Friday, November 10, 2017, Jeffrey Wechsler

TITLE: MAKEUP GAME

Greetings from the Great Plains on my lovely wife's birthday! I think it's her twin sister's as well. 😜

This is not a meatless Friday but it is "Lemonless" again with me, Husker Gary, serving as his, uh, boy Friday again. 

Having a Jeff Wex on Friday is a true delight and his fun puzzle uses terminology one might hear in this star-studded Beauty Shop (How many can you name? - Answer below the grid) scene in Steel Magnolias. 

In each "themer" Jeff has employed a cosmetology term that also serves as a word in a common two or three-word phrase. I hope I am granted some leeway considering my lack of expertise in this area. Here are Jeff's theme entries:

17. Cosmetologist's choices at happy hour? : BLUSH WINES 

Applying BLUSH on a wan cheek and several Rose' or BLUSH WINEs

29. Cosmetologist's preferred vacation venue? : OCEAN LINER

7 Seas Explorer OCEAN LINER and LINER that accents some lovely eyes

34. Cosmetologist's expression for hastily exiting? : TAKE A POWDER

Please leave while he and I talk or what a difference POWDER makes

41. Cosmetologist's favorite capital? : BATON ROUGE

The city named for a red stick or my childhood memory of ROUGE on a character

57. Cosmetologist's wall covering? : GLOSS PAINT

Alternating Matte and GLOSS wall covering and GLOSSY and Matte Lipstick

Now let's see the beauty of the remainder of Jeff's Friday clues:

Across

1. Bills, say : CASH - Like many other areas of our lives, even Monopoly® is going CASHLESS

5. Alfredo may be associated with it : PASTA

10. Ways of viewing the world : ISMS

14. First name in folk : ARLO

15. Yale of Yale fame : ELIHU - A former slave trader who endowed a New Haven school with enough money to get the school name changed to his. Can protests be far behind?

16. "Fillet of a fenny snake / In the cauldron __ and bake": "Macbeth" : BOIL - Okay, Steve, what wine would you suggest with this concoction? Like C.C., I missed him yesterday and hope he is okay.

19. Local govt. bond : MUNI - They've been used for many projects

20. Inspired : LED TO - The learned group who participate here certainly know to what event this was a precursor 

21. RR stop : STA

23. Janitor's tool, briefly : VAC - We had the kids put their chairs up on the table to accommodate the custodians VAC job

24. Marx collaborator : ENGELS - Together they authored a little page-turner called The Communist Manifesto

26. Collapse, with "over" : KEEL - Don't lock your knees too long especially in front of the boss.

27. Previous to, poetically : ERE

28. Nursery supply : SEED - These catalogs and spring training are harbingers of spring

32. "Art is __ that makes us realize truth": Picasso : A LIE

33. Knots and yards : UNITS

38. "Just like me" : AS AM I

40. Shrek, e.g. : OGRE

44. Take shots of : FILM - With FILM, we had to wait a week to see how lousy our shots were

48. Mark on the Oregon Trail : RUT - Some are here in Nebraska. 

49. Like crab apples : TART - C.C. and Jayce have put me onto a regimen of TART cherry juice for some issues I am having. "I'll get by with a little from my friends" 

50. Leonine savior's domain : NARNIA - The savior of NARNIA is Aslan who takes the form of a lion

52. Enzyme suffix : ASE - AmylASE, cellulASE, lactASE, ...

53. Romantic ideal, with "the" : ONE 

54. Dieter's breakfast : MELON

55. "__ Trigger": Bugs Bunny cartoon : HARE - Yeah, I think I could have figured out the star of this cartoon!

61. Like much cheese : AGED

62. Final ordeal, perhaps : ESSAY - A true pen-to-paper ordeal for me!

63. Low joint : KNEE

64. Rx contents : MEDS

65. Does another tour : REUPS

66. Attention-getter : YELL - A YELL leader at Andover who was a future POTUS

Down

1. Brooklyn Bridge array : CABLES - The contrast of the comparatively light CABLES with the massive towers remains a very striking visual

2. Garfield's girlfriend : ARLENE - You're either a comic aficionado or you're not

3. Oozy stuff : SLUDGE - Not good when this is your motor oil

4. Threw a party : HOSTED

5. Place to pray : PEW

6. Memorable fighter : ALI

7. Pride, for example : SIN

8. Annabel Lee's kingdom was by it : THE SEA - This woman had the first verse of Poe's poem tattooed on her back to honor her grandmother Annabel Lee

9. Writer who created the Dashwood sisters : AUSTEN - From Sense and Sensibility

10. Watson's home : IBM

11. Snow globe, perhaps : SOUVENIR

12. Muezzin's tower : MINARET where neither 18. Dec. 25 or Jan. 1 : HOL are observed

13. Deli equipment : SLICERS

22. Intimate, with "to" : ALLUDE - To whom did Carly Simon ALLUDE in You're So Vain: Warren Beatty, James Taylor or Mick Jagger?

