Sunday April 21, 2024 Julian Kwan

Theme: "Getting in the Way" - two letters are added to each common phrase. Those letters orderly spell out photobombing.

23. Ode to a much-loved Galaxy?: SOME PHONE LIKE YOU. Someone Like You.

40. Magical ottoman?: ENCHANTED FOOTREST. Enchanted forest.

58. Constantly thinking about escaping?: BREAKOUT OBSESSION. Breakout session.

80. Intention of one without morals?: DOOM THE RIGHT THING. Do the right thing.

98. Must-haves for a fashion doll?: BARBIE NECESSITIES. Bare necessities.

116. Converse with one more party guest?: GO THE EXTRA MINGLE. Go the extra mile.

Another Sunday debut. Congrats, Julian! Kwan is the Cantonese spelling of Mandarin Guan. Same character as the Quan (Vietnamese) in Ke Huy Quan, the director of "Everything Everywhere All at Once".

Hope the circles show up in your local paper. Otherwise, you might have missed the message in this puzzle.

Across:

1. Aural danger for Odysseus: SIREN.

6. Snit: HUFF.

10. Slow Churned ice cream brand: EDY'S. 27. Slush Puppie maker: ICEE.

14. High-and-mighty: SMUG.

18. Edge or Firefox alternative: OPERA. Never used Opera browser.

19. Camembert kin: BRIE.

20. Penn State's Nittany __: LIONS.

22. Fabled second-place finisher: HARE.

26. Actress Kurylenko: OLGA. She's a Bond Girl.

28. Camera type, for short: SLR.

29. Bygone news source: TOWN CRIER.

31. Pessimist's word: CAN'T.

33. Political cartoonist Thomas: NAST. The guy who designed the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey. I wonder why he did not pick up tiger or lion.

36. Had tea, to a Brit: ATE.

38. "Cat __ your tongue?": GOT.

39. Solo homer result: RBI.

47. Unsure sounds: UHS.

48. Restrain, as one's enthusiasm: BATE.

49. Poetic preposition: O'ER.

50. Experienced veteran: OLD TIMER.

51. Traditional fare of Japanese New Year: MOCHI. Sticky rice. Same thing in Chinese Tang Yuan.

Mochi Soup

Tang Yuan

53. Rockefeller Center's "American Progress" muralist: SERT.

55. Breeze (by): SAIL.

57. Division symbols: OBELI. Plural of obelus.

62. HIIT unit: REP. HIIT =  High-Intensity Interval Training .

63. "The Idol" star Lily-Rose: DEPP. Daughter of Johnny Depp.  She looks more like her mom.

64. Scrooge outburst: BAH.

65. Word after door or lock: STEP.

66. Computer clickers: MICE. I'm experiencing big Blogger glitch at this moment. Suddenly I can't save or access the blog Drafts folder. (One hour later: TTP came to the rescue. I can access the Drafts now,  but picture embed remains a problem. Sigh. Blogger!)

67. Treasure __: CHEST.

69. Give guidance: EDIFY.

71. Slanted: ATILT.

73. Co. founders, often: CEOS.

74. Level in a loyalty program: TIER.

77. Easter preceder?: NOR. Nor'easter.

78. Upper arm muscles, briefly: TRIS.

79. Football stat: ATT.

86. "The Cloister and the Hearth" author: READE. Charles Reade.

88. Learned: WISE.

89. Handle with __: CARE.

90. "Ciao!": LATER.

91. Avenue next to Reading Railroad: ORIENTAL.

93. __ date: DUE.

95. Tennis great with a namesake stadium: ASHE.

97. Kid's cry: MAA.

101. Raiding org.: ATF. And 102. Screening org.: TSA.

103. Equals: ARE.

104. Robe securer: SASH.

105. Unit of speed that's approximately 1.15 mph: KNOT.

106. Latte server: COFFEE BAR.

111. Gingerbread __: MAN.

113. Thought: IDEA.

115. One side of a sports bet: OVER.

122. Rose bowl?: VASE. Sweet clue.

123. SEC athlete in orange and blue: GATOR. Florida Gators. 

124. Garish: LOUD.

125. How to play without knowing the score?: BY EAR.

126. "Above all __ ... ": ELSE.

