Wednesday, March 31, 2021 Joe Deeney

Theme: FIRST THINGS FIRST (61. "Start at the beginning," and a hint to the four other longest Across answers)  - First can precede the first word of each theme entry.

18. 2010s sci-fi crime drama starring Michael Emerson: PERSON OF INTEREST. First person.

24. Completed in haste: DOWN AND DIRTY. First down.

39. Equine sprinter: QUARTER HORSE. First quarter.

53. Pull-and-peel food item: STRING CHEESE. First string.

Boomer here again, filling in another blogging gap, blogging another 16x15 grid. 

I lived in Hopkins Minnesota from 1952 to 1997.  Although I went to a Catholic High School in a neighboring suburb, my three sisters all went to Hopkins High.  The reason I mention this is because a recent graduate named Paige Bueckers graduated from Hopkins last year after tearing up the Lake Conference and is now shooting hoops for UConn in the NCAA Tournament.   I am not a huge Basketball fan but I am waiting for Major League Baseball starting the end of this week.  Go  Twins!

Across:

1. Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations __ Ujiri: MASAI.  I suspect Toronto fans are waiting for the Blue Jays to take the field also eh.

 

6. "Ditto!": SO AM I.  Yup!

11. Qatar's capital: DOHA.

15. Largest members of the dolphin family: ORCAS.  They are huge fish.  I do not think any are swimming around in the pool at Tampa Bay's Stadium.

16. B's equivalent: C FLAT.

17. Iridescent gem: OPAL.

21. Two after epsilon: ETA.  I was never any good at the Greek alphabet.  But I know Alpha and Beta.

22. Full Sail offering: ALE.  Canada Dry zero sugar Ginger ALE is one of my favorites.

23. "Rats!": DANG.  I sometimes use a different word when I miss a ten pin.

30. Bill collection?: WAD.  Nice to think about, but only if they are Benjamins.

32. Diva's numbers: SOLOS.

33. Stalls: BUYS TIME.  Talk about BUYING TIME?  I was watching the match play golf on TV last weekend and it took those guys forever to play.

35. NBA official: REF.  They have a rough time in the NCAA Tournament.

37. "I'll skip it": PASS.  The REF has to make a quick decision about whether a PASS was okay.

38. Noodle output?: IDEA.

42. Leave speechless: STUN.

44. "Silly me!": OOPS.  DANG, I missed another Ten Pin.

45. Discouraging words: NOS.

46. NBC drama with two pronouns in its title: THIS IS US.

48. Brass in parades: TUBAS.  I don't remember seeing TUBAS in parades.  They are big and heavy and not comfortable to walk down a street two miles or more while wearing a band uniform on a hot summer day.

52. Name that's also a Roman numeral: LIV.  Super Bowl LIV was a year or two ago.  Liv Tyler is the daughter of Steve Tyler.

57. Dresden denial: NEIN.  I was in Germany once and learned this word first.

59. Castle queenside, in chess notation: OOO.

60. "Atonement" author McEwan: IAN.

67. Smoothie berry: ACAI.

68. Traffic cop?: NARCO. Drug traffic. 31. Anti-traffic org.: DEA.

69. More loyal: TRUER.  TRUER words were never spoken.

70. Ping-Pong supplies: NETS. The Puzzlemaster Will Shortz is an avid player.

71. Kids: TYKES.  I never got a chance to coach high school bowling this year.  They are kids but I think they might have to be younger to be called TYKES.

72. Showing one's claws, so to speak: CATTY.

Down:

1. Fuel-efficient bikes: MOPEDS.  I remember these.  When I was a TYKE, we could rent a 50cc scooter for fun.  I think they were Suzukis.

2. Playground rebuttal: ARE TOO.  YES I AM!

3. Prescription, to a layperson?: SCRAWL.  Hmmm.  I don't think mine are SCRAWLED.  They just show up in my mailbox on time, and C.C. keeps track.