25. Food fish : SOLE

26. "Private property" sign warning : KEEP OUT with maybe 43. Threatening phrase : OR ELSE

30. Mike Pompeo's org. : CIA - Its current director

31. Having four sharps : IN E - A great Ray Charles tune IN E

32. A lot like : AKIN TO

34. Like neglected clothing : TATTERED - The House That Jack Built featured this line: "This is the man all TATTERED and torn, who kissed the maiden all forlorn" 

35. Latin lover's word : AMO

36. Steven of "The Walking Dead" : OGG - If Jeff says so

37. Small songbird : WREN

38. Biblical patriarch : ABRAHAM

39. Breakfast side : SAUSAGE - A distant second to bacon here!

42. National park figure : RANGER 

44. Weird : FREAKY

45. How theme park visitors often stand : IN LINE (the queue) - Here are some IN LINE at Space Mountain at the 60-minute wait point

46. Long time maker of O gauge track : LIONEL - I'm sure my brother and I got a better Christmas present than this but none come to mind.

47. Place for trophies : MANTEL

51. Rock concert sight : AMP

56. Newspaper VIPs : EDS

58. Buckeyes' sch. : OSU - They received a huge slice of humble pie playing Iowa last weekend

59. Sucker : SAP - Here's a combination of these words

A Yellow-bellied SAP SUCKER (in the woodpecker genus)

60. Part of CBS: Abbr. : SYS


DA GRID:

STEEL MAGNOLIAS ANSWER

Feel free to MAKEUP any comments that you feel are necessary

Note from C.C.:

Happy birthday to Husker Gary's wife Joann & her twin sister! I stole this picture from Gary's Facebook when they attended a going away party for their niece Emma. I've met Joann and have had a few email exchanges with her over the years. She's always so thoughtful and warm. I'll never forget her strength during Gary's hospital stay.

Friday, November 3, 2017, Daniel Nierenberg

TITLE: HIGH TECH CUT AND PASTE

Husker Gary here taking over the Friday bridge for a few weeks. Daniel has a supplied a delightful challenge to you and me as he does some word EDITING on the word GENE under the rubric of GENETIC EDITING we see in his reveal:

50. Molecular manipulation technique ... and a hint to the starts of the three other longest puzzle answers : GENE EDITING - Which is shown symbolically here

Since our mission here is in the linguistic and not biological sciences let's confine our discourse to the former and not the latter. Daniel has taken the word GENE and has edited that word by replacing the fourth, second and third letters respectively and using that product as the first word in three fun theme entries. Very cool!

Let's start by looking at Daniel's three themers:

21. Counseling for boomers' kids? : GENX THERAPY (the E is edited to an X) - 

A Medical Procedure and GEN X Prototypes
who are getting some Breakfast Club therapy

26. Sign on a film studio employee's door? : GONE SPLICING (The E is edited to an O)

A Medical Procedure and a Film Editor's Job

43. Altered clone of actor Richard? : GERE MUTATION (The N is edited to an R)

A Medical Procedure and RICHARD GERE altered
and not really mutated 😜

Now let's see how Daniel tested our genetic makeup today:

Across

1. Free : LET GO - Verb not adjective

6. Crusty formation : SCAB

10. One in a farm array : BALE - Round BALES have mostly supplanted old, labor intensive rectangular ones

14. Truism : AXIOM - The whole is greater than the part - Euclid

15. Kappa preceder : IOTA

16. Entry : ITEM - My lovely OCD bride checks every ITEM on every receipt when we get home!

17. Saint toppers : NIMBI - No idea for this verbal cowboy and since I chose the Y for 5. "Yikes!" : O MI GOSH (which yields NIMOY? across), I'll take one bad cell and go to my room.

