Saturday, Jun 25th, 2016, Martin Ashwood-Smith & George Barany

Theme: 16x15

Words: 69 (missing J,Q,W,Z)

Blocks: 34

 Today's offering is another expanded standard grid from the duo of Messrs Martin and George to allow for the triple quad stack in the middle, and that's not all; an additional pair of spanners, one at the top and bottom of the construction with nifty 11-letter climbers that cross the quad stack and one of the other 15-letter fills.  This is our second puzzle from the pair, the other being 23 Jan of this year - I looked back and reported that I did OK with the spanners, but not so well everywhere else.  This time, I did better, but still got stuck with one - just one - red letter cheat to get me thru due East.  Oh well.  The spanners;

16a. It's airtight : THE PERFECT ALIBI

29a. Light carrier : FIBER OPTIC CABLE - I knew the first part, but the 'CABLE' part didn't occur to me right away - which is odd, because in my local area, there's a 'cable war' going on between Verizon FiOS, which is Fiber optic, and Cablevision, which is standard; my brother tried FiOS, and switched back.

35a. Text ending in Panama? : A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL - a palindrome; the same forwards and backwards, when you add PANAMA to the end

36a. Eviction consequence : VACANT APARTMENT - I once worked for a cleaning company that specialized in apartment complexes - we had mixed feelings about evictions because the ex-tenant usually ended up leaving valuables behind ( leather jackets, guitars, liquor, porn ) but also some really vicious mess to clean up - used appliances never once wiped down, and in one case, out of spite, sugar in the carpet and ketchup on the walls

37a. Investment in a relationship : EMOTIONAL ENERGY - well, it fits, but I have never really heard this as a "term" before

54. Retire : PUT OUT TO PASTURE - I had the "-TO PASTURE" part, but my first fills in the SW Down were wrong, so it took a while

I'm on vacatiON WARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Line at the supermarket : SOUP CANS - nothing about BAR CODE(s)

9. Tapering part : SPIRE - my first thought was candles, and table legs - and then other kinds of legs....

14. Freezer bar with Sir Isaac Lime and Alexander the Grape flavors : OTTER*POP

15. Aleichem who created Tevye : SHOLEM - filled via perps

18. Short and sweet : TERSE

19. Sea lion, e.g. : EARED SEAL

20. Galeón cargo : ORO

21. Etym. : DERIVation - the etymology of a word is where it comes from; I especially like "neighbor" - see here

22. Base address : SIR - dah~!  Not APO

24. Confession starter : MEA

26. "Just __" : ASK

38. Medicare card fig. : SSN

39. Go down : SET - think sun

40. __ Banos, California : LOS - one of those has to be LOS or LAS, but with an obscure (for this east-coaster) town

41. Spring time : APRIL - two words, but it wasn't MAY, JUNE, or MARCH

44. Courses for coll. credit : APs - I took two in high school

47. Teachers' lounge : STAFFROOM

52. Berkshire attraction for race fans : ASCOT

56. Charge : ONRUSH - oops, not AMBush

57. Mae West's final film : SEXTETTE - semi-WAG; not in my wheelhouse.  The IMDb

58. Lacerations : TEARS - ah, I tried SCARS - and then again one other place

59. Get smashed : TIE ONE ON - haven't done so in over 11 years - now I tie two on - each of my shoes....

DOWN:

1. __ voce : SOTTO - as we have discussed here before, the bigger the stacks, the shorter the crossing fill is, and thus usually easier to fill

2. Remaining : OTHER

3. Unborn, after "in" : UTERO

4. Fires (up) : PEPS

5. Algonquian language : CREE

6. Credit fig. : APR - I am looking into this Lending Tree Credit Card offer of $0 balance transfer; semi-clecho with -  7a. Credit card come-on : NO FEE

8. Fishing tool : SPEAR

9. Sardine cousin : SHAD

10. D.C. in-crowd : POLiticianS

11. "__ awake at night": "Pretty Boy" lyric : I LIE - made sense, so I put it in....