4. Remote batteries: AAS.  Very popular and necessary.  We have a drawer full of them.

5. Prefix with metric: ISO.

6. Take to task: SCOLD. 

7. Did in: OFFED.

8. Whom Clay became: ALI. Cassius Clay.

9. Fellow: MAN.

10. Wednesday kin: ITT.  Proud member of the Addams Family but I cannot remember if  ITT was a girl or a boy ??

11. TV explorer with a monkey named Boots: DORA.

12. Hygienist's request: OPEN WIDE.  Wife's request - SHUT UP !

13. Can really play: HAS GAME.  We'll see how many Major Leaguers HAVE GAME next week.

14. Ctrl-__-Del: ALT.  I would stay away from the sequence.

19. Photographer Goldin: NAN.

20. Freezer aisle brand: EDYS.  I've been eating Breyer's for dessert.  They have no sugar added.

25. Shutout feature: NO RUNS.  How many Pitchers will HAVE GAME ??

26. Crossing the pond, say: ASEA.  He joined the Navy, to see the world but he only saw the SEA.

27. Pronoun-shaped girders: I BARS.

28. Hurry:  RUSH.  Speaking of RUSH.  We lost Mr. Limbaugh a few weeks ago. 

29. Emmy winner Cicely: TYSON.

34. Crying need: TISSUE.  Okay if I just call it a Kleenex?

36. Cold coat: FROST.  It looks like we Minnesotans might have to wait until November to see our breath outside again.

37. __ Challenge: soft drink promotion: PEPSI.  That's my other soft drink, Diet Pepsi next to the zero sugar Ginger Ale. 

39. Shake in fear over: QUIVER AT.

40. Series of dates: TOUR.

41. With 66-Down, nest egg option: ROTH. 66. See 41-Down: IRA.  I have a regular IRA.  I never understood the Roth kind.  It seemed to have a lot of ifs, ands and buts. 

42. Cardinal letters: STL.  Home of the Arch.  If you want to take a ride to the top, it takes 45 minutes.  I did not go.  Instead I visited the Bowling Hall of Fame.  I was not in it and I heard that it has been moved to Texas.

43. Metaphor for a treacherous situation: THIN ICE.  It's not a metaphor here.  We have laws to take ice fishing houses off the lakes by earlier this month.  

47. Ain't right?: ISN'T.

49. Lebanon's capital: BEIRUT.  Didn't he hit 714 Home Runs for the Yankees?

50. How flatware is usually sold: AS A SET.  I always called it silverware, even though it was some other kind of metal.

51. Guard at the gate: SENTRY.

54. Time being: NONCE.

55. "We Got the Beat" group: GO GOS.  You cannot fool me.  This goes back to the 1970s.  Are they still around?

56. Trig. ratio: COS.

58. Goddess with cow's horns: ISIS.

61. Ceiling fixture: FAN.  We have one of these but we seldom use it.  It can keep you awake.

62. Big bang letters?: TNT.  Turner Network Television.  It has some classic old movies sometimes.  I never knew that Ronnie Howard was in "The Music Man" until I saw it on TNT.

63. Mare's meal: HAY.  Mare's eat oats and Does eat oats, and Little Lambs eat Ivy.

64. Really bug: IRK.

65. Consumer protection org.: FTC.

Boomer

 

Thursday March 18, 2021 Joe Deeney

 

Today's puzzle by Joe Deeney invites us to ideate on 4 theme clues and not accept the first thought that they invoke, but to go further and expand our minds a bit.  The MIND is a mysterious domain, IMHO not well-understood by modern science, and it has many ways to grasp REALITY and UNREALITY. Each clue tips us off that we are about to TRIP into Joe's world with the lead-in "No, no,[there's more] ...":

16. "No, no, more user-friendly than DOS. __!": PICTURE WINDOWS.  Not difficult to do.  MS WINDOWS revolutionized personal computing by creating a "user friendly" operating system.  The only problem is that the user interface (UI) has become an end in itself, with a stable of millionaire programmers who make a plethora of changes to every new release, whether they are needed or not.  END OF RANT.

