Thursday, July 27, 2023, Jeffrey Wechsler

What's It All About?

Corner favorite Jeffrey Wechsler tries to stump us with a real POSER today.  Since the three theme clues all punt to the reveal we'll start with that ...

 55A. Profound philosophical subject, as defined by the answers to 21-, 32-, and 42-Across?: THE MEANING OF LIFE.  As you might imagine illustrating this was a real toughie, causing me to ponder several alternatives ...

Naturally the Monty Python film of the same name came to mind, but even the trailer was rated R! I then considered the "The Secret of Life" (the structure of DNA was published 70 years ago this past April 25) and the "The Theory of Everything" (physicists are still working on it), but rejected both as a bit too arcane.

I finally stumbled upon the incredible correspondence between the number for Jeffrey's third theme clue and this classic  revelation of  THE MEANING OF LIFE announced by the supercomputer Deep Thought in this trailer from the 2005 film A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, inspired by the magnum opus of British humorist Douglas Adams ...

Clever of Jeffrey to think of that.

So now that we've solved the question that has puzzled all of humanity since the beginning of civilization, what the heck do the following cryptic theme clues have to do with it?  Turns  out the answers are themselves clues to products all containing the word LIFE.

21A. See 55-Across: HISTORIC MAGAZINE.  LIFE.  Here's the Life magazine cover published 10 years after the discovery of the structure of DNA. LIFE always was a little slow out of the gate (story starting on page 73) ...

If you want the real story I recommend this book ...

BTW LIFE's LIFE as a weekly magazine ended on December 8, 1972. 

32. See 55-Across: BREAKFAST CEREAL.  LIFE is also a breakfast cereal produced by the Quaker Oats Company. Introduced in 1961, the cereal has a brown, checked square pattern and mainly consists of oat flour, corn flour, added sugar, and whole-wheat flour.

42A. See 55-Across: FAMILY BOARD GAME.  LIFE is also a board game. This collector's edition of The Game of Life in the original Tin box is available on Ebay for $110.00 (although I doubt that it's pure Tin (Sn)) ...

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Electronic music duo __ Punk: DAFT.  A classic Wechsler clue for DAFT I'm sure. 😀  Daft Punk was a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining elements of house music with funk, disco, techno, rock and synth-pop.  Here's their Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.  Listen carefully, as you're not likely to hear this again ...

5. McEntire of country music (and old sitcoms): REBA.  I'm glad that parenthetical afterthought was included in the clue.  McEntire is a great musician, but apparently she's also quite a comedienne, and last week I didn't have room for two clips, so here's the funny lady today ...

9. Wetlands area: MARSH.  I grew up meandering along White MARSH run in Maryland before US 695 paved over most of it in 1962.  One of my most vivid memories of the area was all the dragonflies flying over our heads, which we called "Snake Doctors", and of which we were mortally afraid.

14. Uzbekistan's location: ASIA.  Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, is a doubly landlocked country located in Central Asia. It is surrounded by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest.

Uzbekistan in Asia

15. Yoked team: OXEN.

16. BP merger partner: AMOCO.

17. "A likely __!": STORY.

19. Noodle: BEAN.  Sorry, but I couldn't resist.  Just a little one ...

See also 36D.

20. Twangy: NASAL.

21. [Theme clue]

24. Physics particles: IONS.  An ION is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convention. The net charge of an ion is not zero because its total number of electrons is unequal to its total number of protons.  Two IONS with opposite charges attract one another and can form an ionic bond resulting in a molecule, e.g. Lithium Fluoride ...

Electron transfer between
lithium (Li) and fluorine (F).
Forming an ionic bond, Li and F
become Li+ and F− ions.

25. Some Hollywood workers: AGENTS. Recently other Hollywood workers -- writers and actors -- went on strike demanding higher pay and regulation of the use of AI for generating scripts and cinematic images.

26. "Don't make me laugh!": GOSH NO.

30. Move like molasses: OOZE.  Especially in February.

32. [Theme clue]

38. iPad assistant: SIRI.  I'm not into giving computers speech therapy.