127. Uses a touchscreen: TAPS.

128. Squeezed (by): EKED.

129. Barracks VIP: SARGE.

Down:

1. "Mamma Mia!" duet for Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep: SOS.

2. Stock market debut letters: IPO.

3. Talk about the good old days: REMINISCE. Carmen came here a few weeks ago and bought some delicious snacks. I used to live here. Very old part of Guangzhou.

4. Assemble, as a Lego tower: ERECT.

5. Necklace clasp spot: NAPE.

6. "The Last of Us" network: HBO.

7. Catering dispenser: URN.

8. Cinco de Mayo celebration: FIESTA.

9. Chop down: FELL.

10. State animal of Utah: ELK.

11. Tried a nutrition program: DIETED.

12. Spinning toy on a string: YO-YO.

13. Frosty's makeup: SNOW. Snow on our yard when I woke up this morning, but all gone now.

14. Slow-cooked beef piece: SHORT RIB.

15. Bamako's country: MALI.

16. Push (to): URGE.

17. Climber's backpack filler: GEAR.

21. Apollo or Ra: SUN GOD. RA is the Egyptian sun god.

24. Temporary tattoo medium: HENNA.

25. Raging: IRATE.

30. Second wedding anniversary material: COTTON.

31. Cookie leftover: CRUMB. Carmen bought these. Almond cookies on the upper left.

32. Loathe: ABHOR. Sad to get a text from my sweet neighbor Valerie that she's planning to move to Fridley. This scared both of us. This is where we live.

34. Seeks attention, maybe: ACTS UP.

35. Linen closet item: SHEET.

37. Straight to the point: TERSE.

40. Urban transport options: E-BIKES.

41. "Could be better": NOT BAD.

42. Inflict (upon): FOIST.

43. Skateboard stunt: OLLIE.

44. Chef Lagasse: EMERIL. "Kick it up a notch!"

45. Highlight, as text: SELECT.

46. Absolute rubbish: TRIPE.

52. Underworld king: HADES.

54. Julia of "Leave the World Behind": ROBERTS.

56. Mesopotamian civilization: ASSYRIA.

59. Go for: OPT TO.

60. Stand out: SHINE.

61. Moving image?: OP-ART.

66. Baryshnikov nickname: MISHA.

67. Latin for "the rest": CETERA. Et.

68. Balloon filler: HOT AIR.

70. Push and pull, in physics: FORCES.

72. Mr. and Mrs.: TITLES.

73. Ingredient in some vegan brownies: CAROB. I've never had brownies.

75. Hawkeye: IOWAN.

76. Novelist Zola: EMILE.

78. Ph.D. requirement: THESIS.

80. Fitness instructor Austin: DENISE.

81. Jon of "Napoleon Dynamite": HEDER.

82. Persona non __: GRATA.

83. Head of servers?: IT MANAGER. IT service. 

84. "Crackerjack!": NEATO.

85. Obtain illegally: GRAFT.

87. Ideal way to graduate: DEBT-FREE.

92. Asian snack steeped in spices: TEA EGG. Five-spice powder. Lesley loved these. 

94. "I'm here to help": USE ME.

96. Pronoun duo: HE/HIM.

99. Sonic waiter: CARHOP.

100. Could be better: ISN'T OK. Do dislike this new Blogger format. 

105. Tanzania neighbor: KENYA.

106. Sheltered inlet: COVE.

107. Shape of a powerful office: OVAL.

108. Admit, with "up": FESS.

109. Full house, in poker slang: BOAT.

110. Flour for some flatbread: ATTA.

112. Toll unit: AXLE.

114. "That one's mine!": DIBS.

117. Triage ctrs.: ERS.

118. Québec street: RUE.

119. Contribute (to): ADD.

120. Streaming annoyance: LAG.

121. Before, once: ERE.

C.C.

Monday, Aug 19, 2019 Julian Kwan

Theme: SLICED BREAD (63. "Best thing" bakery metaphor ... and a hint to each row of circles) -

17. Data-intensive branch of engineering: INFORMATICS. 19. "Positively Entertaining" TV network: ION. RAISIN.

23. God, in Judaism: YAHWEH. And  25. Red-handed: IN THE ACT. WHITE.

 

38. Camaraderie: RAPPORT. And 41. Avant-garde music genre: ART ROCK. POTATO

 

52. Winter hike footwear item: SNOW SHOE and 54. Insect-sized superhero: ANT MAN. WHEAT.

Boomer here.  Hello puzzle masters.  Let me help you get to the CRUST of the matter. Raisin, White, Potato and Wheat bread are sliced up.