25. "No, no, flatter than sharks. __!": FIGURE SKATES.  Fascinating fish.  If you're ever in Baltimore, be sure and go see the NATIONAL AQUARIUM.  The centerpiece is a 2,200,000 gallon POOL that can be observed from above and through glass below, and it's filled with SKATES, Black Tip reef sharks, many varieties of tropical fishes, and wet-suited HUMANS who are constantly feeding all of the above at eye level.

40. "No, no, bigger than Humvees. __!": THINK TANKS. Speaking of pools, these groups pool the MINDS of EXPERTS.  However some of these pools are just puddles actually.  I knew a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Maryland Medical School, whose business card simply said "Merrill Snyder, PhD - EXPERT".  Merrill defined an EXPERT as a "Drip under pressure!".

52. "No, no, scarier than iguanas. __!": IMAGINE DRAGONS.  Imagine this one ...
 

Wouldn't want to run into him in a dark jungle!  Run away!  Run away!  Oh and BTW, a KOMODO DRAGON's bite is poisonous and they climb trees!
 
Across:

1. Winnipeg NHLer: JET.  Okay sports fans. Here's their schedule for the remainder of the year.  Last Sunday the clue and the answer were reversed.

4. Dwellings: ABODES.  ADOBES fit, but don't perp; but they're still dwellings.  Magnificent dwellings.
 

10. Retirement outfit?: PJS.  Cute clue.  Actually some non-retired  ZOOMERS wear them to work.

13. Tailless primate: APE.

14. Low-ranked British peers: BARONS.

15. "La Bamba" star __ Diamond Phillips: LOU.  I haven't seen this film, but Phillips had a major role in the long running modern western crime series Longmire, which I believe is still streaming on NETFLIX.  Phillips played Henry Standing Bear.  Great series, which I highly recommend.

19. Make the same point as: ECHO.

20. Ran: BLED.

21. Hogwarts letter carriers: OWLS.  Everything I know about Harry Potter, I've learned from CWDs (not very much).

22. Throws a bomb, in football: GOES LONG.

29. Some Strads: CELLI.  A word on one of the greatest craftsmen of all time.

30. Hosiery hue: TAUPE.

32. "The Great" pope between Sixtus III and Hilarius: ST LEO I.   Pope Leo the Great is probably best known for riding out from Rome to meet Attila the Hun in 452 and dissuading him from sacking Rome.  Just what he said to convince Attila to turn back is not recorded.  There is a monument to St. Leo the Great in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome:
 

34. "Peanuts" character spelled with a hyphen until 1981: PIGPEN.  Pigpen first appeared in Peanuts almost 67 years ago, in a strip published on July 13, 1954. Charles Schulz may have been initially inspired to create Pigpen after visiting a friend’s home in the early 1950s. One of the kids in the family came into the house looking very disheveled after a day of playing outside, and the parent’s first reaction was to call the child a “pigpen.” From his introduction in the strip to his final appearance in 1999, Pigpen, the boy with his own perpetual cloud of dust, has proven to be one of the most beloved characters in the comic strip’s history.  Here's his debut ...
 

35. __ chi: TAI.  My BIL is named Chi, but he practices KARATE.