39. Pound mix: MUTT.  A CSO to PAT.

40. Superficially fluent: GLIB.

42. [Theme clue]

47. Pine for: MISS. 

48. Smoothed (out): IRONED.

49. Plays, as a banjo: STRUMS.  Here's Whitewater, written and performed by BANJO virtuoso Bela Fleck with special guests from his album My Bluegrass Heart ...
 

53. Silk Road desert: GOBI.  The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.  It is also the moniker for the musical ensemble Silkroad conceived by cellist Yo Yo Ma in 1998 as a reminder that even as rapid globalization resulted in division, it brought extraordinary possibilities for working together.  Here's their performance of the theme Going Home from Dvorak's New World Symphony ...

55. [Theme reveal]

62. "Game of Thrones" actor Gillen: AIDAN.  We've never seen GOT, but we did see AIDAN Gillen in the creepy English village thriller Mayday ...

63. Nose wrinkler: ODOR.

64. Subway need, once: TOKEN.

65. Reduces slightly: TRIMS.

66. Vatican's environs: ROME.  A country within a city within a country.

St. Peter's Square
from the top of Michelangelo's dome

67. Shared one's poetry, say: READ.

68. Oscar winner Redmayne: EDDIE.  EDDIE Redmayne played physicist Stephen Hawking in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything...

Astonishingly Stephen Hawking, who held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University and who predicted the emission of Hawking Radiation by black holes, was never awarded a Nobel Prize.  Here's why.

69. Some half pints: ALES.  Watson and Crick are reported to have quaffed quite a few ALES in the Eagle Pub in Cambridge whilst "they" discovered the secret of life.

70. Grub: EATS.

Down:

1. Short run: DASH. Or half an EM DASH (--)

2. Italian city east of Turin: ASTI.

3. Verizon bundle: FIOS.  This review is being brought to you in part by the ISP known as VERIZON.

4. Like cranberry juice: TART.

5. Bird associated with spring: ROBIN.  The ROBINS in my back yard seem to be here year round these days.  Like everything in America, they're bigger than English ROBINS.

American Robin        English Robin

6. Suits: EXECS.

7. Roofing timber: BEAM.

8. Swedish golf champion Nordqvist: ANNA.  ANNA Maria Nordqvist (born 10 June 1987) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. She has won three major championships: the 2009 LPGA Championship, the 2017 Evian Championship, and the 2021 Women's British Open. She is the only non-American woman to have won major championships in three different decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s).

9. Supervisor: MANAGER.

10. Wow: AMAZE.

11. Violinist's aid: ROSIN.  Here's the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem singing Rosin up the Bow.  Apparently this substance loosens up the vocal cords (lyrics) ...

12. Meager: SCANT.

13. Boring outcomes?: HOLES.  If it turns out to be a Black HOLE, it might not be so boring (see 68A).

18. "Taking this!": YOINK.  DNK YOINK.  A sound effect created by Don Martin of Mad Magazine used to indicate the rapid pulling or removal of an object, much like 'Pow" or "Bam" would indicate a punch. ...

... Yiddish for YANK?

22. Certain sleigh's parking spot: ROOF.  That would be the one driven by SANTA CLAUS.

23. Wondering look: GAZE.

26. "Pygmalion" writer's monogram: GBS.  George Bernard Shaw.  Shaw's play was based on the Greek myth about the sculptor Pygmalion who falls in love with a statue he has created called Galatea.  The story was basis for a 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical, later made into the 1964 hit musical comedy-drama film My Fair Lady. The story has inspired many other works of art, including the operetta The Beautiful Galatea, by Franz von Suppé.  Here's the overture ...

27. "Deny thy father and refuse thy name, / __ thou wilt not, be but sworn my love": Juliet: OR IF.   The line just before it is one of the oft most quoted lines in Shakespeare and  here serves as Jeffrey Wechsler's signature.

28. Blood fluids: SERA.

29. "Women in Music Pt. III" pop band: HAIM.  Women in Music Pt. III is the third studio album by the sisters HAIM. It was released on June 26, 2020, in the United States by Columbia Records and internationally by Polydor Records. Here's Los Angeles (lyrics) ...

