl and bald bit on top" look. Not the most fetching, in my humble opinion.


13. Cooped-up layers: HENS

18. Looks untowardly toward: OGLES

24. Consider overnight: SLEEP ON

25. Uncomfortable situation: HOT SEAT

26. More twisted, in a way: WRIER. There's usually one entry each week that I didn't see until I came to look back at the puzzle. This one filled itself in. Personally, I'd have tried WRYER first? This a new one on me.

27. Quick Draw's co-creator: HANNA. Quick Draw McGraw. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. I was honored to visit with Joe in his Orbit City office just off the 101 freeway in Los Angeles. It was furnished like an 18th century library. Quite an amazing experience. This was the front entrance, you would never have guessed what was behind it:


28. Oktoberfest cubes: EIS. You put ice in your beer? Not me!

29. Guinness adjective: FIRST. This had me for the longest while. I was fixated on the stout, not the Book of Records.

30. Rock's __ Fighters: FOO

31. Make one: UNITE

32. Not once: NEVER

33. Ovine animals: EWES

34. [It disappeared!]: PFFT!

39. Old Mideast org.: UAR. United Arab Republic, 1958-1971. Egypt and Syria.

40. Short, for short: LI'L. Quick - any offers other than Li'l Abner?

42. Campus figure: STUDENT

44. Sun screen: VISOR

46. Black Sea peninsula: CRIMEA

47. Colorful prize: RIBBON

50. Second: Abbr.: ASST.

51. Pop diva in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again": CHER

52. Wild party: RAVE

53. Word often said with a sigh: ALAS

54. Stuck in traffic, say: LATE. I hate being late, but I had to call just today and say "I'm stuck in traffic, I'll be there about ten minutes late", and this is when I allowed myself an hour for a 35 minute drive.

56. Big primates: APES

57. Weighty work: TOME

58. Browser button: HOME. I'm just looking at my browser as I type this and I don't see anything that looks like a "home" button? Can someone point it out for me?


59. Manual comeuppance: SLAP

62. Choose: OPT. Out or in?

And, there we are. A fun puzzle, I'm packing for my first two-week vacation in about 25 years or so, I'm going back to the UK for the wedding, Christmas and a lot of relaxation. I'm so used to travelling with a carry-on, I'm not sure what do to with a checked bag!

See you next week from the other side of the common-language divide. And here's the grid:

Steve



Notes from C.C.:

1) Have a wonderful vacation, Steve!

2) D4E4H had his Pacemaker installed on Tuesday. He was feeling a bit weak when I talked to him yesterday, but he sounded cheerful. He'll be out of the hospital today. Hopefully he will show up on the blog once he gains his strength. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Sep 7, 2018

Friday, September 7, 2018, David Alfred Bywaters


Title: An empty theme (MT)

Another of our frequent Friday flyers is back with an effort that is all tongue-in-cheek and pretty damn funny. DAB uses a familiar letter replacement theme but focuses on devising very witty clues for the fill that emerged when the letter "M" is replaced with the letter "T." The highlight being the self-deprecatory reveal - Lame justification for the letter substitution in four puzzle answers?: EMPTY EXCUSE. (MT excuse). With the focus on the humor and 55 spaces in the theme, we have only a couple of longer fill  COLLAPSED,  ONIONSKIN. There is still difficulty lurking so let us go look it over.

17A. Skin tone achieved via pure will?: SELFMADE TAN (11). It would be easy to make this into a political comment, but this is just a self-made man.

24A. Ballet performance on skis?: SLAT DANCE (9). This is the most tortured fill, and slam dance the least common initial phrase, but it works.

37A. TV show destined for early cancellation?: BROADCAST TEDIUM (15). There are a number of tedious tv shows, aired in that broadcast medium. 

51A. Horse chatter?: STALL TALK (9). By far my favorite fill. The mental picture of the horses gossiping in the stalls is priceless. Of course, since horses and not tiny, it could never be small talk. 

62A. Lame justification for the letter substitution in four puzzle answers?: EMPTY EXCUSE (11).
On to the rest...

Across:

1. "__ Told Me (Not to Come)": 1970 #1 hit: MAMA. Once again, 1 Across was not a gimme, but I am terrible at song titles.  I do recognize this Randy Newman song as sung by Three Dog Night.

5. Folly: IDIOCY.

11. "Caught you!": OHO. Is this one word or two?

14. River to the Caspian: URAL. Regarded as a divider between Europe and Asia.

15. Spacecraft section: MODULE. This seems very timely coming so soon after our recent visit to Kennedy Space Center.










16. Apprehend: NAB.

19. "__ had enough!": I'VE. Well not yet anyway.

20. Its contents need attention: IN TRAY. It actually took me a moment to understand this fill as my mind thinks of INBOX and OUTBOX, which was never a box or a tray.