36. At home with: USED TO.  There are a lot of people at home these days and it can be hard to get USED TO.

39. Also mention: ADD.

43. Former Cubs exec Epstein: THEO.

45. Hardy heroine: TESS.  Tess of the D'urbervilles, a tragedy by Thomas Hardy.

46. Watchdog gp. created under Nixon: OSHA.  Who'da thunk it?

49. Traffic signals?: HORNS.  Leave it to George Gershwin to use them as instruments in An American in Paris:
 

51. Two cents: INPUT.

57. Bottom line: NET.

58. Polite refusal: NO MAAM.

59. Numbered hwy.: RTE.

60. Asian honorific: SRI.  Shri (/ʃriː/; Devanagari: श्री, ISO: Śrī, Sanskrit pronunciation: [ʃriː], Non-Sanskrit pronunciation: [sriː]), also transliterated as Shree, Sri, or Sree, is a South Asian word denoting a title of respect used before the name, primarily as an honorific:
 

61. Leaves befuddled: STUMPS.  I was AT SEA, in a HAZE as to what to do with this.  But then this came to me:

62. Org. created in response to 9/11: TSA.

Down:

1. Mocking remark: JAPE.

2. Really cool: EPIC.  Like AWESOME, man.  Like this old story about the IRE OF ACHILLES.

3. Georgia __: TECH.

4. Disney monkey: ABU.  I remember ALADDIN (from grade school?),  but not ABU.

5. Mop manager?: BARBER.  Formerly a much more important role at court:
 

6. Promise of dire consequences: OR ELSE.

7. IKEA kit pieces: DOWELS.  PEGS wouldn't cut it.

8. City about 250 miles NNW of Dallas, TX: ENID OK.  Nobody said it was actually in TEXAS😊.

9. Govt. ID: SSN.

10. Clear of snow: PLOW.  My other BIL and I finally got to use our snow blower this winter  But they don't do so well with SLEET, which we get a lot of as we're on Maryland's FALL LINE.  In addition to being a geological feature, it is also the line along which cold Northern moisture laden air streaming down the Piedmont Plateau, meets the warmer air on the coastal plain, resulting in slushy wet snows:
 

The Fall Line

11. Fleshy fold: JOWL.

12. Puzzle (out): SUSS.  I hope you enigmatologist SUSSERS are enjoying yourselves!.

17. Alt-tab function: TOGGLE.  TOGGLE what?  Not sure this worked for me.

18. GI ID: DOG TAG.

23. Yves' eager assent: OUI OUI.  Today's French lesson.

24. Turkey, for one: NATION.  As I got the first 4 letters with perps and as turkey's are NATIVE to North America, this clue gobbled up some of my time.

25. Brine-cured Greek cheese: FETA.

26. Uneducated group: ILLITERATI.  As opposed to the LITERATI, like us 'uns.

27. Travel authorization for citizens of a 27-mem. union: EU PASSPORT.  Prior to BREXIT it would have been 28-mem.

28. Zoomed: SPED.

29. Winter hrs. in IL: CST.

31. Terminate: END.   Wait, don't go!  There are 16 more clues left.  I think you'll like the rest, especially the last one!

33. Wasn't present?: ISN'T.  Well it could have become PRESENT between THEN and NOW.

34. Education support gps.: PTAS.

37. Stretch (out): EKE.  A usage of this word I'd not seen before.

38. RB stoppers: DTS.  Some other clues for this aren't PC anymore.

41. With 42-Down, city on the Pearl River Delta: HONG.  I knew this because GUANGZHOU is on the Northern end of this delta.  We had to take our adopted grandson Ray there to clear him through the American Consulate.

42. See 41-Down: KONG.  KONG is on it too.  Stopped over in both places at once on a puddle jump from GUANGZHOU and had a WRAP in the airport.

43. Starts to disperse, as a crowd: THINS. 

44. Round-tripper: HOMER.  See 2D for an EPIC by this author.

47. Looks (for): HUNTS.  As a kid, whenever we lost a baseball in the grass, the Catholics on the team would start praying to St. Anthony.  And he always came through, as long as we HUNTED long enough.

48. Befuddled: AT SEA.  See 61A.

50. Serious violations: SINS.  Well not all SINS are serious, but I won't go into that here.

51. Brand with a paw print on its logo: IAMS. 

53. Punctuating word indicating sarcasm: NOT.  IS TOO!

54. Long-legged runner: EMU.  A CSO to BOOMER, as BOOMING and DRUMMING are some of the EMU's characteristic behaviors.  Unlike the Ostrich, I learned from this article that they are ENDEMIC to Australia.

55. Lake Mead creator: DAM.  This is a really cool website about an EPIC National Recreation Area.  Be sure and run the video.

56. Genre for Master P or Heavy D: RAP.  I don't know these artists.  The only rapper I've ever seen rap was this one (all you constructors, perk up your ears!):
 

Here's the grid:

 

Here's hoping that Joe will stop by and update us on his new daughter, who I believe will have her first birthday this April.  I'll bet she's crawling all over the place by now!  Perhaps he could also chime in on the theme - the depths of the mind being what they are, there may be a hidden level that I've missed.

waseeley

Cheers,
Bill

Notes from C.C.:

Special sweet treat today. The first picture is Melissa's daughter and her daughter Jaelyn. The second one is Jaelyn's little sister Harper, so cute. Look at her eyes!

 

 

Saturday, January 30, 2021 Joe Deeney

 Saturday Themeless by Joe Deeney 

Joe and his 
lovely daughter born in April

Here we have another challenging Saturday pinwheel-style puzzle consisting of 10-letter troikas by Joe, our Supply Chain Project Manager in Massachusetts.

Here is what Joe had to say about this puzzle: 

Hi Gary,

Thanks for reaching out. All is well here, hope the same for you.

This is the same grid layout as my puzzle published in the LA Times July 25, 2020 (hg - both are posted just below). This puzzle originally started life as an offshoot of that puzzle. I submitted that original puzzle to the New York Times and got a polite rejection, noting they especially liked the NE corner. I decided used that corner to design what would become this puzzle and submitted it to them - they passed again. I submitted the original puzzle to 

Rich which he accepted. At that point I rebuilt the NW corner of today's puzzle, since it was the same as the original, and sent that on to Rich as well, and was very happy to get the thumbs up from him on it.

As I look at the puzzle today, LISLE and BEREA stick out as fill I wouldn't tolerate anymore, but I hope there is enough fun among the long answers to make up for those clunkers.

-Joe

                    Today's grid and Joe's identical 7/20/20 grid

          

Let's Take Off!

Across:

1. Ones who usually know what to do with their hands: CARDSHARPS - This CARD SHARP (SHARK) isn't dealing hands off the top of the deck

11. She taught Butch and Sundance Spanish for their Bolivian robberies: ETTA.

15. Turn yellow: CHICKEN OUT.

16. Level: SHIM - Using a SHIM (noun) to SHIM (verb) up a doorframe to level

17. Italian menu word meaning "hunter": CACCIATORE - I not only got it, I spelled it correctly!

18. Rig: SEMI - "See ya on down the road, Jack!"

    
19. Spot about being green, for short: PSA - Public Service Announcement telling you to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle so we don't 30. Exhaust: USE UP our natural resources 

20. Earthquakes or Fire, briefly: MLS TEAM.

22. Kind of engine: JET.

23. Lhasa __: APSO - Lhasa is the capital of Tibet and APSO is the Tibetan word for hairy

24. Snack chip: DORITO.

26. Row houses?: FRATS - FRAT row in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

29. Agamemnon pair: NUS - Αγαμέμνονα

32. In again: RETRO - 80's? I wore those Converse Chuck Taylor's twenty years before that.

33. Only: LONE.

34. Social science classic: DAS KAPITAL - A rare first edition Marx signed four days after its 1867 publication 

36. DEA employee: AGT - We see lots of AGENTS clued here

37. Research Triangle city: RALEIGH.

38. Green of "Casino Royale": EVA - She is wearing a V-NECK like we saw in Jeff Stillman's Thursday puzzle

39. French archipelago: GUADELOUPE - In the Lesser Antilles

41. Cello's lack: FRET.

42. City with a Cleveland Browns training facility: BEREA, Ohio on Lou Groza Boulevard (you have to be a real (old) NFL fan to know of Lou "The Toe" Groza

43. Network operated by the U.S. Space Force: GPS - A GPSIII satellite just before launch by the U.S. Space Force last year

44. Hosiery thread: LISLE - I knew from doing cwd's and Joe said he would not use again.

45. Theater company?: ESCORT.

47. Vet school subj.: ANAT.

49. DIRECTV parent: ATT 

50. Hotel convenience: MINIBAR  Check out the cost of a Snickers and a Coke 

53. Get rid of: AXE.

56. "Kills bugs dead" brand: RAID - My ants seemed to be taking a shower in RAID but this stuff wiped 'em all out in an hour

58. It doesn't affect a starting pitcher's win-loss record: NO DECISION - In this summary below, C. Morton pitched 7.0 innings but did not get the win because R. Osuna was the pitcher of record when the Astros scored the winning run.

60. Permanently mark: ETCH.

61. Hard to follow, facetiously: CLEAR AS MUD - Try to explain baseball's infield fly rule to someone. 

62. True: REAL.

63. Trials with blindfolds, perhaps: TASTE TESTS.

Down:

1. Soyuz initials: CCCP - Союз Советских Социалистических Республик

2. Revelations: AHAS.

3. Like una heredera: RICA - Heredera means heiress and RICA means rich

4. XXV x XXVIII: DCC - Screenshot of an online Roman numberal calculator I used

5. Cuts corners: SKIMPS - This package SKIMPS on the shrimp

6. Recovers: HEALS.

7. Snack with an unappetizing name: ANTS ON A LOG - Celery, peanut butter and raisins. What's not to like?

8. Square __: ROOT - My online Roman Numeral calculator does not appear to do square ROOTS.

9. Unmitigated: PURE.

10. Place: STEAD - During the Civil War men could pay someone to go fight in their STEAD

11. Start at the beginning?: ESS - Start

12. Nerves: THE JITTERS - Never had 'em from coffee

13. Cause of many fictional paradoxes: TIME TRAVEL - In Back To The Future Marty McFly meets his mom and dad when he was their age

14. "Did it start already?": AM I TOO LATE.

21. Transmute: MORPH - Sir Isaac Newton's notes for transmuting lead into gold with the "philosopher's stone"

23. Put away the dishes?: ATE.

25. Portuguese royal: REI - Across the Pyrenees in Spain it is REY

26. Olympics opening ceremony VIP: FLAG BEARER - Soviet weightlifter Yury Vaslov carried the 35-lb flag with one hand for a full five minutes

27. Threat to world peace: ROGUE STATE and people who 37. Provide new pieces for?: REARM them

28. Ross Sea locale: ANTARCTICA - About 3,000 miles south of Melbourne

31. Flutters with excitement: SKIPS A BEAT - There was this JH dance once... 

34. Indian lentil stew: DAL All you want to know

35. Spend time in a cellar, perhaps: AGE - I'm seem to be doing that above ground 

40. __ juvante: with God's help: DEO - Latin

41. Honda subcompact: FIT - Their 5-door subcompact

44. Roundup tool: LARIAT - Unlike a lasso, a LARIAT is made of stiffer rope so that the noose stays open when it is thrown

46. Bit of color: TINCT.

48. Mother-of-pearl: NACRE - A familiar cwd substance

51. Pelican St. city: NOLA - New Orleans LA

52. Shakespearean warning word: IDES - Beware the IDES of March: Soothsayer warning Julius Caesar of the Ides of March - the day on which he was assassinated. Illustration for Julius Caesar from an edition of William Shakespeare's works published 1858.

53. Designs: AIMS.

54. Cancel: X-OUT - Also a golf ball that has a slight cosmetic defect is sold for much less is called an X-OUT

55. The odds are with them: ENDS - Every house has a drawer full of odds and ENDS

57. UPS alternative: DHL and...

59. Seattle-to-Reno dir.: SSE.