30. Director Preminger: OTTO.  OTTO Ludwig Preminger (5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.  He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre.  He first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as Laura (1944) and Fallen Angel (1945), while in the 1950s and 1960s, he directed high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with themes which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), rape (Anatomy of a Murder, 1959) and homosexuality (Advise & Consent, 1962). He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. He also had several acting roles.

Otto Preminger

31. Four times bi-: OCTA.

33. Organic frozen-food brand: AMY'S.  Looks like good stuff.

34. Some sandwiches: SUBS.

35. Waffle brand: EGGO.

36. Rickman of "Love Actually": ALAN.  Here's the Necklace Scene with some familiar faces besides ALAN ...

37. Citrus fruit: LIME.

41. "The Princess and the Pea" prop: BED.  The PEA purportedly felt like this ...

43. Vast: IMMENSE.  See  above.

44. Simpson daughter: LISA.   LISA does the crosswords, while Homer rakes it in ...

45. Part of RNA: RIBO.  Prefix for RIBOSE, a sugar that forms the backbone of  RiboNucleic Acid, an important component of the cellular process for the synthesis of proteins.

46. Go with the flow: DRIFT.  Or CATCH somebody's meaning.

49. One of Mexico's 31: STATE.

50. Show place?: THIRD.  Clever clue. The THIRD in the sequence WIN, PLACE, and SHOW.

51. Overhauled: REDID.

52. Fish sauce taste: UMAMI.  Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and UMAMI.

53. Fairy tale figure: GNOME. GNOMES are NICE figures.

Garden Gnome

54. Fairy tale figures: OGRES.  Some OGRES are NICE too, but misunderstood ...

Shrek

56. Romance writer Roberts: NORA.  A Marylander who made (very) good ...

Nora Roberts

57. Revered one: IDOL.

58. Ancestral knowledge: LORE.

59. World's largest furniture retailer: IKEA. Could also be clued "Four letter furniture manufacturer:"

60. Heroic deed: FEAT.  Here's a less heroic FEAT performing Dixie Chicken with Emmy Lou Harris and Bonnie Raitt ...

61. Aims: ENDS.  ... and thus ENDS the review.


Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley 

Wednesday, April 5, 2023, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: HAT TRICK

 

19. Hat that sounds right for an eco-conscious poet?: SOLAR BOWLER. The BOWLER hat was originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849.

31. Hat that sounds right for a futuristic cartoon poet?: JETSON STETSON. John Batterson STETSON is the the inventor of the cowboy hat. Near the end of his life, STETSON began donating almost all of his money to charitable organizations. He built grammar and high schools and helped build colleges, helped establish the YMCA in Philadelphia, co-founded Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, and a homeless shelter and soup kitchen, in 1878. Here's a favorite version of St. James Infirmary, covered by Arlo Guthrie, where he croons about being buried in a STETSON hat (@5:10).

42. Hat that sounds right for a poet's annual party?: BIRTHDAY BERET.

 56. Hat that sounds right for a poet on Election Day?: VOTER BOATER.

 

Melissa here. Pretty straightforward theme here, rhyming phrases for hats that "sound right" for certain occasions. I'm guessing the seed phrase was either SOLAR BOWLER or VOTER BOATER.

Across:

 
1. Hair-covering garments: HIJABS. Not a hat, but a kind of head covering.

7. __ oil: CASTOR. No thanks.

13. Together at the movies, say: ON A DATE.

15. Army swimmer?: OCTOPUS. Get it? 8 arms?

17. Equestrian loop: STIRRUP. Loop for a foot.

18. "Success at last!": I MADE IT.

21. Opposite of SSW: NNE.

22. Thompson who plays Bianca in the "Creed" films: TESSA.

23. Foil alternative: EPEE.

24. Bend at a 5-Down: PLIE. Ballet. 

 

 27. Some chats, briefly: IMS. Instant messages.

30. Cheryl of "Charlie's Angels": LADD. She joined the show after Season One when Farrah Fawcett left the show, playing Kris Munroe, Jill's younger sister.