18. Equine footwork : GAIT

19. Glitz : GLAM - GLAM rock was not a big part of my world

20. Renewed one's energy, in a way : ATE

24. Santa __: Sonoma County seat : ROSA - So much was destroyed in the recent fires

25. Complimentary writers : ODISTS

31. Words of desire : I WISH

32. Room at the hacienda : SALA

33. Fast hit : JAB - Derek Jeter wants no part of a JAB from "The Greatest"

36. Gave for a while : LENT





37. Some rank indicators : BELTS - Judo BELTS

39. Corona product : BEER

40. Disturbance : ADO

41. "Write once, run anywhere" software : JAVA - Cross platform for sure. 

42. One with many mouths to feed? : HYDRA

46. French gambling game : ECARTE - Ce jeu est nouveau pour moi (This game is new to me)

49. Zero : NONE - Describes my previous knowledge of ECARTE after I saw the answer was not baccarat 

53. Sudden turn : ZAG

56. Advantage : EDGE

57. Bunches : A LOT

58. Immune system component : T CELL - An important topic in HIV discussion

60. Food preservative : SALT - The Lincoln, NE minor league team is named for this valuable resource found there 150 years ago

61. Cithara relative : LYRE - The oldest cithara shown here was not big in GLAM rock.

62. Clear, in a way : ERASE

63. "__ bien!" : TRES - My granddaughter's description so far of her semester in Grenoble, France

64. Word appearing twice in a Woody Guthrie title : LAND - This LAND is your LAND

65. Synthetic polymer : NYLON


Down

1. Turner of "The Bad and the Beautiful" : LANA - She plays a woman who is victimized by a studio head played by Kirk Douglas. Nah, that could never happen!

2. It's a turnoff : EXIT - If you miss EXIT 193 on the Florida Turnpike, the next one is 48 miles away

3. What's up at the deadline? : TIME - I can't tell you how many kids have their project done the day AFTER the deadline

4. Mushy lump : GOB


6. Traffic or turn follower : SIGNAL - "Is my turn SIGNAL working?" "Yes, no, yes, no..."

7. Influence with flattery : COAX - More carrot and less stick

8. Studying like crazy, say : AT IT

9. Tub soothers : BATH OILS

10. Interstate rumbler : BIG RIG - Two BIG RIGS hauling a, uh, BIG RIG

11. Condemned Titan : ATLAS - He was condemned to hold the Earth (Gaia) on his shoulders

12. Jumped : LEAPT

13. "Game of Thrones" accumulation : EMMYS - I'm the guy who has never watched it

22. Zener cards presumably tested for it : ESP - He never had a chance did he?

23. "Show Boat" author Ferber : EDNA

24. Take a load off : REST

26. __ monster : GILA


27. Was required to pay : OWED - To whom is the money shown here OWED?

28. Yucatán youngster : NINO - Who is this kid and why is he messing with our weather?

29. Sunni's religion : ISLAM

30. Indoor __ : CAT - Our Lily is clearly one and it appears she brought M & M's to the manger

33. Force user : JEDI

34. NASA prefix : AERO - My golf pro's daughter is on the left and is a member of the UNL AEROspace Engineering team that is building a retractable arm to be used on a future NASA vehicle at Langley.

35. Muffin option : BRAN

37. Left nothing out : BARED ALL

38. Big event lead-in : EVE - All Hallows' EVE just passed 

39. Data measure : BYTE

41. Ballet jump : JETE - A dramatic view of one

42. Do a surfing maneuver : HANG TEN - Toes overboard!

43. Shakes hands with, say : GREETS

44. Bonded : UNITED

45. Weigh station unit : TON

46. Get rid of : EGEST - I get Amazon videos but this is not making my playlist

53. Gusto : ZEAL - A little too much being shown in the EGEST movie above

47. Wood for grilling planks : CEDAR

48. What "x" may be in trigonometry : ANGLE

51. Former NHL winger Kovalchuk : ILYA - Я не имел понятия об этом парень! (I had no clue about this guy!)

52. Uncertain : TORN

54. "Just one more thing ... " : ALSO

55. Narrow valley : GLEN - Oh Danny Boy, The pipes, the pipes are calling. From GLEN to GLEN and down the mountainside

59. Sound of woe : CRY

DA GRID:

It's time to SPLICE your responses to this exposition: