Like in the old days, Jeffrey is back for his every other Friday publication. Another simple but consistent theme; words which end SS are reparsed with the ending ST. Themers 1 and 4 have the first-word change, 2 and 3 the last word. As usual, the puzzle is filled with much sparkly fill AIRLINE, ALL HERE, APPLIES, ATTIRED, DIES OUT, ENCHANT, I CAN SAY, MAHALIA, MR. RIGHT, PASSION, PONTOON, SAD TIME, STRAFED, THE RACK, and TREAT AS. As with much of his efforts, the ones in ORANGE are being introduced to the LAT today. First the theme...
3. Emotionally stressed, after "on": THE RACK. I do not think of it as an emotional stressor.
4. Swiss peak: ALP.
5. Poor, as odds: SLIM. And none.
6. What you might be in the Bible?: THEE. There is a Jason in the Hebrew Bible. READ.
7. Summary: RECAP.
8. Place for games: ARENA.
9. "__ Misérables": LES.
10. Submits one's résumé: APPLIES.
11. Wanes: DIES OUT.
12. Pour into a carafe: DECANT. Time to learn
14. Quark place: ATOM.
17. Binge: SPREE.
21. Alcatraz, for one: ISLE.
23. Affix, as a shoulder patch: SEW ON.
25. Spa amenity: SAUNA.
28. One may be given at a 29-Down: RING.
29. See 28-Down: ALTAR.
32. Acting like: APING.
33. "Ta-da!": DONE.
34. Title character who is never onstage: GODOT. I am still waiting to meet him.
36. Delta, for one: AIRLINE.
37. Fired on from above: STRAFED.
38. Units for gamers: WIIS.
39. County including the Muir Woods sequoias: MARIN.
40. "They've authorized me to report ... ": I CAN SAY. Too much politics.
41. Period of mourning, e.g.: SAD TIME. Understatement.
42. Regard to be: TREAT AS.
43. Key of two Beethoven symphonies: F-MAJOR.
Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral", Op. 68 (1808)
Symphony No. 8, Op. 93 (1812)
47. Baskerville Hall landscape: HEATH. Back again.
48. "Things sweet to __ prove in digestion sour": "Richard II": TASTE.
JOHN OF GAUNT- Act I - Scene 3
Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
You urged me as a judge, but I had rather
You would have bid me argue like a father.
50. Air 2 or Pro: iPAD.
53. Move a bit: STIR.
54. To be, in Bordeaux: ETRE. Or not...more Shakespeare.
57. Calisthenics aid: MAT.
58. High-__ image: RES. Or Hi-Def.
Wow, what a week. Internet issues, and a tough week with my eye doctor, but we survived. Fun times with JW. Be careful, be safe. Lemonade out.
17. Magazine for masseuses?: ROLF DIGEST. GOLF DIGEST
21. Magazine for nurses?: IV GUIDE. TV GUIDE
26. Magazine for golfers?: PAR AND DRIVER. CAR AND DRIVER
44. Magazine for crossword constructors?: PUNNERS WORLD. RUNNER'S WORLD
38. Magazine for beekeepers?: HONEY. MONEY
51. Magazine for pharmacists?: MEDBOOK. REDBOOK
60. Magazine for farmers?: HEN'S HEALTH. MEN'S HEALTH
We have another debut at the LA Times and Crossword Corner. Welcome, Stu Agler !
Rolf Digest was the first themer to fill, but I had never heard of Rolfing. Wikipedia tells me "Rolfing is a form of alternative medicine originally developed by Ida Rolf as Structural Integration. It is typically delivered as a series of ten hands-on physical manipulation sessions sometimes called "the recipe" Who knew ?
Consistency in changing only the first letter of the existing magazines may have made this puzzle a bit easier to solve, but it's still funny and punny. Excepting IV / TV, they all also rhyme.
Stu probably had more choices and could probably have created a Sunday sized grid with this theme. How about "Magazine for helicopter designers? Rotor Trend. Or, "Magazine for practitioners of animal husbandry ?" Sired. Maybe, "Magazine for Lumberyard professionals ? Wood Housekeeping.
I'll stop now and leave it to the professionals. Great job, Stu. We're now going to explore that which remains. And pardon me while I wander and reminisce.
Across:
1. Cook Islands language: MAORI. The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific ocean with 15 islands having a combined total land area of about 93 square miles. For perspective, the city of Chicago covers about 234 sq. miles. Los Angeles 469, and Houston 600 sq. miles. The land area of the Cook Islands is about the size of Milwaukee (96), Sacramento (98), Lincoln, NE (89) or Tallahassee (100 sq. mi.).
Spanish explorers visited the islands in the late 1500s and named one of the islands St. Bernard. British Navigator James Cook came to the islands in the 1770s, and named one of the islands Hervey Island. The name "Cook Islands" first appeared on a Russian naval chart in the 1820s.
78 % of the people on the island nation are Māori and another 7.8 % are part Māori. The official languages are English and Cook Islands Māori. The capital (and largest city) is Avarua, which might be a good answer in a crossword puzzle.
6. Place for mascara: LASH.
10. Rims: LIPs.
14. Ray __, NBAer with the most regular season 3-point field goals: ALLEN. Retired HOF'er with 18 years in the NBA making 40 % of his attempts from beyond the line for 2973 buckets. Active player Stephen Curry has hit 43.5 % of his 3-pointers during his 11 year NBA career, and is about 500 makes behind. Note the consistency in the non-shooting hand.