36. Eur. carrier: SAS. Scandinavian Airlines.

37. Carnival city: RIO. The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is a festival held every year before Lent; it is considered the biggest carnival in the world, with two million people per day on the streets. The first Carnival festival in Rio occurred in 1723.

38. Concept in East Asian philosophy: TAO. Chinese word signifying way, path, route, road or, sometimes more loosely, doctrine.

39. Scheduling abbr.: TBA. To be announced.

46. 2% alternative: SKIM. Milk.

48. Phillipa of "Hamilton": SOO. She played Eliza Hamilton.

 

 49. "Auld Lang __": SYNE. "The good old times."

50. Tea brand with an Iced Citrus Jasmine variety: TAZO. Starbucks sold the Tazo Tea brand to Unilever.

51. Letter-shaped fastener: T-BOLT. T-bolts are a type of threaded fastener that is used to secure two or more objects together. They consist of a head with two wings on either side, which allows them to be tightened securely when inserted into a pre-drilled hole.

55. Notable period: ERA.

62. Backdrop for some History Channel programming: WARTIME.

64. Flyer making short hops: AIR TAXI. A small commercial airplane used for short flights between localities not served by scheduled airlines.

65. Tries hard: STRIVES.

66. Joint Chiefs member: GENERAL. General Mark A. Milley is the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council.

67. Trigonometry function: SECANT. I was told there would be no math. For those who like math ... here's more about it.

68. __ seed: SESAME. People suffering from gout and Wilson's disease should avoid sesame seeds as they are rich in copper. Sesame seeds might lower blood sugar levels, thus making the ingredient unsafe for people on blood sugar medication.

Down:
 

1. "Bonanza" brother: HOSS. Played by Dan Blocker.

 

2. Engrossed by: INTO.

3. Monopoly corner: JAIL. The board game.

4. Classified info?: AD RATES.

5. Supporter of dance troupes: BARRE. The horizontal handrail, usually wooden, that is fixed to the walls of a ballet studio approximately 3.5 feet (1 m) from the floor.

6. Short Wikipedia entries: STUBS. A stub is an article deemed too short and incomplete to provide encyclopedic coverage of a subject.

7. Slinky, for one: COIL.

 

 8. Top: ACME.

9. "There was a __ danced, and under that was I born": "Much Ado About Nothing": STAR. What does it mean?

10. "Dracula" director Browning: TOD. The films of Tod Browning.

11. Kitchen storage option: OPEN PANTRY. 16 Ideas How to Make Your Open Pantry Look Good.

12. Beyond repair: RUINED.

14. Thematic set of poems: EPOS. A group of poems, transmitted orally, concerned with parts of a common epic theme.

16. Fine mount: STEED. A very old-fashioned way to say "horse." In Middle English, a steed was distinguished as "a great horse," as opposed to a palfrey, an ordinary, everyday horse. So a steed was typically a war horse that carried warriors into battle.

20. "Don't go!": WAIT.

23. Jeff Lynne's band: ELO. Wikipedia: The Electric Light Orchestra are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterized by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography.

24. Short nightwear?: PJS. Short for pajamas.

25. "Mulan" singer Salonga: LEA. Renown across the world for her powerful voice and perfect pitch. She is best known for her Tony Award winning role in Miss Saigon.

 

 26. "I've never seen anything so weird!": IT'S BIZARRE. That did not come easy.

28. Facebook parent company: META. The rebranding is part of the global company's big plan to develop a virtual world but critics say its an attempt to shift focus from recent controversies.

29. "Don't go!": STAY.

32. NHL great Bobby: ORR. Robert Gordon Orr OC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest of all time.

33. Minor complaints: NITS.

34. Nabe in lower Manhattan: SOHO. Nabe being short for neighborhood. SoHo is short for “south of Houston Street.” Today, the neighborhood is famous for its upscale boutiques, artists, and cast-iron architecture. But in the mid-1900s, SoHo was known for its factories and industries, earning it the nickname “Hell’s Hundred Acres.” What To Do in SoHo: Art, Food and Elegance in New York City.

35. __ story: SOB.

40. 2016 World Series MVP Zobrist: BEN. He played in Major League Baseball for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, and Chicago Cubs.