Across:

1. Paris eateries: CAFES.  I had a talk with C.C. the other day about the birth of Drive-in Restaurants, (McDonald's, Burger King, KFC etc.). They pretty much cut into the success of the CAFE business. 

6. Abyss: CHASM.

11. Birthday count: AGE.  Of course my age makes me a Baby Boomer. The experience is great.

14. Rack flavoring: SPICE.  There were a group of girls with this last name.

15. Hang in midair: HOVER.  Add an "O" and you have a vacuum cleaner.

16. Easter beginning?: NOR. Nor'easter.

20. After-tax amount: NET.  My after-tax amount is LOOSE CHANGE, but that was too long,

21. Unveiling word: VOILA.

22. Iraq War worries, for short: WMDS.  It is unfortunate that so many countries have them in their silos.

28. Burning crime: ARSON.

30. "__ luego": HASTA.  See you later!  Luckily we don't have too many foreign language words in our puzzles. N'est-ce pas?

31. "Oh dear!": ALAS.

34. Choir voice: TENOR. In my first year I was a Baritone, but then I graduated to Bass.  (Voice, not fish)

36. Judge on "The People v. O.J. Simpson": ITO (Lance). This famous judge holds the judge record for appearing in crosswords.  "All Rise!"

43. Annoying kid: IMP.

44. Greetings from Fido: WOOFS.  Not "Ruffs, or Arfs?"

46. Aired with sharper resolution: IN HD.

47. De-creases?: IRONS.  I like this clue and answer.  Clever play on words that I cannot enhance.

49. Lariat: LASSO.

58. Surfer's ride: WAVE.  I never tried this.  10,000 lakes do not have the waves that "Surf City" has.

59. Makeover result: NEW DO.  Pronounced "NUDE OOU"

61. Self-image: EGO.

62. Approx. landing time: ETA. The "E" for estimated is a word for Sun Country trips.

66. Fish in Japanese unadon: EEL. I Googled this and learned that Japanese have a dish called a unadon with roasted eels.

67. Aspect: FACET.  How many facets on your diamonds??

68. Montana Tech city: BUTTE.  It's pronounced BEAUT.  Not sure if they make Butter there.

69. NFL scoring stat: TDS.  Preseason has started.  I don't pay too much attention until they "Rack 'em up for real."

70. Slanted columns: OP-EDS.  I normally skip this section of the paper.

71. Thumbs-ups: YESES.

Down:

1. CBS forensic spin-off starring Gary Sinise: CSI NY.

2. Sleep concern: APNEA.  I think this is a breathing problem. I am told that I snore, but I don't consider that Apnea.

3. Elegant Manhattan avenue: FIFTH.  Only three blocks from "Puzzlemaster" Mr. Shortz.

4. Environmental prefix: ECO.  Weird things are happening.  July was a super hot month on record, arctic ice is melting.  Soon Manitoba may have more lakes than Minnesota.

5. Diner employee: SERVER.

6. Spiced tea: CHAI.  Popular tea. You can get it at Starbucks.

7. Emergency phone link: HOTLINE.  Always loved the setup in Maxwell Smart's secret control room (Agent 86 ?) Get Smart

8. Birdlike: AVIAN.

9. Jiff: SEC.

10. Doubtfire's title: MRS.  Rest in peace, Robin Williams.

11. Pixar specialty: ANIMATION.  Do they still have cartoons every Saturday morning on TV??

12. "Glad you spotted that error": GOOD CATCH.

13. Surrealist Max: ERNST.

18. Mineral hardness scale: MOHS.  Mayo Clinic offers MOHS surgery for skin cancer.  Created by Dr. Mohs.  The mineral hardness thing, I am not familiar with.

22. Director Anderson: WES.

24. Stinging flier: WASP.  You do NOT want to be stung by one of these nasty flying objects.

26. Norse god with a hammer: THOR.  "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, all over this land."  Peter, Paul, and Mary.

27. Kevin of "Central Intelligence": HART.

29. "The Simpsons" bus driver: OTTO.  I can proudly say I have never watched one episode of the Simpson's.