15. Northern Oklahoma city: ENID. Known as the "Wheat Capital" of Oklahoma for its immense grain storage capacity. It has the third-largest grain storage capacity in the world. Yes, that is a line of rail cars in the foreground. The place is huge.
There were some great shots on The Smithsonian Channel's Aerial America - Oklahoma the other day. If you don't get that channel, watch for it to be shown on The Smithsonian's Aerial America YouTube channel.
16. Legal memo phrase: INRE.
19. Campus area: QUAD.
20. Place with shells: SEASIDE.
23. Informal negative: AIN'T. Isn't wrong.
25. Chopper topper: ROTOR. One of my part time military jobs (ODAA - other duties as assigned)) was working as part of the team at the "Can Point" when I was assigned to Coleman Army Airfield, Coleman Barracks, 70th AVIM (aviation intermediate maintenance) Battalion, 1st Support Brigade (later, 21st Support Command), USAEUR (US Army Europe) at Sandhofen (Mannheim), Germany.
My real job was in the computer vans, 3rd shift, feeding stack after stack of 80 column cards into a card reader, and then inserting magnetic ledger stock into the platen feed of an NCR 500 computer system.
It was all part of the inventory control system used to keep track of orders and disbursements and stock on hand. Occasionally keypunching new cards to replace mangled cards, and running the 088 card sorter from time to time after dropping a tray full of cards. Tray after tray, night after night, week after week. So monotonous. I digress.
Any rotor wing aircraft that went down in USAEUR were transported to the cannibalization point for selected salvage. Rotor wings could not be salvaged for re-use, but were in demand by Air Cavalry battalions and companies around the country. They would be used as art on the hangars or as gate toppers at entrances to Kasernes that housed rotor wing companies.
Most impressive and awe inspiring was when the heavy lift helicopters came in for inspection and maintenance. The roar of the engines and sound of the rotors pounding the air was thunderous as the beasts approached and landed on the tarmac.
CH-47 "Chinook" on the left and CH-54 "Tarhe" (Skycrane) on the right. The Skycranes were being phased out of military service in Europe in the late '70s when I was there, and many passed through our airfield on their way back to the U.S.
32. Salchow relatives: AXELs. Figure skating.
33. __-deucey: ACEY. A card game or a backgammon game.
34. Hook partner: JAB. Boxing.
37. Gobble (down): WOLF.
40. Coke __: ZERO. Zero calorie, sugar free version of Coca-Cola. Artificially sweetened. I've never had one.
41. __-Caps: SNO. Semi-sweet chocolates topped with nonpareils. White ones, of course.
42. "Be there in __": A SEC. What my wife says 10 minutes before she gets to the door as we are preparing to leave.
54. Pal of Barbarino in "Welcome Back, Kotter": EPSTEIN.
59. Afterthoughts: ANDs. Oh, and the guy in the lower left is Barbarino and the guy in the top right is Epstein.
62. Leave in: STET. Don't dele. Obelisms. A proofreader knows these symbols.
63. Half of Mork's sign-off: NANU. Mork was the ET from the planet Ork on the sitcom Mork and Mindy.
64. Brew hue: AMBER.
65. __ d'oeuvres: HORS.
66. First column to add, usually: ONEs. Units. The first column of whole numbers to be added in a place-value numbering system. Typically in base-10 (decimal) for most people, and the second column would be tens, the third hundreds and so on. I know you knew that, but I'm building here.
Programmers and others in technology use other place-value numbering systems, such as in base-8 (octal) where the columns would be units, eights, sixty-fours and so on, and in base-16 (hexadecimal) they would be units, sixteens, and the third column two hundred fifty-sixes.
Quick, what's the first numbering system that comes to mind that is not place-value ?
67. Funny Anne: MEARA. So many roles, but perhaps best known as one half of the Stiller and Meara comedy team.
Down:
1. Second-smallest of eight: MARS. Our solar system's planets. The "Red Planet", fourth from the sun. Mercury is the smallest.
4. Works the game: REFs. Referees the game or bout.
5. Team with the longest World Series drought (71 years): INDIANS. Should be championship drought. They were in the 2016 World Series, and they were leading it 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 series over the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs won the next two games, evening the series at 3 each.
In the seventh and deciding game that many pundits have called one of the greatest game 7s (and series) in MLB history, the teams were tied at 6 runs each after 9 innings. Then the skies opened up with a sudden downpour. After the rain delay play resumed, and the Cubs scored two to take an 8-6 lead in the top of the tenth inning. In the bottom of the tenth, the home field Indians plated one run with two out before the Tribe's loyal fans had their hopes squashed on a weak grounder to third baseman Kris Bryant.
It was only the fifth time in World Series history that a Game 7 went to extra innings, and it was the first time the extra inning Game 7 was won by a road team. The series and Game 7 were both dubbed "instant classics".
The Cubs won and ended a 108 year championship drought of their own; the longest in professional sports history.
6. Folklore tale: LEGEND. An example of early American literature was Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleep Hollow, but what inspired the work ?
7. Suffix with hex-: ANE.
8. "Absolutely!" in Madrid: SI SI.
9. Best Buy purchase: HDTV.
10. __ license: LIQUOR.
11. Greenland language: INUIT.
12. Madrid museum: PRADO.
13. Where the same questions are asked annually: SEDER.
18. "__ it my way": I DID.