12. Name on the 1984 album "My Kind of Country" : REBA - really my only four-letter go-to fill for country

13. __ Sinclair, protagonist of Hesse's "Demian" : EMIL - again, perps

15. "The Office" star : STEVE CARELL

17. Record holder? : CRIMINAL

21. Be affected by gravity : DROP TO EARTH - I had "drop toWARDS", which made sense, but baffled me in the SW corner

22. French governing group : SÉNAT

23. Qom inhabitants : IRANIs

25. Bankbook ID : ACCT. No.

26. Marryin' Sam presided over his wedding : ABNER - OK, I tried ELVIS....

27. Word on the street : SLANG

28. Big name in backpacks : KELTY - my one red-letter was the "K"

29. Pets : FAVES

30. Muslim clerics : IMAMS

31. Strips for brunch : BACON

32. Nursery item : PLANT POT

33. Bite with un aperitivo : TAPA

34. Willie of "Eight Is Enough" : AAMES - didn't watch the show - "Buck Rogers" was more to my liking

first guy on the top

42. All-night bar? : ROOST

43. JFK Library architect : I.M. PEI - I knew this one

44. Less than right? : ACUTE - angles - har-har



45. __ Alegre, Brazil : PORTO

46. Rembrandt contemporary : STEEN

47. Blemish : SPOT - I went with SCAR here, first, and it was altogether wrong

48. Harmony : TUNE

49. Sharp brand introduced in 1977 : ATRA

50. Lou Gehrig's number : FOUR - I thought it was NINE, and so I was never going to succeed until I came to the conclusion that I was wrong

51. Stir : FUSS

52. On the subject of : AS TO

53. Acronymous WWII gun : STEN - I knew this one, too

55. Pink-slip : AXE

Splynter

Saturday, Jan 23rd, 2016, Martin Ashwood-Smith & George Barany

Theme: None (16 X 15)

Words: 69 (pangram)

Blocks: 38

I was glad when this one was over.  The quad stack was not the problem - everything else was.  Too bad, really.  Just some way-too-obscure fill - if you don't know it, it makes no difference how the clue reads.  A bit of a choppy grid, with 16 rows and the standard 15 columns.  Two 11-letter climbers, and the big 6; the quad stack and other two;

16. "A London Symphony" composer : VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - mostly perps and WAG

28. Minimal complications : LEAST RESISTANCE - the clue is a bet "eh"

36. Landscape brighteners : ORNAMENTAL TREES - my idea of ornamental;

Or how about this~?

37. "West Side Story" duet : ONE HAND, ONE HEART - I had one LOVE - can you tell I have no interest in musicals~?

38. Failed big-time : MET ONE'S WATERLOO - like this puzzle

54. Publication known for rankings : FORTUNE MAGAZINE - CONSUMER REPORTS fit, and that just did me in

ONWARD~

ACROSS:

1. Actor in four "Planet of the Apes" films : McDOWALL - did not help that I spelled his name with an "E", not an "A"

9. Antenna support : MAST

13. Traffic report source : CAR RADIO - I no longer listen to the "radio" of my car radio; I run Pandora on my phone thru the MP3 jack

14. Farm report? : BAA-BAA - I figured this was where we were headed....Moo-moo, etc.

18. Dutch banking giant : ING - their US portion was bought out by Capital One, and my retirement was there - and I despise Capital One.  The ING Wiki

19. It may be deviated : SEPTUM - There's a line in a Megadeth song that includes this phrase

20. London-born miler : COE - filled via perps, but I recall the name from crosswords

21. "That's a riot" : HA-HA-HA - I almost filled this in, but waited on perps

23. __ Werner, Best Actor nominee for "Ship of Fools" : OSKAR - a WAG on the "S", the rest was perps

25. Tokyo-based carrier : JAL - the "L" was not happening for me

26. Struggle with assessments? : LISP - cute

39. Whimper : MEWL - I was just not going to get this because of my LOVE over HAND; all the Down crossings were making no sense to me, and the domino effect....