41. Broke bread: ATE.

43. Tweeter's "I think": IMO. In my opinion.

44. Pour on the TLC: DOTE.

45. Some country homes: ESTATES.

46. Instant Pot dishes: STEWS. So many recipes these days are either for the Instant Pot or the air fryer.

47. Gold standards: KARATS.

52. Crow: BRAG. Seeing this as cow didn't help.

53. Stage awards: OBIES. Notable achievement in plays performed off-Broadway.

54. TV producer Michaels: LORNE. Best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the Late Night series, The Kids in the Hall and The Tonight Show.

56. Bounty alternative: VIVA. Paper towel brands.

57. Harbinger: OMEN. Rain, hail and snow still here - but the harbingers of Spring have appeared - ants!

58. Skills assessment: TEST.

59. Skating commentator Lipinski: TARA. 

 

60. Skills assessment: EXAM.

61. Provoke: RILE.

63. Spasm: TIC.

 

 

Notes from C.C.: 

Happy birthday to dear Agnes (Irish Miss), who helped me so much during the last few years of Boomer's life. I can't imagine the mistakes I would have made without her always prompt and practical advice. Thank you so much for the love and care you've been so generously giving to me, Agnes! 

From Agnes:

The flowers are from a Words With Friend opponent whom I’ve been playing steadily for more than 8 Years. We have never met or spoken on the phone, but have become friends through chatting via the game, texts, and emails. His wife’s maiden name is McGrath, as is mine, and that coincidence started our friendship. He never forgets my birthday and I never forget his as it’s on St. Patrick’s Day and, fittingly, his name is Patrick!  

 

Thursday, March 16, 2023, Jeffrey Wechler

 Today I have the privilege of reviewing Jeffrey Wechsler's latest contribution to the LAT puzzle canon.  For those of you who are new to him, here's an interview by C.C. in 2014. And here's a link to some of his more recent NYT puzzles.

In this outing he gives us some important tips on how to avoid taking responsibility for your mistakes ...

... with 4 theme clues that have punful fills answering questions with the pattern "Start of [someone's] argument with [someone else]?" ...

17A. Start of a tennis player's argument with a line judge?: THIS ISN'T MY FAULT.  "You can't be serious!"

25A. Start of an artist's argument with a gallery owner?: I'M BEING FRAMED.  FRAMED is a 2009 BBC Masterpiece film and one of our favorites.  It's a sweet story about art, illusion, and love, starring Trevor Eve and Eve Myles.  When the London National Gallery's water pipes start to leak, they have to move their entire collection of priceless paintings to an abandoned slate mine in Wales.  Curator Quentin Lester, who’s managing the whole operation by himself, then has to cope with the curious residents of the nearby Welsh village who have been kept in the dark about what's going on inside the old mine.  

Rather than just a trailer, I'm embedding the entire video (1:28:55)*.  The first 4 or 5 minutes set the stage perfectly and if you decide you'd like to watch this delightful masterpiece later you can easily copy and save the YouTube link (right-click Copy video URL).  The film is in English, but be sure to click on closed captions (CC) when you watch it to make it easier to follow some of the Welsh accents.  *I guarantee that you'll love it ...

  46A. Start of a dress model's argument with a tailor?:DON'T PIN IT ON ME.   I'm sure my Mother, the last of the great British seamstresses, often heard this from brides who had binged a bit too much between the "final" fitting of their gowns and the day before their weddings.  But she specialized in quickly making any dress fit any shape.

60A. Start of a geometry teacher's argument with a student?: LET'S SEE THE PROOF.  Rachel shows you how to win this argument ...

Here's the grid:
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Marshy spots: BOGS.  Did I ever tell you the story about the time a buddy and I purloined a pile of peat we found stacked by the roadside in Ireland?  We found that it doesn't burn very well if it's not thoroughly dried.  In fact it stinks!

5. Diego Rivera creation: MURAL.

The History of Mexico

10. Escalator part: STEP.

14. "See here, old chap!": I SAY.  In the words of Hercule Poirot's long suffering man Friday, Arthur Hastings ...

And a tip of the hat to Husker who reminded me of this mannerism some time back.