31. MLB's Diamondbacks, on scoreboards: ARI.  Good team, ugly uniforms, especially on the road.  I cannot believe they let Greinke go.  However I think Zack has pitched for about 12 major league teams.  Must be a misfit.

32. Covered with plastic, as an ID card: LAMINATED.  Actually, most of my cards are already plastic, no lamination required.

33. Yeses from bosses: APPROVALS.  I would spell the clue Yesses.

35. Space-research org.: NASA.

37. Gave the green light, briefly: OK'D.

39. Dominates totally: OWNS.

40. __ Hashanah: Jewish New Year: ROSH.  This year starts September 29 and ends October 1.  I am not Jewish but I have many friends that are.  (Plus I like October 1 because that's when Graybar pays the quarterly dividends,)

42. Tear gas situation: RIOT. Did you watch Yankees Indians game last Saturday.?  Brett Gardner, C.C. Sabathia  (Not our C.C.) and Aaron Boone were tossed by the umpires.  It was a RIOT.

45. Bilked: FLEECED.

48. Be in debt: OWE.  I OWE, I OWE, it's off to work I go.  "Bashful, Grumpy, and Doc"

50. DUI-fighting org.: SADD.

51. Stuck-up: SNOBBY.  This is NOT Charlie Brown's Dog.  Good Grief !

52. 1974 hit "__ Home Alabama": SWEET.  "Where the skies are so blue"  Lynard Skynard.

53. Chilling in a cooler: ON ICE.  Many winter Olympic events are held there.

55. Track competitions: MEETS.  These could be Summer Olympic events.

56. Playing marble: AGATE.  I had a bagful when I was a kid.  Most were replaced by cat's eyes.

57. Connection points: NODES.

60. Moistens: WETS.

63. "City by the Bay" airport code: SFO.  In case you missed it last time: A fellow named Bennett passed away and went up to the pearly gates and met St. Peter.  He was issued a harp and wings and asked if a friend of his, Sam Fink was there.  "No one here by that name" said St. Peter, "you may want to check down in the other place."  So Bennett went down there and found Sam who had opened a discotheque and they had a long chat.  But then Bennett said he had to go and went back up to the pearly gates.  St. Peter met him and said, "Aren't you missing something?"  Bennett responded - "Oh my gosh!!  I left my Harp in Sam Fink's Disco."

64. Once around the track: LAP.

65. Lament: RUE.  A Golden Girl.

Boomer

Thursday, April 11th 2019 Julian Kwan

Theme: Piscine Puzzle - The theme answers conceal a type of fish, as hinted at by the reveal:

68A. Kids' card game ... and a directive pertaining to the four longest puzzle answers: GO FISH!

20A. Drawer in the court: SKETCH ARTIST

28A. "You overreact when you're hungry" candy bar: SNICKERS ALMOND. I was going to grumble about this, as the campaign is usually known as "You're not you when you're hungry", but BBDO made a slight change for the Snickers Almond ads as I discovered on YouTube.

45A. It may contain curls and crunches: WORKOUT ROUTINE

52A. Clinic technician: LAB ASSISTANT

Straighforward enough theme here - go and look for the fish in the theme entries when you reach the reveal, which was the very last across entry, which I like - it keeps you guessing. All the fish span the two-word entries, which is nice, and three of the four theme entries have not appeared in any of the major puzzles according to the ever-helpful Cruciverb database. IRIS SCAN is new too, so some freshness in the puzzle which is always nice to see.

Again, I think we have a debutant in the LAT today, according to our blog records anyway, this is Julian's first, so congratulations! If it's the same chap, he competed as a rookie in the 42nd Annual American Crossword Puzzle tournament just a few weeks back.

