Jared Cappel has been constructing for several years now, and has
appeared in all the major publications including four times here.
Today's puzzle is brought to you by the letters U and R.
57. "Correct!," or a phonetic hint to 18-, 24-, 34-, and 52-Across: RIGHT YOU ARE. Rephrased as RIGHT UR, the revealer tips us off that all the theme answers end in UR on the RIGHT.
18. Malaysian capital: KUALA LUMPUR. KUALA LUMPUR's modern skyline is dominated by the 1,483 foot-tall Petronas Towers, a pair of glass-and-steel-clad skyscrapers with a sky-bridge between them at the 41st floor.
24. Flying reptile of the Mesozoic Era: PTEROSAUR. PTEROSAURs were warm-blooded flying reptiles and are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight.
34. Required by etiquette: DE RIGUEUR. This is a French loanword meaning if you want to fit into a specific crowd or event, doing certain things is mandatory, such as wearing a fancy hat at the Kentucky Derby.
52. Frothy cocktail from Peru: PISCO SOUR. A PISCO SOUR is a frothy, tart South American cocktail made with pisco (a grape brandy).
It occurs to me that Jared started with the revealing phrase, then looked up a bunch of non sequitur words that fit the pattern. The thing they have most in common, for me anyway, is they're all hard to spell. Do you concur?
Let's scour the rest:
Across:
1. Command that might precede "paw": SIT. We say SHAKE, not PAW. Who's a good boy?
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| Buster doing his Wookiee impression |
4. Response to "You awake?": I'M UP. Not quite the response I wanted. "I am now!" sounds more like it.
8. Home of the Zambezi: AFRICA.
14. Logical beginning?: ECO. ECOlogical.
15. Cosmic explosion: NOVA. Far out, man!
16. Racket: CLAMOR.
17. __ Speedwagon: REO. A rock band named after a car named after a person: Ransom Eli Olds.
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| Ransom Olds at the wheel of his 1905 Curved Dash Oldsmobile |
18. [theme]
20. TV spot sellers: AD REPS. AD REPresentatives.
22. __ Dhabi: ABU.
23. Fragrant tree: PINE.
24. [theme]
26. Group people are smart to join?: MENSA. RightBrain is very sharp. She's a member of WOMENSA.
27. Approved of, on social media: HEARTED. If you double-tap on a picture someone sent you, it sends back a HEART emoji which is similar to a "like." ❤️ Unfortunately, I sometimes receive a serious work photo and accidentally double-tap it while trying to enlarge it. 😬
28. "Brokeback Mountain" star Heath: LEDGER. The Australian actor accomplished a lot in his 28 years. He was in 20 movies and won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar posthumously for his iconic portrayal of the Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Night.
29. Method of driving people to the mall?: SALE. Winner: Best Clue. Could've been UBER, LYFT or TAXI.
30. Pig __: LATIN. Ig-pay atin-lay.
33. Unlikely pair?: ELS. A letteral clue. There are two Ls in "unlikely."
34. [theme]
38. Includes on an email: CCS. Carbon CopieS. If you want to include someone on an email without other recipients knowing, you BCC them - Blind Carbon Copy.
41. Physical effort: LABOR.
42. Give off: EMIT.
46. Request from someone in need of cuddling: HOLD ME.
48. "Way to go!": NICE ONE.
51. Fields of study: AREAS. Here's a field of study:
52. [theme]
54. __ Kringle: KRIS. I liked how this crossed with SLEIGHS, even though it's the beginning of summer.
55. Journalist Rather: DAN. The Texas-born journalist anchored the CBS Evening News for 24 years. He often peppered his speech with folksy phrases like, "Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek."
56. Some dealmakers: AGENTS.
57. [theme]
60. "__ willikers!": GEE. Possibly said by DAN Rather when covering the Watergate Scandal.
61. Stick like glue: ADHERE.
62. Treat like a pariah: SHUN.
63. Surgery ctrs.: ORS. Operating RoomS.
64. Gives lip to: SASSES.
65. Jet stream direction: EAST. Jet streams are westerlies, which seems counterintuitive, but it just means they blow from the west to the EAST. There are four primary jet streams globally: two polar jets and two subtropical jets that affect everything from weather to airline flights.