15. Something in the air: AROMA.

16. Topiary piece: TREE.  Here's one of my grandsons petting a fox at the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD.

17. [Theme clue]

20. Recipient of many lists: SANTA.

21. Poise: COOLNESS.

22. Life-saving pro: EMT.

24. Rage: FAD.  Nice misdirection.  I fell into the mire of IRE, but managed to get out eventually

25. [Theme clue]

32. Place to put down stakes?: Abbr.: OTB.  Off Track Betting.  See last week's Thursday review for some stakes coming up this Spring.

34. City in western Yemen: SANAA (Arabic: صَنْعَاء), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, the video embedded in this link has some great scenes of SANAA .

35. Get the word out?: ERASE.

36. Kid-lit writer Margaret __ Brown: WISE.  Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements.

Margaret Wise Brown

38. Clean with elbow grease: SCOUR.  Hand up if you had SCRUB first?

40. __ novel: DIME.  The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paper bound editions. The term dime novel has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, referring to story papers, five- and ten-cent weeklies, "thick book" reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines.

41. Ties (up): EVENS.

43. OB test: AMNIO.  Amniocentesis is an obstetric procedure done to remove amniotic fluid and cells from the uterus for testing or treatment.  Amniocentesis can provide useful information about a baby's health.

45. British jazz element?: ZED.  Nice meta: the word "jazz" has two of these elements.  OTOH, Jazz music originated in the US and British jazz is derived from it.  Here's bit of the history.

46. [Theme clue]

49. Good guess in Battleship: HIT.  Battleship is game of guessing, strategy and logical thought that dates back to before World War One and is known the world over for being a simple game that can be played with no more than a pencil and two pieces of paper.  Take a shot at this online version.

50. RR stop: STA.

51. Donations to a museum in a will, e.g.: BEQUESTS.

56. Take in: ADMIT.

60. [Theme clue]

63. "Songversation" singer India.__: ARIE.  Songversation is the fifth studio album by American singer India.Arie. The album was released on June 25, 2013, by Soulbird Music and Motown Records.  Here's the song Brothers Keeper from that album (lyrics):

64. NFLer since 2016: LA RAM.  The LA RAMS originated in Cleveland in 1936.

65. Medicine Hat's prov.: ALTA.  The abbreviation for the province of Alberta, Canada used by Anglophones.  Francophones use ALB.  A CSO to CanadianEh! who lives in Toronto, ONT.  Medicine Hat is in southeast part of the province and is located along the South Saskatchewan River.

66. Brewer's flowers: HOPS.  Humulus lupulus, the common hop or HOPS, is a species of flowering plant in the hemp family Cannabinaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and North America.

Hops
Humulus lupulus

67. Dessert choice, for short: FROYO.  Or FROZEN YOGURT, for long.  Our grandchildren's favorite is Sweet Frog, whose mascots are "Scoop" and "Cookie":
 

68. Secure, in a way: SEAL.  The best way is with a kiss:

Down:

1. Odds and ends: BITS.

2. Org. that makes workplace safety posters: OSHA.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Department of Labor.  March is Ladder Safety Month:

Ladder Hero

3. Forward progress on the football field: GAIN.  Progress that may involve some PAIN.

4. Word with metric or merit: SYSTEM.   Everything that you want to know about the metric system and more.  And here's what the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has to say about their merit system principles.

5. __ o menos: "more or less," in Spanish: MAS.  Today's Spanish Lesson.

6. Garden fixture: URN.

7. Uniformed college gp.: ROTC.  The Reserve Officers' Training Corps ( ROTC) in the United States was created by Alden Partridge and began with the Morrill Act of 1862 which established the land-grant colleges. Part of the federal government's requirement for these schools was that they include military tactics as part of their curriculum.

8. Firing range purchase: AMMO.

9. "Stop teasing me!": LAYOFF.  When my oldest granddaughter has had enough she pleads "STAHP!"

10. Ordinary: STANDARD.

11. "Indubitably": TRUE.

12. Fish that may be hard to fillet: EELS.

13. Loved ones who are blessed at the Feast of St. Francis: PETS.  Many churches in the United States celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 4 each year. The feast commemorates the life of St Francis, who was born in the 12th century and is the Catholic Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment. It is a popular day for pets to be “blessed”.  And they bless us back.