Let's go ahead see what else pops out:

Across:

1. Sizzling Tex-Mex meat: FAJITA. Food! Usually skirt steak, chicken or shrimp. There are veggie options too.

7. Polling results: Abbr.: PCTS. Percentages.

11. Adams of "Vice": AMY

14. Boy whose wings melted in the sun: ICARUS

15. Four-star review: RAVE

16. Forest female: DOE

17. Gently used: NEWISH. Something could be newish, but trashed, I wouldn't all that "gentle" usage.

18. Salinger title teen: ESMÉ. The short story was "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor"

19. "Let's get out of here!": RUN

23. Isn't feeling 100%: AILS

26. Grafton's "__ for Alibi": A IS. You might as well print this one with the grid.

27. Ship stabilizer: KEEL

33. Brand of suit Bania gave Jerry in a memorable "Seinfeld" episode: ARMANI

34. Lamb's alias: ELIA

35. Indiana state flowers: PEONIES

37. Cast a spell on: ENCHANT

42. Banking biggie: CITI

44. Acrobatic dive: GAINER. I had to look this one up, I've never heard of it. It's a backwards somersault.

49. Nice dad?: PÉRE. The old Mediterranean resort misdirection. French city, French father.

50. MADD ad, e.g.: PSA

51. Holly genus: ILEX. Dug deep for this one, but dug it I did.

57. Singer DiFranco: ANI

58. Opera set in Egypt: AIDA

59. Ex-Met pitcher known as "Dr. K": GOODEN. With 2,293 Major League career strikeouts, you can see where the nickname comes from.

63. __ profit: NET

64. Pitch indicator: CLEF. These things. I only learned about the alto clef relatively recently. The piano and guitar music that I've seen use only the bass and treble clefs.

65. One way to travel: ON FOOT

66. Carpentry tool: ADZ

67. __ loser: SORE

Down:

1. Shark tip-off: FIN. Cue John William's iconic "Jaws" music!

2. Bandage brand: ACE

3. Boxer's target: JAW

4. Biometric identification technique: IRIS SCAN

5. Narwhal feature: TUSK

6. Queens tennis stadium: ASHE. Not convinced about this clue. It's "Arthur Ashe Stadium", I've never heard it called anything else. Take the Cincinnati Bengals - they play at Paul Brown Stadium, no one calls it "Brown".

7. Sharply defined: PRECISE

8. Transaction without financing: CASH SALE

9. "South Park" rating: TV-MA

10. Magic 8 Ball, some hope: SEER

11. Brody of "The Pianist": ADRIEN

12. Revealed the function of, with "over": MOUSED. Only if you've got a tool tip pop-up. You can mouse over the other stuff all day and it's not going to help you figure out what that particular control does.

13. Streisand title role: YENTL

21. La Brea __ Pits: TAR

22. Ref's ruling: TKO. Boxing's Technical Knock Out. The fighter cannot continue, according to the referee.

23. Quickly, quickly: ASAP

24. Memo lead-in: IN RE - "In the matter of" or "Regarding". I first came across this when I was reading a volume of collected letters from and to the great Hunter S. Thompson. There was some lively reading in there, as you can imagine.

25. Wheels for a celeb: LIMO

29. New York cager: KNICK. In the early days of professional basketball, the court was enclosed by a cage, and therefore never went out-of-bounds, hence "cager".

30. Farm follower?: E-I-E-I-O. "... and on that farm he had some ducks ...."

31. Jargon: LINGO

32. Former Portuguese colony in China: MACAU. A big gambling destination. Most of the famous Las Vegas casino brands have properties here, including Sands, The Rio, The Venetian and the Wynn. The finale of the recent season of Top Chef was filmed in Macau.

36. More senseless: STUPIDER

38. Had a great first date: HIT IT OFF

39. Deep blue dye: ANIL

40. Aloha State bird: NENE

41. "Jurassic World" predator, for short: T. REX

43. "The coast is clear": IT'S SAFE

45. Withdrew gradually: WEANED

46. Kayak alternative: ORBITZ. Orbitz is owned by Expedia, as are Travelocity, Trivago, Hotels.com, Hotwire and others. Kayak seems to be the only one to escape their clutches so far!

47. Actor Stephen who is a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador: REA

48. Traitor: RAT

49. Course before contingencies: PLAN A. Then comes Plan B.

53. Anatomical pouches: SACS

54. Storage cylinder: SILO

55. Excited: AGOG

56. Words said with a finger wag: NO NO. Dikembe Mutombo was famous for his "no no" finger wag when he blocked a shot:

60. "__ know you?": DO I

61. Canon SLR: EOS. Depending on the model, these can run you around $3,000, and that's just for the body.

62. Unspecified degree: NTH

And with that, my cruciverbalist chums, here's the grid:

Steve