22. Ethically uncertain, in Sussex: GREY. I loved Dash-T's explanation a few weeks ago that, "Gray is a color, while grey is a colour".
24. Spells: TRANCEs.
26. Treat holders: PAWs.
27. Nerve impulse carrier: AXON.
28. HR dept. concern: RELO. United Van Lines packed up my belongings and car when I was relocated from Houston to Chicago in late '87. The company footed the bill for my relocation moving and living expenses. Actually lived for almost two months in a new Holiday Inn that was still in the process of being constructed.
Then January came, and I learned fast that my southeast Texas blood and wardrobe was ill-equipped to deal with Chicago's gusting winds and biting cold that would shiver your bones. I ran to the mall and bought thermal underwear and the heaviest lined Burberry style trench coat I could find. I didn't bother to ask HR to foot the bill on those items. I know'd the answer was NO !
29. Alien from Melmac: ALF. Another extraterrestrial from TV land. Anne Meara played the grandmother in occasional appearances on the sitcom.
30. __ dancing: ICE. Like figure skating, but more freeform and interpretive.
31. "Oy __!": VEY. Oy vey ! This crossword puzzle review has gone on too long. But wait, there's more !
34. Boo: JEER. Please. Bear with me, it'll be over soon.
35. Seed covering: ARIL.
36. M's favorite agent: BOND. James Bond's boss and head of MI6, portrayed by Dame Judy Dench in eight of the movies.
38. 24 hrs.-per-day retail channel: HSN. Home Shopping Network
39. Wine: Pref.: OEN. From the ancient Greek word oinos. "The translators of the KJV, by uniformly rendering the Greek word oinos as wine, replicated the Greek word’s reference to both fermented and unfermented juice with an English word that, in their day, was similarly general in reference."
40. Wild place: ZOO. The nickname for Gerszewski Barracks in Knielingen (Karlsruhe) Germany, my second station while serving there. The Zoo had an entirely different atmosphere than Coleman. Still the military, but significantly fewer officers and Warrant Officers (mostly helicopter pilots at Coleman) and MPs than Coleman. Definitely more relaxed.
Coleman was the home to the USAEUR Confinement Facility, where soldiers in serious trouble awaited trial, were serving sentences up to a year, or for the most serious offenses, were awaiting orders for transportation back to the U.S. to serve extended time at Ft Leavenworth, KA.
42. Jam component: AUTO. Seriously, was I the only one that first thought of pectin ?
43. Type of fastball grip: TWO SEAM. Baseball. Even ardent fans may not be aware of the arsenal that Yu Darvish brings to the mound.
44. Blue Ribbons, e.g.: PABSTs. PBRs, for short. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Not my cuppa, but it'll do in a pinch.
45. Monkey used in research: RHESUS.
46. Future junior: SOPH.
47. Big hit: SMASH. As in an exceptionally popular TV, movie or stage show, or for tennis fans such as Sandyanon, the return shot answer to a poorly placed near-net lob shot.
48. :50, another way: TEN TO. Me: "It's ten to five. Are you ready yet ? Are you coming ?" Her: "I'll be there in a sec."
49. Stranger: ODDER.
52. "That's awful!": OH NO.
53. New Jersey university: KEAN. Not familiar. About Yellowrocks, is that near you ?
55. Domesticate: TAME.
56. People Magazine's 2018 Sexiest Man Alive: ELBA. Idris. Hi, Lucina !
57. Old Roman road: ITER.
58. Dragster's org.: NHRA. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) are the two largest sanctioning bodies for drag racing. The Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin is still going strong. The "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday" radio commercials for drag racing events can still be heard on radio stations across the country. Well, maybe not right now, but they'll be back.
61. Austin-to-Dallas dir.: NNE. For some, I-35 is known as Main Street, Texas. Almost half of the Texas population (and most of my siblings and extended family) lives along this central artery that starts in Laredo, Texas near the Rio Grande, and exits the state just north of Gainseville at the Red River. From there I-35 travels generally NNE all the way to Duluth, Minnesota, comparatively just shy of the border with Canada.
The reconstruction and widening of I-35 that started in 2012 is the second largest infrastructure project in the history of the state for TxDOT, the state's Department of Transportation. The first ? Building I-35 in the first place, which started in the '50s as part of Eisenhower's Interstate System. It will be nice, and much safer when it is finally done.
Use the Zoom In, Zoom Out buttons on the map to view greater detail or a wider view, and use your mouse to move around. "Ain't Isn't wrong" technology grand ?
It is May Dayas well as being a new month. WhiteRabbit. After an absence, our all-time Friday puzzle maker is back. Jeffrey has offered a traditional add-a-letter for humor theme. The letter is "Y." To which all I can say is Y Not? Of course, there are always added layers to his work. 1) Each vowel in the word to which the Y is added changes its sound from short to long. 2) The first two change the "I", the next two change a "U." 3) The first two have the change in the beginning of the phrase, the next two in the last word. And he continues to stuff the grid with much sparkly fill. APROPOS, CLEAVER, FLORIST, HOSTESS, SOMALIA, TIME LAG, HAIRINESS, and LIMEWATER which makes its LAT debut.
18A. Escargot gatherer's bounty?: SLIMY PICKINGS (13). Escargot is snails and they really do leave a slimy trail as they travel. They also make a loud pop when you step on one after heavy rain.