40. __ de veau: sweetbread : RIS - eeeew~!  Not what I thought it was, and this marks the return of Frawnche after a very long absence....c'est la vie

41. Turning points : AXLES - meh.  period.  meh.  Axles are shafts, not points

44. Stein's "The Autobiography of __ Toklas" : ALICE B. - her Wiki

48. Word that sounds like its last letter : WHY - I C Y, D U?

49. Saudi neighbor : QATARI - the "Q" was a WAG, and that helped

51. Remove : LOP - think ornamental trees

58. Early online forum : USENET

59. Turkey, mostly : ANATOLIA - and I gotta link the "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" song

60. Wear well : LAST - this was like my first, and only, across fill on pass #1

61. Cuts from the back : SIRLOINS - ah.  I was thinking someone who "cuts" in line

DOWN:

1. Year in the reign of England's Henry I : MCVI - we had an English history lesson last week

2. Scott of "Hawaii Five-0" : CAAN - I like his acting style, so I liked this version of "Five-O" as much as the original; he plays Turk in the Ocean's movies, too

3. Tranquilize : DRUG

4. URL ending : .org

5. Distressed cry : WAH - pretty cool guitar effect, too

6. Recipe phrase : A DASH - "A" clue

7. Form opener : LINE A - clue "A"

8. Acidic : LOW pH - nice

9. Printemps period : MAI - more Frawnche

10. Taken __ : ABACK  - tsszzz - one too many "A" answers~?

11. Its capital is Apia : SAMOA - HA~! Nailed it

12. Law enforcement tool : TASER

14. __-ray Disc : BLU

15. "It won't be long now" : ALMOST THERE

17. Repubblica __: European country : ITALIANA - um, OK.  Perps.

21. Lives : HAS A HOME - gee, I think I liked the original version - see the interview

22. In the style of the 1975 film "Nashville," say : ALTMANESQUE - never heard the phrase, and in the 'down', was not going to fill for me - but a learning experience after the fact - his Wiki

24. Barbecue fare : SPARE RIB - PORK RIBS~? SHORT RIB~? I tried too many, and missed the obvious

25. One of the Jacksons : JANET

27. Minor key? : ISLET - since I got burned a few weeks ago, I did not fall for this again

28. Device with shuttles and treadles : LOOM

29. Shore raptor : ERNE

30. Freshen : RENEW

31. Runs over : ENDS LATE - my landlord is in Florida, and we're expecting to get hammered with a blizzard today.  High winds combined with the high tide/full moon, he's worried the property will flood - it's on Peconic Bay; that's the kind of "runs over" that was on my mind....

32. Put away : STOW

33. Actress Patricia and drummer Jeff : NEALS - I knew neither person - and I know a few drummers, as I play myself; she was before my time.  His Wiki / Her Wiki

34. Dos minus dos : CERO

35. __ perpetua: Idaho's motto : ESTO

41. Very bad : AWFUL - like the next clue/answer

42. Bantu language : XHOSA

43. Strummed instruments : LYRES

45. Dharma teachers : LAMAS

46. Mashhad native : IRANI

47. Symbol of victory for immortal Celtics coach Red Auerbach : CIGAR

50. Formic acid source : ANT

51. Actress Taylor : LILI

52. From here __: henceforth : ON IN - 'round here, it's "on OUT", so I tried "UP".  Bzzzt

53. Mendel research subject : PEAS - at first, I didn't understand, but then I realized I had this man confused with this man, so I had tried "ATOM"

55. It may be activated by a plunger : TNT

56. View from Kennebunkport, Me. : ATLantic - I tried PEI - Prince Edward Island, but Nova Scotia is in the way....

57. Confusing scene : ZOO

Splynter