18. "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" quintet: IAMBS.  IAMBIC Pentameter is the poetic meter used by Shakespeare, consisting of  5 pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables per line.  And this is how Jeffrey signs his puzzles.

19. Solar __: FLARE.  Solar flares are large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun lasting from minutes to hours.  The largest flares are rated as X-Class on a scale of intensity similar to the Richter scale for seismic events.  These flares are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and are capable of creating long lasting radiation storms that can harm satellites, communications systems, and even ground-based technologies and power grids.

23. Socials with cucumber sandwiches: TEAS.

25. "Hedda Gabler" dramatist: IBSEN.

26. Like Inti Punku: INCAN.  Inti Punku (Quechua "sun gate") is an archaeological site in the Cusco Region of Peru that was once a fortress of the sacred city, Machu Picchu.  It is now also the name of the final section of the Incan Trail between the Sun Gate complex and the city.

Machu Picchu

27. "The Scholomance" trilogy writer Novik: NAOMI.  Naomi Novik is the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author of the Nebula Award-winning novel Uprooted, Spinning Silver, and the nine-volume Temeraire series, as well as a founder of the Archive of Our Own.   The Scholomance trilogy is about a school  for the dark arts in Transylvania.  The first two books are The Deadly Education and  The Last Graduate.  Here's a review of the final book, The Golden Enclaves which was published in September 2022.

Naomi Novik

28. Scrawny: GAUNT.

29. Yellow shade: MAIZE.

30. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" villain __ Squalor: ESME.  While solving the puzzle I glossed past the clue and seeing "Squalor", I immediately filled ESME, as she was the heroine of  this J.D. Salinger's novel.  Coming back to blog it, I noticed something more sinister going on, as she was described as a villain somehow involved in a series of children's  books about a "unfortunate events" chronicled by a guy named Daniel Handler, alias Lemony Snicket.  The saga is complicated by lots of intrigue, literary allusions, and other stuff,  so you can either read this, or watch this trailer for one of the adaptions [or both if you're a glutton for punishment]:

31. Safe document: DEED.

32. Was short: OWED.

33. DVR pioneer: TIVO.  TiVo Inc. was an American corporation with its primary product being its eponymous digital video recorder.  On September 8, 2016, TiVo Inc. was acquired by Rovi Corporation. The new entity became known as TiVo Corporation, which in turn, merged with Xperi in December 2019.  Now we just store the stuff in the cloud (aka "fog") and stream it on demand (aka "binging").

37. Raves (about): ENTHUSES.

39. Kia sedans: RIOS.

42. Some plants: SPIES.  Sneaky clue.

44. Ready: ON TAP.

47. The "se" of per se: ITSELF.  How to correctly use ‘per se’. 

48. Colorful fabric: MADRAS.  "Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."- Albert Einstein.  Checkered Past: A Brief History of the Madras Plaid Shirt.  Hand up if you wore them? 

51. Ho-hum: BLAH.  Relax, it's almost over.

52. Designer Saarinen: EERO.  Eero Saarinen (/ˈeɪroʊ ˈsɑːrɪnən, ˈɛəroʊ -/, Finnish: [ˈeːro ˈsɑːrinen]; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan, Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., the TWA Flight Center (now TWA Hotel) in New York City, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

Eero Saarinen

53. Swab brand: QTIP.

54. Spree: TEAR.  If the clue had been "Tear:", how likely would you have been to fill SPREE?

55. Texas MLBer: STRO.  A CSO to Anon -T

57. Tunneling rodent: MOLE.  Or a 42D.

58. Tiny amount: IOTA.

59. Nonstick brand: TFAL.  It seems to get stuck in a lot of crossword fill though.

61. Stable staple: HAY.

62. Angsty genre: EMO.  OPERA wouldn't fit.

Cheers,
Bill

As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading, for her constructive criticism.

 

waseeley

* A note on the Framed video.  If you open the clip I think that YouTube will remember it, and it may show up on your TV streaming service if you use one.