Saturday, February 12, 2022, Chase Dittrich and Jeff Chen

  Saturday Themeless by Chase Dittrich and Jeff Chen 

Chase with Tiny Tina and JB

My research shows that Chase has had three solo Tuesday puzzles in the LA Times but today he teams up with a familiar mentor, Jeff Chen, for this entertaining themeless entry. Hmmm...a guy who was a math major and likes kitties and crosswords? I can dig it!

Hi Gary! 

Since I’m the one writing this, and for once Jeff can’t comment, I’ll just assume what he would have said. 

Jeff: “Despite less time in the field, Chase is by far the better constructor. He’s superior in every way and is definitely better at tennis and trivia. I probably owe him several beers.”

Wow, thanks Jeff. That means a lot.  

As for this puzzle, the seed was THE QUEENS GAMBIT – it also happens to have my favorite clue. I loved the show and wanted to pay some homage to it, so I teamed up with Jeff since this was my first themeless attempt (we’ve made about a dozen or so puzzles together at this point)

It’s funny that we ended up with STOP AT NOTHING being the other long entry, because that’s the revealer to another puzzle Jeff and I made around the same time. I think we likely had the phrase on our minds when we built this.

Despite Jeff’s lavish praise above, the man is a humble pro and knows good fill. As a relative rookie, I tend to still want to justify some questionable fill here and there, but he won’t have it. In the end I was very happy with how this came out. I hope solvers enjoy it!

I've included a photo of me with my two cats and our Patriots blanket...and if you look hard enough you just might find JC.

Personal info:I grew up in Maine and majored in 

Amazon Hdqrs Seattle

math at Trinity College (please don't test my math skills), then joined the Marine Corps and got out as a Captain in 2013. Headed off to Columbia Business School and moved out to LA for a logistics job at a video game company. And I just started work as a Program Manager at Amazon in Seattle (coincidentally the same city Jeff lives in!). Been here two months.

Across:

1. Gets debriefed?: STRIPS - High school nightmare

7. One that may come from Yale: PADLOCK.

1870's Version

14. Exactly as planned: TO A TEE - Origin

15. Hot sauce with a rooster logo: SRIRACHA - A type of hot sauce or chili sauce made from a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. One report has it that the sauce was first produced by a Thai woman named Thanom Chakkapak in the town of Si Racha (or Sriracha, Thailand)

16. __ Ravenclaw, founder of a Hogwarts house: ROWENA - Here ya go

17. Like one who can't even hit an easy pitch: TONE DEAF.

18. Matter makeup: ATOMS.

19. Galoot: LOUT.

20. Like some humor or meat: DARK. Here is some DARK humor from Sara Bernhardt using both words 48. Care: MIND

21. Causes: WHYS and 29. Behave: ACT. - We teachers can see how kids ACT but we have to determine the WHYS that generate that behavior.

22. Conciliatory gestures: SOPS - Usually too little, too late

23. "Enemy of the State" org.: NSA 

National Security Agency movie
that got a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes

24. Snacks on: HAS.

25. They circle worlds: EQUATORS - As you can see, Apollo 15 and 17 landed quite a ways north of the Moon's EQUATOR

30. Stopped working, as an engine: QUIT.

31. Celebratory bar buys: ROUNDS - After my hole-in-one, I bought a single ROUND

35. Miniseries given a 5-star rating (out of 6) by Magnus Carlsen: THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT - A fortuitous discovery by me on Netflix and a seed entry for Chase.

38. Croatia neighbor: SERBIA - Europe's reaction to an assassination by a young SERBIAN in 1914 was  WWI.

39. Autumn gemstone: OPAL.

40. Carrier to Osaka: ANA.

41. Wide receiver, historically: SPLIT END - Player X is a SPLIT END. He is on the line but is SPLIT out wide. Player Y is a tight END because he is right next to the rest of the line.

43. Scuba diver's item: FIN.

44. Name-linking trio: AKA - Zhouqin Also Known As C.C. 

47. "__ a Bad Mama Jama": 1981 Carl Carlton hit: SHE'S - The beat is great but the lyrics 8. Informal negative: AIN'T Gershwin

49. Norse prankster: LOKI - Learned this in cwd's

51. Stopped at a base, in a way: SLID or not.

52. 1980 Crichton lost-world novel: CONGO.

53. Exam involving a pupil: IRIS SCAN - No password needed

55. Lake on the California/Arizona border: HAVASU - The city paid $10M to have the London Bridge dismantled, shipped and reconstructed at Lake HAVASU. It is now the second most popular tourist attraction in Arizona after The Grand Canyon. 

56. Comics hero's weapon: BATARANG.

57. Folded Dish: OMELT

58. Briefly: IN A WORD and 28. (In) brief: SUM.

59. Razzie winners: WORSTS - *Correct question below

Down:

1. Boaters, e.g.: STRAW HATS - Boaters and the wonderful Buffalo Bills!

2. Canine woe: TOOTHACHE - Oh, the ones next to my incisors 

3. Shucked edible: RAW OYSTER - In land-locked Nebraska we shuck raw corn

4. Express lane sign word: ITEMS 

5. Source of some black and blue marks: PENS 

6. Java __: SEA - If you fly from Indonesia to Borneo, you will fly over the Java SEA

7. "Remembrance of Things Past" author: PROUST - A seven-volume work whose original title was In Search Of Lost Time (À la Recherche Du Temps Perdu) but became Remembrance Of Things Past when translated from the French. 

9. Dr. without a degree: DRE.

10. Actress Cheryl: LADD.

11. Indian __: OCEAN - A more familiar body of water than the JAVA Sea

12. Seals in the juices of: CHARS.

13. "All language is but a poor translation" author: KAFKA - Semantics was a college course that changed my life and annoyed my girl friend 

15. Do whatever it takes: STOP AT NOTHING 

19. Disney duck: LOUIE - I'll bet you know Donald Duck's other two nephews as well

22. Delighted sound: SQUEAL.

25. Furnish: EQUIP.

26. Hearts, e.g.: ORGANS - Last month modified pig heart was transplanted into this 57-yr-old man. Results are still unknown but twenty people per day die waiting for a heart transplant

27. "The BFG" author Dahl: ROALD - The story of a Big Friendly Giant and a ten-yr-old girl

32. Bulls dominated them in the '90s: NBA FINALS - Michael Jordan "retired" for the '94 - '95 seasons 

33. China can be found in one: DINING SET.

34. Humdingers: STANDOUTS 

36. Montana et al.: Abbr.: QBS - Signed Joe Montana helmets

37. Arrival time factor: SPEED - I just calculated that I can get to Lincoln one minute and fifteen seconds faster at 74 mph instead of the legal 70 mph

42. Kitchen prep spot: ISLAND.

44. It may check out: ALIBI - Did OJ's ALIBI check out? Google at will

45. Arabic holy book: KORAN.

46. Breed in "Hachi: A Dog's Tale": AKITA.

48. Dolly user: MOVER.

0. Part of Caesar's boast: I SAW - "Veni, vidi, Comedi" "I Came, I SAW, I Ate"

51. Toon lion voiced by Jeremy Irons: SCAR.

Life imitating art?

52. Grunt wear: CAMO.

54. Sellout letters: SRO - Standing Room Only tickets for Husker VB are not cheap! Every one of the 8,500 seats for every match are already sold. They are one of two college VB programs that actually make money

55. Method: HOW.

* From 59 Across: The correct question for  "Three-razzie winner" is "What was The Love Guru?".  BTW, it lost $20M and Mike Myers hasn't made a movie of his own since

Thursday, January 20, 2022, Michelle Kenney, Jeff Chen

 

The Theme That Wasn't There (or Was It?)

This looks like a first for Michelle Kenney in the LA Times.  But she has been mentored by Jeff Chen, one of the best in the business.  For a snapshot of how she came to be here check this link at XWord Info. 

Today's theme seems subtle and multi-leveled.  At the simplest level the themers and the reveal are concerned with some common state changes in water, one of the most abundant substances on the planet.  At a deeper level they seem to hint at state changes to our body politic, something that constructors don't normally deal with in these grids.  But we reviewers have to tread lightly on such matters, so to stay out of trouble I'll try to stick to literal, rather than historic-metaphoric treatments of the themers and the reveal.

17A. Ended corruption: DRAINED THE SWAMP.  The first attempt to do this was a long, long time ago, and we don't seem to have made much progress:

27A. Vented: BLEW OFF STEAM.  What's your favorite way to blow off steam?

Anger!

From Inside Out, a tour of our emotions, and a movie you can watch with your kids.

48A. Made everything clear: LIFTED THE FOG.
 

63A. Historical turning point ... and, as three words, a literal description of 17-, 27- and 48-Across: WATER SHED MOMENT. Let us hope that we are not on the verge of an historical turning point.

I hope I haven't read too much into this.  Now, let's turn our attention to the present moment, solving the rest of this puzzle.

Across:

1. Rearmost, as decks: AFT.

4. Winter wear: PARKA.  A relative of the Anorak and today's Inuktitut lesson.  A CSO to CanadianEh! (and you too Ray - O).

9. App with pics, familiarly: INSTA.  As in Instagram, an American photo and video sharing social networking service.  The Corner is my social media, but if you're interested in Instagram this will tell you all about it.

14. Lead-in to gender: CIS.  Gender used to be a simple thing.  Now, not so much.

15. Brown and Yale: IVIES.  Ivy League universities.

16. Auctioned autos, often: REPOS.  Repossess for failure to keep up the payments.

20. __ fire: CEASE.  Not likely any time soon.

21. Tofu source: SOYA.

22. First Nations tribe: CREE.  The Cree are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of that country's largest First Nations.  That's another one CanadianEh!!

23. Shindig: GALA.  GALA sounds a little highfalutin for a "Shindig" to me.  Not for an apple though.

25. "__ in the Boys Room": 1973-'74 hit: SMOKIN.  Passed on the videos as all the smoke was FOGGING up my glasses.  But here's the Brownsville Station album:

32. Actor Somerhalder of "Lost": IAN.  Ian Joseph Somerhalder (born December 8, 1978) is an American actor, model, activist and director best known for playing Boone Carlyle in Lost, a scifi/supernatural TV series..  Ian got his start in the TV series The Big Easy, a CSO to our very own.  Here he is ...

Ian (not George)

33. Lizard-approved coverage?: GEICO.

34. Place to get clean: REHAB.

38. Shakespearean verb: DOTH. And its negative DOTHN'T, language common during the reign of Elizabeth I.

40. Intense anger: WRATH.  I think we covered that in 27A.

42. What some queens do: RULE.  Britannia may RULE the waves, but its current monarch, Elizabeth II, is having a rough time trying to RULE over a very UNRULY family.

Queen Elizabeth II

43. Boston suburb named for an English county: ESSEX.  Many places in the US were named by people nostalgic for the old country.  And many were taken from place names used by the indigenous peoples.

45. Common conveyances for Calvin and Hobbes: SLEDS.  Calvin and Hobbes first appeared like a bright meteor in the skies of the  comics world on November 18, 1985.  It was a sad day in December 31, 1995 when Bill Watterson finally hung up his pen:

47. Depression Era pres.: FDR.

51. Nielsen of "The Naked Gun" films: LESLIE.  And speaking of Queen Elizabeth:

54. Caesar's 18-Down: VIDI.  Veni, VIDI Vici.  I came, I SAW, I conquered.   Here's the backstory.

55. Swift steed: ARAB.

56. Sushi pairing: SAKE.

60. Brief but sharp pains: PANGS.

66. Timberlake's old crew: NSYNC.  Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actor who got his start with the boy band NSYNC.  Here's his Mirrors (at first his high tenor made me think it was an alto doing the singing).

67. "Trade discount" quintet: AEIOU.  Somehow I've lived most of my adult life not thinking about the fact that there are "parts of speech" (the latter phrase not one of them), that contain all of the vowels in order.  It turns out that there is a cottage industry that is tracking down and cataloguing these words and phrases.  This article has a bit of the recent history.

68. Portuguese saint: SAO.  In last Friday's puzzle it was clued as "Brazil map word".

69. Sleeping giant: SERTA.  Not SEALY.  Not even close.

70. Grabbed forty winks: SLEPT.  I do this every day around Noon.  In fact it's about that time.  See ya later.

71. Oil additive brand: STP.  Helps your vehicle's engine maintain Standard Temperature and Pressure.

Down:

1. "Back in Black" group: ACDC.  For those of you who are not into heavy metal, you might dig this version:

2. Kindle __: FIRE.   It's how you start a FIRE.  Derived from the word KINDLING, the small sticks you light first.  Well actually you use TINDER first.  But that's a dating APP.  Oh wait! Maybe Michelle meant this, a tablet that can also be used as an E-reader:

Amazon Fire

You can get one on Amazon.  I can't say any more as it would violate our policy on product advertising.

3. Modern-day wand wielders: TSA AGENTS.  Modern day MAGI?  Arthur C.Clark once said that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". 

4. Source of Yuletide coziness: PINE LOG.  OAK LOGS are much less likely to create a chimney fire.

5. "__ Maria": AVE. The first words that the Angel Gabriel spoke to Mary in Luke 1:28.  I don't think they were in Latin though.  Probably Hebrew.

6. Divests: RIDS.

7. Low-carb, high-fat diet: KETO.  I am not a dietitian, nor I do I play one on TV, so you should take the following articles with a grain of salt (unless of course you have HBP): Ketogenic diet and Paleo vs. Keto Diet.

8. Pale: ASHY.

9. Apr. addressee: IRS.  It'll be here before we know it.

10. Often-hazed member: NEWCOMER.

11. Lively quality: SPARK.

12. Marisa of "The Wrestler" (2008): TOMEI.  The Wrestler is a 2008 American sports psychological drama film starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood.  Rourke is an over the hill wrestler and Tomei, a pole dancer at a local club, is his love interest.  You can find an interesting YouTube interview with Marisa about her challenges in making the film, but I won't include it here.

13. Sawatch Range resort: ASPEN.  The Sawatch Range, a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains of North America, is located in the center of the U.S. state of Colorado. It has 243 named mountains with Mount Elbert both the highest and most prominent.  The range hosts several other ski resorts in addition to ASPEN.  Hi MalMan!

18. 54-Across, here: I SAW, i.e. VIDI.

19. Verb that sounds like multiple vowels: EASE i.e.  EEEZ.

24. Not lots: A FEW.

26. Damage: MAR.

27. __ one's time: be patient: BIDE.  Please be patient.  We're getting there.

28. Vietnam neighbor: LAOS.  Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia.

Laotian Flag

29. Top spot: FIRST.

30. E to E, e.g.: SCALE.  One of my few regrets in life is that, despite being a big music fan, I never learned to play a musical instrument (although I do warble a bit).  But I can Google, and here is a link I surfed up on the E Major SCALE and one on the twelve notes of Western music. 

31. Carried: TOTED.

35. Arrogance: HUFFINESS.

36. Canadian shoe retailer: ALDO.  The ALDO Group branded as ALDO, is a Canadian multinational corporation retailer that owns and operates a worldwide chain of shoe and accessories stores. The company was founded by Aldo Bensadoun in 1972 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.  And that's a "hat trick" for CanadianEh!

37. Scary floater: BERG.  Clever clue.  Definitely not a MOTE in your eye.

39. Recklessly determined: HELL BENT.  I'm HECK BENT on getting this review finished.

41. Many a flat-screen: HDTV.  What is HDTV?

44. Top of many a dial: XII.  This reference may escape some of our Gen Zers.  Do we have any Gen Zers?

46. Begin a naval deployment: SHIP OUT.  A CSO to our beloved Spitzboov, who has deployed to better shores.

49. Own (up): FESS. Could also be clued as  "CON follower".

50. Wax-coated cheese: EDAM.  A CSO to Chairman Moe for a recommended wine pairing.
 

51. Targets of much fertilization: LAWNS.  And weed killers, thatchers, and mowers, oh my!

52. Rub off: ERASE.

53. Woodland deity: SATYR.  Wild and crazy guys.

57. Light-bulb moments: AHAS.

58. Ship stabilizer: KEEL.  I wanted GYROSCOPE, but it was too long.  There turn out to be LOTS of definitions for KEEL, but "RED OCHER"? 

59. Falco of "Nurse Jackie": EDIE.  Nurse Jackie, is an American medical comedy-drama television series that ran from June 8, 2009 to June 28, 2015. The show starred Edie Falco (atoning for abetting the Sopranos?) as the title character, Jackie Peyton, an emergency department nurse at All Saints' Hospital in New York City. For Jackie, "every day is a high wire act of juggling patients, doctors, fellow nurses, and her own indiscretions."

Edie Falco

61. Pesky insect: GNAT.

62. "No más!": STOP.  Today's Spanish lesson.  Okay, okay!  I'll skip the next two clues.

64. Early TV maker: RCA.

65. Swabbie's tool: MOP.

Here's the grid:

And thanks as always to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

Cheers,

Bill