21. Harvest worker needing a bath?: THE GRIMY REAPER (14). A bit of a downer clue both before and after the Y.
40A. Much ado about nothing?: ARTIFICIAL FURY (14). Jeffrey sneaks in a Shakespeare reference. The Fur has led to an odd SUBCULTURE.
44A. Successful gem seeker's cry?: THERE'S THE RUBY(13).
More Shakespeare, the original comes from Hamlet. "To die, to sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub.
On that note, on to the rest.
1. Declare: ASSERT.
7. Domestic power connection, briefly: AC PLUG. Alternating current. DISCUSS.
13. Large envelope: MAILER. I think Boomer's stream of conscious comments have gotten to me. How else can I explain this?
14. One working on arrangements: FLORIST. This fooled me the first time I saw it.
15. Feature of communication with space probes: TIME LAG. I leave this topic for HG to explain better but will give you all this LINK.
17. Relevant: APROPOS. A morphed word from the French.
20. Quebec neighbor: MAINE. A CSO to Hahtoolah and our Canadian readers.
30. Chewbacca trait: HAIRINESS.
31. Club usually numbered: IRON. A CSO for our Golfers, Big Easy, Husker Gary and so many more.
33. Frisée is its curly variety: ENDIVE. I am not a fan.
34. Digestive aid: SALIVA. I need whenever I eat any type of endive.
36. Your alternative: ONE'S.
37. Flavored thirst quencher: LIMEWATER. This is an aqueous solution of slaked lime, used in medicine, antacids, and lotions, and to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Nothing to do with the lime juice and water my wife gives me in the morning.
43. Study aids: NOTES.
52. Butcher's staple: CLEAVER. I am not keen on this choice, but I guess it related to the usage of a regular and important part or feature of something. The black dress was an enduring staple of Diana’s wardrobe.
54. Horn of Africa country: SOMALIA. Traditional Somali food is determined by a socioeconomic context. In a nomadic settlement, camel or goat meat and camel or cow milk are common staples.
55. Little Debbie competitor: HOSTESS. The showdown.
56. Blinker, e.g.: SIGNAL. Which almost no one in Florida uses.
57. Many a Sunday magazine: INSERT.
58. Kindly: PLEASE. Let's go to the downs.
Down:
1. Tsp. and tbsp.: AMTS. All abbreviated measures.
2. Sloop feature: SAIL. This is a one-masted sailboat with a fore-and-aft mainsail and a jib. Or...
3. __ Valley, Calif.: SIMI. Home of the Reagen library. A cost of living index above 100 means Simi Valley, California is more expensive. Simi Valley's cost of living is 149.9, almost 50% higher.
4. Pre-K follower: ELEM. I do not care for the fill, nor the clue. Kindergarten follows Pre-k.
5. Be dependent: RELY. A negative way to look at it.
6. Kisser: TRAP. Shut your trap or I will bust you in the kisser!
7. Type of skiing: ALPINE. Would you like to learn? Visit Montana (hi Darlene) or try THESE.
8. Natural light refractor: CORNEA. CSO to me.
9. Sophisticated rock genre, briefly: PROGressive.
Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock) is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility."
10. Kissers: LIPS. See above.
11. It offered soldiers Hope: Abbr.: USO. Just prior to the onset of America’s involvement in World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to unite several service associations into one organization to lift the morale of our military and nourish support on the home front. Those entities – the Salvation Army, Young Men’s Christian Association, Young Women’s Christian Association, National Catholic Community Services, National Travelers Aid Association and the National Jewish Welfare Board - became the United Service Organizations or, the USO.
12. Some hot rods: GTS. GranTurisimos.
14. Muslim ascetics: FAKIRS. A Muslim religious ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance. Origin of fakir. From Arabic faqīr.
16. Easy putt, in casual golf: GIMME. I can hear all the players practicing.
19. Low isles: CAYS. A cay (also spelled key; both pronounced alike as "key" English pronunciation: /kiː/) is a small, low island consisting mostly of sand or coral and situated on top of a coral reef. The English word cay comes from the Spanish word cayo and this from the Taíno word cayo meaning "small island". Go visit Cay West.
22. Big-name in animation: HANNA. More than you ever wanted to know about the Hanna-Barbera legacy.
23. Down for a pillow: EIDER. Somehow this makes perfect sense next to...
24. Mill fill: GRIST. This is the grain that is ground to make flour.
25. Snake or Gila: Abbr.: RIVer.
26. Analogue for -like: INE. The fun part is that this suffix has two distinct pronunciations. LINK. Unless you are British or maybe Canadian? Eh?
27. Rice dish: PILAF. Not in my house. We have jasmine rice, sweet rice, sticky rice, and blue rice.
28. Verdi baritone aria: ERI TU. Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi.
29. Relative of Fido: ROVER.
32. "You ain't gwyne to drink a drop--__ single drop": Twain: NARY. I am unfamiliar with the passage, though I have read HUCKLEBERRY FINN many times.
34. Word with lion or horse: SEA. Oo's mother's great-great-grandson's name translates to SEA.
35. Leather punch: AWL. A well-timed CSO to
37. Gallon's 3.785: LITERS. Almost another Canadian CSO, but spelled wrong.
38. Summer treats: ICES. Not for our missing Tinbeni.
39. They may drift over valleys: MISTS.
41. "You have some crust!": I NEVER. Well! I never! I hear Groucho Marx telling Margaret Dumont, "With your face, you never will!"