21. Mont Blanc, e.g.: ALP. Also a damn fine and expensive pen.

22. Romances: WOOS. I am afraid the word and the techniques are all out of date.

23. Storied engineer Jones: CASEY. An American FOLK HERO.

26. Extinct bird: DODO. A CSO to our own dearly departed one.

28. Forest: WOODS. Can you tell the forest from the trees?

29. List-ending abbr.: ETC.

32. __ sort: OF A. Is this a partial C.C.?

34. Tea variety: PEKOE. So not true, it is a TEA GRADING term.

42. Protuberance: BULGE. A famous battle, and a battle we all face with age.

43. "Glee" cheerleading coach: SUE. I never saw the show but I know the CHARACTER was played by the great Jane Lynch.

44. Small point: NIT. A very common word here.

45. Purple shade: LILAC. We had them growing in our yard as I grew up.

48. Copious quantities: SEAS. This is one of those Friday clue/fill combinations that slow us all down.

54. Kitchen light: PILOT. Especially if have a gas stove.

58. UPS Store supply: TAPE. Another clue/fill that is tough.

59. Mined find: ORE. Or these days bitcoin.

60. Road construction sight: DETOUR.

61. Six-pack components: ABS. The irony of six-packs keeping you from having six-packs.

64. Beluga yield: ROE. Our friend caviar.

65. Serious attacks: SIEGES. So many possibilities.

66. Bone: Pref.: OSTE.

67. Nursery layer: SOD. Not the one laying, but the top layer.

68. Marine group that's well-armed?: OCTOPI. An original very witty clue.

69. Disorder: MESS. Another dis- word.

Down:

1. Clara Schumann works, e.g.: MUSIC. A celebrated pianist and prolific composer. LINK.

2. Large performance venue: ARENA. Most piano concerts are not at arenas.

3. Fountain creations: MALTS.  To a blender, add two large scoops of vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, malted milk powder, and milk. Blend until creamy. Serve in a tall glass, garnished with crushed malted milk balls and whipped cream.

4. "Great" ninth-century English monarch: ALFRED. The ultimate in self-referential Shout Out. I love it! Of course, the fact that this KING was such an outstanding figure must be a source of name pride for David.

5. "Perhaps": I MAY. And I may not.

6. Pentagon org.: DODDepartment oDefense.

7. Perfect: IDEAL.

8. Criminal: OUTLAW.

9. Keep time with manually: CLAP TO. A thought out clue as manually means using your hands.

10. Urge: YEN.

11. Paper named for a vegetable: ONIONSKIN. We used to type certain documents on Onionskin which is a thin, light-weight, strong, often translucent paper. Though not made from onions, it superficially resembles their thin, papery skins. wiki.

12. Chaos: HAVOC. I had some trouble putting this together, but the perps brought it home.

13. More than rotund: OBESE.

18. BLT basic: MAYO. A common add-on.

22. Cooled one's heels?: WADED. This is quite clever as the common answer is: WAITED, which you know is wrong because of the next clue.

24. Waiting room piece: SOFA.

25. Figure (out): DOPE. An odd phrase which may come from 'dope' meaning the inside scoop.

27. Medico: DOC. And the related 36D. Health care worker, briefly: EMTEmergency Medical Technician.

29. Wane: EBB.

30. Commercial prefix suggestive of accuracy: TRU. We take off one letter to make a prefix, or avoid a lawsuit?

31. Broke down: COLLAPSED.

33. Balaam's mount: ASS. A prophet who appears in the Torah as well as the Christian Bible and the Qur'an. Pretty much impossible to discuss.

35. Paris agreement: OUI. Not one of the many treaties signed there, but the French word for yes.

38. Deft: AGILE.

39. Farmer's habitat?: DELL.
The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer in the dell

40. Elephant tooth: TUSK.

41. Souvenir from a concert: TEE. Tee-shirt sales were a big part of the income for touring bands back in the day.

46. __ power: ATOMIC.

47. One may be magic: CARPET. Not only in the stories of Thousand and One Nights, but stories recounted concerning King Solomon who built the temple in Jerusalem.

49. Peak: APEX. Or acme, you need to wait.

50. "2 Broke Girls," for one: SITCOM. So many to choose from, why this one, which often seems sleazy?

51. Garbo and Gable, e.g.: STARS. The old-fashioned Hollywood ones.

52. Like certain subjects in certain company: TABOO. Defined as a social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.

53. Free: LET GO.

55. Cad: LOUSE. You would hope that the girl

56. Boots: OUSTS. him from her life.

57. Sources of shade: TREES. Or these days, people. The expressions "throw shade, "throwing shade", or simply "shade", are slang terms used to describe insults. Merriam-Webster defines "shade" as "subtle, sneering expression of contempt for or disgust with someone—sometimes verbal, and sometimes not".

60. He played Ricky in early TV: DESI.

62. Spanish pronoun: ESO. My granddaughter is in a kindergarten that is taught in both English and Spanish.

63. "Sure 'nuff": YEP.

And, sure 'nuff another puzzle is dissected and discussed and now the stage belongs to each of you who read and chose to comment. Thank you, David, and until next time, Lemonade out.