66. Ellipsis component: DOT. More to come...
Down:
1. Highest-order angels: SERAPHS. I know them as SERAPHIM.
2. Lipton beverage: ICED TEA.
3. Uncomfortably close to home: TOO REAL.
4. Place to dip a quill: INK POT. More commonly known as an ink well. As I slooowly work on my great American novel, I joined a writing group called Ink Well, a clever pun (with clever people in it, but they let me join anyway).
5. Creamy chocolate dessert: MOUSSE.
6. Cavaliers sch.: UVA. When I attended the University of Virginia in the 70s, they had a wild blowout in the spring called Easters, ostensibly to shake off the winter doldrums. Thousands of East Coast college students made the pilgrimage to Charlottesville to help celebrate what Playboy called the "Best Party in the Country." My jeans were never quite blue again.
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| Massive weekend parties and mud slides! |
7. Country in Micronesia whose largest city is Koror: PALAU. While Micronesia refers to a broad subregion of Oceania with over 600 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, PALAU is politically distinct from the Federated States of Micronesia.
8. Org. with a People Power grassroots network: ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union.
9. Winter bug: FLU.
10. Increased, with "up": RAMPED.
11. Encroach (on): IMPINGE.
12. Advice: COUNSEL. On advice of COUNSEL, I cannot confirm nor deny that I got pretty drunk on Easters Weekend.
13. Overdue debts: ARREARS.
19. Unlike the OED: ABR. The 20-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary is about 40" wide, so obviously not ABRidged. You can look it up.
21. Messed up: ERRED.
25. Make up on the spot: AD-LIB. AD-LIB is short for the Latin ad libitum, meaning "at one's pleasure."
26. List that may be opened with a QR code: MENU. A QR (Quick Response) code is similar to a bar code, but it stores 10 times more data.
 |
| Kinda looks like a crossword puzzle! |
28. Tell tales: LIE.
31. Before now: AGO.
32. Spoils: TURNS.
35. Stately trees: ELMS.
36. "Call Me Maybe" singer Carly __ Jepsen: RAE. Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress who first gained attention in 2007 as a third-place finisher on Canadian Idol. Her 2011 single “Call Me Maybe” became the 21st century's best-selling single by a female artist.
37. Angel who plays for Rose BC in the Unrivaled league: REESE. Unrivaled is a professional 3-on-3 women’s basketball league. It gives top players a high-paying, domestic alternative to playing overseas during the WNBA off-season. Men in the NBA are not allowed to play anywhere in the off-season, but they don't need to as they earn 20 times as much.
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| Angel Reese of the Rose Basketball Club |
38. Energy points in yoga: CHAKRAS.
39. Bullfight, in Spain: CORRIDA. Derived from the Spanish phrase CORRIDA de toros, "a running of the bulls."
40. Vehicles with runners: SLEIGHS. A famous red one is helmed by KRIS Kringle.
43. Lunar deity: MOON GOD. Virtually every ancient civilization had a lunar deity. Back then, there was no TV so the moon was the only thing to watch at night.
44. Prenatal: IN UTERO. IN UTERO is Latin for "in the womb."
45. Least loquacious: TERSEST. Yes.
47. Short races: DASHES. Not DOTS...which are ellipses.
49. Mythical figure who flew too close to the sun: ICARUS. He should've gone at night, but he was too busy watching MOON GOD reruns.
50. Convincing: COGENT. As in an argument stating a case.
52. Kung __ shrimp: PAO. Kung PAO Shrimp is a classic Sichuan stir-fry that pairs shrimp with a savory, sweet, and tangy sauce, toasted peanuts, and a spicy kick of dried chilies (which add the POW).
53. Occupied: IN USE.
55. Salon stock: DYES.
58. Three, in Italian: TRE. Derived from the Latin "tres."
59. "I get it now!": AHA. We all had to wait until the end for our AHA moment.
Be good. RB