42. It may have many ashes: FOREST. A slight misdirection.
44. Nickname for Esther: TESS. I did not know: Tess is a given name, typically a diminutive form of Theresa or Esther.
45. __-watch: continue viewing a show you no longer like: HATE.
I have not heard of this term to watch (a television program) for the sake of the enjoyment one derives from mocking or criticizing it. It makes no sense to me.
46. ICU or ER site: HOSP.ital.
47. Expressionist painter Nolde: EMIL. My only UNKNOWN.
48. All the __: popular: RAGE.
49. Radius neighbor: ULNA. Arm bones.
50. Slant: BIAS.
51. School since 1701: YALE. It has a long HISTORY if you want to read up.
52. X as in Xerxes: CHI. It is all Greek to me.
53. Chaney of film: LON. There have been two. The father born LEONIDASand his son Creighton, who became LON Chaney Jr.
How nice to start the new month and the gradual return to business with a 66 word !?! puzzle from Jeffrey. Be careful, be safe. lemonade, not out in hibernation.
If you are a top to bottom solver, or happened to hit one of those three clues early, you may have looked to 71A to figure out what the clue should be. Average didn't immediately come to mind for Garden-variety. At least it didn't for me. Horticulture came to mind. Outdoor plants versus indoor plants.
Also, Brian and Jeff didn't exactly make solving the reveal at 71A easy. Grid spanners hiding the theme answers, no circles to help you find them, and perhaps not-so-easy perps crossing the reveal.
Adam Savage I knew.
Super star ? A famous person ? Idol ? No, it was noVa. So a literal super star.
Bartleby left me clueless, and I had no idea that he or she was a scrivenEr.
Angle and athlete prefix tRi came easily enough.
Noir weapon could have been rod, but this time it was gAt.
Then we get to: Spanish soccer association that means "the league": La LiGa. Did you know this ?
Then an easy E in gavEl.
Thus, AVERAGE. So "Below average" as the clue for 22, 47 and 72 across.
I have to admit that after solving the mini-theme test and then completing the grid, I almost forgot to look for the hidden words in the spanners. Mean, Median and Mode explained.
Across:
1. 35th pres.: JFK. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
4. Smaller-than-life depiction: ICON.
8. Larger-than-life creations: COLOSSI.
15. Spleen: IRE.
16. Hilo shindig: LUAU.
17. Put into play: ENACTED.
21. Construction __: SITE.
23. "Frontline" network: PBS. A favorite PBS program. Thought provoking.
24. What a pursuer seeks to narrow: THE GAP.
28. Evergreen shrubs: ERICAs. Oops. Make that three words that had to be corrected. Had yuccas. Bzzt ! The Genus Erica You may know it as heath or heather.
31. Meat on a stick: KEBAB. Key in a K (skip a cell), Key in a B (skip a cell), Key in a B and then check perps.
33. English "L'chaim!": TO LIFE. Hebrew translated to English. A toast.
36. Pack animal: ASS.
39. "Gimme the skinny!": TELL IT. TELL me went in. It wasn't until I got the second grid spanner that I saw that it should be IT.
Cue up Aaron Neville. He wants to know if she's just playing with his emotions in this 1966 song:
42. Stiff: RIGID.
46. Northern Iraqis: KURDS.
48. Virtual-city denizen: SIM. A simulated person.
49. __ column: SPINAL.
51. Cabbage in a French café?: EUROs. Usually, slang in the clue would require slang in the answer, but it is Friday.
Google Translate tells me the French word for the vegetable cabbage is chou, and sounds something like shoe.
Chou looks like a Chinese word. It sounds something like cho, rhyming with show. Chou seems to mean draw, or pump, or take out, or pick out, or shrink, or quilt, or flagellate. Must be about the tone.
Many Asian languages (exempli gratia, Chinese) are tonal, so in addition to having vowels and consonants, tones can change the meaning of words. I read that some Chinese dialects can have as many as 12 tones.
I also read that in some other languages (e.g. Japanese, Hebrew, Norwegian, et al.) that pitch accent can change the meanings of words by stressing different syllables.
Where was I ? Cue up Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands:
53. Long trip: VOYAGE.
56. Old tankard metal: PEWTER.
59. Suffix for but-: ANE. Butane. "Man, that's cold !"
5. Numberless type of ball: CUE. My first thought was gum.
6. Pole in a lock: OAR.
7. Indifferent: NUMB. Apathetic.
8. Chest material: CEDAR.
9. Like some wonders: ONE HIT. nh
10. LeBron's team, on scoreboards: LAL. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
11. World Series mo.: OCT. ober.
12. Corner quartet, perhaps: STOP SIGNS. The town we moved to when I was eleven had no 4-way stop signs. There was only one traffic light, with a constant flashing yellow in one direction, and a flashing red in the other. Two churches, a hardware store, a pharmacy, a one pump gas station, a bar, a post office and our high school. Cue up John Mellencamp.
13. Balkan native: SERB. ian.
14. Altar words: I DOs.
19. Welsh national emblem: LEEK. Wait, what ? Why ? Let's check with Wales Online
20. Cheer for a banderillero: OLE. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de banderillear.
25. Have one's chance to speak: GET A SAY.
26. Genesis victim: ABEL. For some inexplicable reason, I keyed in Cain rather than ABEL, but fixed that two words later when I got to KEBAB.
27. Conceals, in a way: PALMS. Sleight of hand.
29. Stylist's braid: CORN ROW. Versus a farmer's rows of corn.
30. Others, in Latin: ALII. As in Et (and) al. (others). "... the phrase in Latin could be written three different ways, depending on whether the other things one referred to were masculine (et alii), feminine (et aliae), or neuter (et alia)." - Merriam-Webster
32. French flag couleur: BLEU.
34. Island nation whose flag has a Union Jack on it: FIJI.
44. License fig.: I.D. NO.. I remitted the fees to have my driver's license renewed for another 4 years via the online portal for the Secretary of State. Didn't expect to get it back for awhile, but it came back within a few weeks. Real ID can wait.
45. Swiss river: AARE.
50. Spanish soccer association that means "the league": LA LIGA. Am familiar with some of the teams like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, but not familiar enough to know the association name.
52. Command to Fido: STAY.
54. Bench mallet: GAVEL. The piece of wood struck by the gavel is known as a sounding block.
55. Christmas __: EVE.
57. Conspicuous display: ECLAT.
58. Hold sway: REIGN.
59. Savage of "MythBusters": ADAM. This program fist aired in 2003 and immediately captured my interest. Myths weren't always busted. Sometimes they held true.
60. Super star: NOVA.
62. Roadie's haul: AMPs.
64. Stain: SPOT.
66. Prefix with angle or athlete: TRI.
67. Noir weapon: GAT.
68. Fair-hiring initials: EOE.
69. Co. that bought Netscape in 1999: AOL.
70. Food service trade org.: NRA. The annual National Restaurant Association was scheduled for May 16th to May 19th at McCormick Place in Chicago but North America's largest convention center has been turned into a medical facility.
Title: Ring around a black square, a pocketful of why.
This puzzle should garner much commentary and controversy. Those who have been reading my puzzle write-ups for many years know that I enjoy a visual theme as much as a witty one. Today's challenge has only on complete theme fill, the central grid-spanning 36A. Acknowledgment of success--four are hidden in this puzzle, each adjacent to a black square: ROUND OF APPLAUSE (15) the grid shows this creation better than words.
The great beauty of the final effort is the progression of the word CLAP. It goes west, north, east then south. The next is north, east, south then west, and so on. Around as a circle. The rest of the puzzle is loaded with fun fill. CHIRPILY, HOTPRESS, AER LINGUS, EMILE ZOLA. EVERY TIME. GREY GOOSE, LIVE RADIO, PUNCHLINE, SOFT COLOR and WATER LEAK with those highlighted in green making their LAT debut. MC REN also makes its major puzzle debut.
Joe has become an end of the week regular with TTP and HG each having blogged multiple JD efforts. I anxiously await your comments.
Across:
1. Nice with?: AVEC. The classic French city misdirection.
5. "The Empire Strikes Back" ice planet: HOTH. Vader employed bad STRATEGY.
9. Big bucks: STAGS. Not money but deer.
14. It's mostly talk: LIVE RADIO. A fun clue.
16. __ board: EMERY. A boring fill?
17. "Les Rougon-Macquart" author: EMILE ZOLA. This is the most incredible WORK. imdb.
18. N.W.A member portrayed by Aldis Hodge in "Straight Outta Compton": MC REN. The cast of historical MOVIE.
19. Upper bod muscle: PECtoral. Abbreviation - abbreviation.
20. Drainage system component: AIR TRAP. LINK. Not being handy I leave you all to the picture. But you might need it if you develop a 57A. Drip, perhaps: WATER LEAK.
22. Caustic solution: LYE. I will not lie about it.
23. Calendering machine for glossing paper: HOT PRESS. I point only to the dictionary definition of hot-press (Entry 1 of 3)
1: a calendering machine in which paper or cloth is glossed by being pressed between glazed boards and hot metal plates. I do not know what a calendering machine is.
25. Longtime sportscaster Sager: CRAIG. A much-admired sports reporter whose death revealed a family CRISIS.
27. Cash closing?: IER. Cashier- clever.
28. Chafing dish heaters: STERNOS.
30. "Your Unfiltered View of Government" sloganeer: CSPAN. Who knew?
33. Jesus in the outfield: ALOU. The youngest of the three brothers.
35. Entertainment awards acronym: EGOT. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.
39. "What __ one comes?": IF NO. You will have many leftovers.
40. Cutters: SAWS.
41. "Ready?" response: I'M SET. Not from me.
42. Michigan/Ontario border river: ST. CLAIR. Saint Clair River, outlet for Lake Huron, forming part of the boundary between Michigan, U.S. (west), and Ontario, Can. (east). Flowing southward into Lake Saint Clair, with a fall of 5.7 feet (1.7 m) in 39 miles (63 km), the river discharges through a silty, seven-mouth delta, with the South Channel (27-foot [8-metre] minimum depth) used for deep-drafted vessels. The St. Clair delta is the world’s largest delta that enters a freshwater lake. Britannica.
44. Kellogg School deg.: MBA. Master Of Business Administration.
45. Go after: CHASE.
46. In a cheerful way: CHIRPILY. "A new blog! (she tweeted chirpily)."
51. Abbr. that debuted in OED in 2011: LOL.
52. Kind of share: PRO-RATA.
54. MDX ÷ X: CLI.
55. "Three inches is such a wretched height to be" speaker: ALICE. Poor child, she did not understand what it was like to be a caterpillar.
59. World's fastest hedgehog: SONIC.
60. Always: EVERY TIME.
61. Boxer's reward: TREAT. The puppy, not pugilist.
62. 1987 Costner role: NESS.
63. ORD postings: ETAS. ORD- Chicago O'Hare.
Down:
1. Beth preceder: ALEPH. Not any longer, the popular transliteration of the Hebrew alphabet has the second letter as "bet."
9. Musical "throughout": SEMPRE. Italian, from the Latin SEMPER. Fidelis.
10. HBO competitor: TMC. Not really.
11. Carrier with a shamrock logo: AER LINGUS.
Perhaps better with a glass of...
12. Vodka brand: GREY GOOSE.
13. "Auld Lang __": SYNE. It seems a bit out of context.
15. Hit in the back: REAR END.
21. Stop working: ACT UP. This also is a very extreme example of not working unless you are talking about a machine.
24. Self-playing instrument: PIANOLA. The pianola (pronounce: "pee-ah-NO-la"), also called the player piano, is a piano that has a pneumatic mechanism so that it can play by itself. The air for this system came from a pump operated by the player's feet, and in some later models, an electric pump. When I was first married we bought a player piano and both of my sons learned to play as babies with the help of the rolls.
26. TripAdvisor offering: AREA MAP.
28. Illegal payments: SOPS. One definition is something given to pacify or quiet, or as a bribe: The political boss gave him some cash as a sop.
29. "Do not remove" mark: STET.
30. Football Hall of Famer Carter: CRIS.
31. Subdued shade: SOFT COLOR.
32. Funny part: PUNCHLINE. Do you remember?
33. A long way off: AFAR.
34. Common practice: LAW. So nobody gets good enough to stop practicing.
37. Rattan alternative: OSIER. Definition, any of various willows, as the red osier, having tough, flexible twigs or branches that are used for wickerwork.
38. Congress has a big one: LIBRARY.
43. Viewpoint: ASPECT.
44. Ceremonial headdresses: MITERS. This is a tall headdress worn by bishops and senior abbots as a symbol of office, tapering to a point at the front and back with a deep cleft between.
46. Covet: CRAVE. Thou shall not crave thy neighbor's wife?
47. Can't tolerate: HATES. Hate is more.
48. Nail down the victory: ICE IT.
49. South American carrier: LLAMA.
50. "Uh-oh!": YIKES.
51. Endure: LAST.
53. __ Lars, who raised Luke Skywalker: OWEN. Owen Lars
56. "Homeland" org.: CIA. Not true, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of DHS; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department.
58. 4G __: mobile device standard: LTE. LTE is an abbreviation for Long Term Evolution. LTE is a 4G wireless communications standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) that's designed to provide up to 10x the speeds of 3G networks for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and wireless hotspots.
He may not be a DiMaggio, but Joe D. is on a hitting streak here at the Corner. I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle and writing it up for your enlightenment and comments. Be careful, be safe. Lemonade out.
57. Hilariously react to a butt-baring prankster?: HOWL AT THE MOONER.
Remove the ER from the nouns to get the base phrases of these funnily redefined theme entries. The first one was the hardest for me to parse. Just took a bit of staring to see it. It was also the one that cracked me up the most.
This looks to be another debut for the LA Times crossword venue. Lemonade sent me an email saying that today's constructor and Jeff Chen collaborated on a pair of NYT puzzles in 2014. So six years later, it seems Dick has once again decided to dip his toe into crossword construction.
Across:
1. Stat cousin: ASAP.
5. Acronym often seen with a plus sign: LGBTQ. I forgot the Q part, and the intersecting "NBA Div." clue had me stumped.
10. 1886 debut at Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta: COKE. The first year's sales averaged nine glasses a day @ five cents each.
14. Unflappable: COOL. For a moment, I thought Molly Brown was unflappable. Then remembered the correct adjective.
15. Stop on the Métro?: ARRET. Métro tells you it is French. The question mark alerts you that something is afoot.
Arrêt does mean stop. But a station on the Métro is formally known as a station de métro. Who woulda thunk it ?
Informally, the answer could mean stop... In the right context, arrêt would probably be understood to mean train station stop. But be careful, because a bus stop is known as an "arret de bus" so...
This convoluted explanation brought to you by me after reading an explanation on Trip Advisor. I defer to Kazie and those who are well-versed in travelling the Métro.
16. Anderson of "WKRP in Cincinnati": LONI. - The St. Paul, Minnesota born bosomy blonde bombshell probably kept the sitcom afloat and probably set aflame the hearts of the teenage boy viewing audience.
20. Rental at Aspen: SKI BOOTS. Boot rentals make sense unless you are an avid skier or a ski bum.
21. All agog: IN AWE.
22. Mme. counterpart: SRA. The abbreviations for Madame and Senora, respectively. Wlile we are at it, let's also review that Mademoiselle would be Mlle., and Senorita would be Srta.
23. Samsung : Bixby :: Apple : __: SIRI. Virtual assistants. High tech.
33. Sleep disturbance: APNEA. That's not what wakes me up at night.
34. Roxette and Eurythmics: DUOs.
35. "The Puzzle Palace" org.: NSA. I read the preview.
36. D-Day invasion city: ST LO.
37. Draining target?: SWAMP. Didn't they try that in the Everglades ?
39. Pressure: HEAT.
40. Adherent's suffix: ITE.
41. High-tech read: EMAG. I guess high tech because they are online, or because you read them on a high tech device. Technology ? Yes. High tech ?
42. "The Power of Now" author Eckhart __: TOLLE. A quick search tells me he is a spiritual teacher and best selling author. His 1997 book cited in the clue, " ... is intended to be a guide for day-to-day living and stresses the importance of living in the present moment and transcending thoughts of the past or future."
47. __ & Chandon Champagne: MOET.
48. Popular U.S. street name: ELM. There was a nightmare there.
49. Cheese shape: WHEEL. 200 and 220 pound wheels ? They are huge. But not this Wisconsin Baby Swiss:
52. Transmission problem: SLIPPAGE. I had this problem in my Grand Prix, way back when they were large cars. To save money, GM decided to put the small Turbo Hydramatic 200 transmission that was developed for the smaller Chevy Vega and Chevy Nova in all their larger cars. One day it wouldn't move in reverse gear. I called a transmission shop and they told me to contact the Better Business Bureau. GM paid for the replacement of a rebuilt 350 transmission.
60. "Get it?" response: I SEE.
61. Mazda MX-5, familiarly: MIATA. Anonymous PVX tells us: he has one, loves it, and isn't ready to replace it anytime soon.
62. Fly in the ointment: SNAG.
63. Drink garnish: ZEST. The store was out of Ivory, Dove and Dial bar soaps. So I bought Zest. The scent is too much for DW at night. She had to shut the bathroom door. Wait. I take that back. It was Irish Spring, not Zest.
65. Besmirches: TARS. Tars as slang for tarnishes.
Down:
1. Musical pair, commonly: ACTs.
2. Drench: SOAK.
3. World Golf Hall of Famer Isao: AOKI. His first and last names are very crossword friendly.
4. Working-class Roman: PLEB.
5. Capital of Pakistan's Punjab province: LAHORE. Nailed it !
6. Activist Thunberg and actress Scacchi: GRETAs. Only knew of the former but it was enough to fill in the blanks.
7. Support group?: BRAs. My wife did not think using her brassières as face masks was too smart. However, if you search YouTube, you'll find various videos of people using thongs and jock straps.
8. Saigon New Year: TET.
9. NBA div.: QTR. I had (blank) T R, and was stumped. Knew it wasn't CTR, and had to recite the alphabet until I got all the way to Q. Then it dawned. An NBA basketball game is divided into four 12 minute quarters.
10. Place with outpatients: CLINIC.
11. The last Mrs. Chaplin: OONA.
12. Was forewarned: KNEW.
13. Cork's home: EIRE.
18. Puccini heroine: TOSCA.
19. Winds, in a South American city name: AIRES. Buenos.
23. Film on water: SCUM.
24. Restaurant in the same corporate group as Applebee's: IHOP. The corporate group is Dine Brands Global. However, they may not be together much longer. On April 2nd, Reuters reported that activist investment firm JCP Partners filed a proposal urging shareholders to vote FOR having Dine Brands spin off IHOP. JCP argues that Applebee's has been a drag on corporate earnings. Shareholders will decide on May 12th. It may have been fortuitous that this puzzle and clue was published before then.
25. Water holder: BASIN.
26. Decide one will: OPT TO.
27. Vacant, in a way: UNLET.
28. Opposite of paleo-: NEO.
29. Saw: ADAGE.
30. Prepared to talk to a tot, perhaps: KNELT.
31. Virtual transaction: E-SALE.
32. Zagat, for one: RATER. Over the years since 1979, the Zagat Guides have reported on and rated restaurants, hotels, nightlife, shopping, zoos, music, movies, theaters, golf courses, and airlines. Probably not as trusted as it once was. I used the Michelin Guides in Europe.
Now they are all being supplanted by crowd sourced reviews on apps such as Yelp. The Yelp ratings are ok, as long as you have a healthy skepticism of reviews that are too glowing or too negative. That's because crowd sourced restaurant and product reviews are frequent targets of astroturfing by sockpuppets.
37. Bob Hoskins' role in "Hook": SMEE. He played Smee in 1991's Hook, and in 2011's Neverland.
38. Small flaw: WART.
39. Sweetie: HON. Terms of endearment.
41. Name on a historic B-29: ENOLA. The "Enola Gay" was so named by pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets in honor of his mother.
42. Beat: TEMPO.
44. Western, e.g.: OMELET. Wait a minute. Last week they said it was a Denver omelet. IHOP has a Colorado Omelet.
45. Rub out: DELETE.
46. Turning point: CLIMAX. Years ago I thought the band Climax Blues Band was a later version of the band Climax. "Precious and Few" was released in 1971 and sung by Sonny Geraci, who five years earlier in 1966 had a hit with the band, The Outsiders. I'd link that song, but "Time Won't Let Me"
49. Phenom: WHIZ.
50. Cheat: HOSE.
51. Rams' fans?: EWES.
52. Herring known for its roe: SHAD.
53. Military installation: POST.
54. "Frozen" princess: ANNA. Voiced, in part, by Kristen Bell.
55. Reverse, say: GEAR. Have I ever mentioned about my Pontiac Grand Prix that wouldn't move when I shifted gears to R ?
56. Joule fractions: ERGS.
58. Texter's "I didn't need to know that": TMI. Too Much Information
