Friday, January 10, 2025, Amanda Cook

 

Good morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee, here, back from an extended stay in the quite cold Colorado Rockies.  The cooling effects of that stay have worn off pretty quickly because today's constructor, Amanda Cook, has elected to take us in quite the opposite direction.  Would it be improper to say that, although I have never met the woman, Amanda has given me HOTS?  I know, I know.  A little context is required and here it is:

At the four corners of the puzzle, Ms. Cook has placed answers that can be preceded by the word HOT.  The reveal comes at:

35 Across:  Third base, in baseball lingo, or one of four in this puzzle: HOT CORNER.  It is commonly assumed that the term came about because of the hot shots aimed at the third baseman, but the explanation is not universally accepted. "Third base was so named about 40 years ago when most of the star sluggers were right-handed. Nowadays, however, with so many hard hitting left-handers, first base is equally 'hot'." - Fan And Family October, 1935

... and the theme is applied at:

1 Across:  Valued entity:  HOT COMMODITY.

10  Across:  Chances:  HOT SHOTS.  Chances as in "to take your best SHOT" at something.  Hot Shots, of course are what all solvers who hang out here are.

64 Across:  Breathes heavily:  HOT PANTS.  With HOT, a style of women's shorts.

65 Across:  See's Candies candy:  HOT CHOCOLATE.  After a career at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Valerie decided to work part time at Sees' Candies just for the fun of it.

"Hello.  How may I sweeten your day?"

 

1D. Gâteaux: HOT CAKES.  Plural French clue.

 

14D. Take off and run?: HOT STREAK.  As in take off one's clothes.  Remember the streaking fad?

 

43D. Trade secrets?: HOT GOSSIP.  Trade, here, is used as a verb.

 

 53D. Arrange for serving, as a meal: HOT PLATE. Used, here, as a verb.

 

 This is how all of the themers, and everything else, appears in the grid:

The rest of the clues and answers are:

Across:

15. Dodgy behavior: AVOIDANCE.  As avoidance is not always dodgy behavior,  this clue threw this solver off the scent for a bit.

16. Deck with Major and Minor Arcana: TAROT.  Cards frequently "read" in crossword puzzles.

17. Result of slaying it at the gym: KILLER ABS.

18. Smoldering bit: EMBER.  Did you hear about the baby coal that went missing?  They sent out an EMBER alert.

19. Conclusion: END.

20. Attempt: TRY.

21. Downfall: DEMISE.

22. Google rankings metric: Abbr.: SEO.  Search Engine Optimization  All You Might Want To Know

23. GI entertainers:  USAGE .

24. Bubblegum __: POP.  A music genre reference.  An example (listen at your own risk):

25. Radio host Charlamagne __ God: THA.  Lenard Larry McKelvey.   Humility is, apparently, not the attributes to which he aspires.

26. "Frozen" reindeer: SVEN.  A Disney movie reference.

28. Holds off: WAITS.

30. Just swell: A OK.

31. "Wicked" pair: ACTS.  A reference to the stage production.

33. Oahu garland: LEI.  Oahu being one of the Hawaiian islands.

34. Pub order: ALE.

38. C-suite member: CFO.  Chief Financial Officer.  Abbreviated clue, abbreviated answer.

40. Spanish gold: ORO.

41. Hardly cheerful: GRIM.  Bill and Ted's take on the subject:

43. Long-jawed fish: GAR.

Gar Brooks

44. Floating overhead: ALOFT.

46. __ of March: IDES.  Beware!

48. Pacific Coast Highway's route number: ONE.

49. Innovative: NEW.

50. Mork's home: ORK.  A Robin Williams reference.

52. The __ Ministry: "Rest Is Resistance" organization: NAP.  New to this solver.  Thanks, perps.

54. Some tuna cuts: STEAKS.  Tuna puns are fin-ally back in season.

56. Composers' rights org.: BMI.  This could have been clued with a reference to Body Mass Index.

57. Ego Nwodim's show, for short: SNL.

58. Magical symbol: SIGIL.  A learning moment for this solver.

59. Geographical region for a retailer: TRADE AREA.

62. Completely silly: INANE.

63. Quiz with bona fide answers?: LATIN TEST.  Bona fide being a Latin expression.


Down:

2. Sheep: OVINES.  Baaa,  Not to be confused with BOVINES.  Moo.

3. Landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania: MOLDOVA.

4. The Bucks, in sports crawls: MIL.  A professional basketball reference.

5. W.H. Auden's "__ to the Medieval Poets": ODE.

6. Bolts: DARTS.  Not a hardware reference.  Used as a verb.

7. Lined up: IN A ROW.

8. Froyo chain: TCBY.  Originally called This Can't Be Yogurt but quickly altered to The Country's Best Yogurt because it served, of course, actual frozen yogurt.

9. "Affirmative": YES.

10. Brews: STEEPS.  As with tea.

11. "Grimsburg" voice actor Jon: HAMM.  More often clued with a reference to soccer star Mia HAMM.

12. Like a moon's path: ORBITAL.

13. Ballet slipper: TOE SHOE.

21. Overly affectionate: DOTING.

23. "Do __ others ... ": UNTO.  As you would have them, or before, depending on your world view.

24. Beach town structure: PIER.

27. Reverberate: ECHO.  Co-opted by Amazon.

29. Emotionally detached: ALOOF.  What do you call a person unaware of whole wheat, whole grain, sourdough and rye?  ALOOF of bread.

32. Elegant wraps: STOLES.  Many of our mothers had one I suspect.

34. Dry: ARID.

36. Black bird: CROW.  A crow invited her friends over to hang out but they didn’t show up.  She was charged with attempted murder.

37. Composer Satie: ERIK.  A frequent visitor.

38. Mexican bar: CANTINA.  Alternatively, a Star Wars reference.

39. One who practices minimal consumption: FREEGAN.  New to this solver.

42. Awareness of wrongdoing, in criminal law: MENS REA.

44. Low joints: ANKLES.  Not a dive bar.  A joint to be found low on one's body.

45. Shakshouka base: TOMATO. Shakshuka is a dish made of eggs poached in a spicy tomato and bell pepper sauce, often seasoned with spices like cumin and paprika. To make it, sauté onions and bell peppers, add garlic and spices, then stir in crushed tomatoes, simmer, and finally crack eggs into the sauce to poach them. 

47. Most realistic: SANEST.

51. Totes absurd: RIDIC.  RIDICulous.  My sentiments, exactly.

 

55. Colloquial contraction: AIN'T.

56. "Duuuude ... ": BRAH.

59. "No Scrubs" group: TLC.  

60. Ambient musician Brian: ENO.  Another frequent visitor.

61. Georgia airport code: ATL.  ATLanta's Hartsfield Airport.

Continuing with the baseball references (e.g. Hot Corner), a big "Thank You!" to NaomiZ for "pinch hitting" for me during my sabbatical.

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Friday, November 29, 2024, Deanne Cliburn, Will Eisenberg

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists, Malodorous Manatee here with a Friday, post-Thursday-food-coma, puzzle co-authored by Deanne Cliburn and Will Eisenberg.  An online search reveals that Will has previously shared puzzles with us.  I am not sure about Deanne.  Her name does not "pop up" when entering labels so a hearty "Congratulations on your LAT debut, Deanne" may be in order.

Today, our collaborating constructors conjure up a theme where they start with common two-word combinations.  In each case, the second word begins with the letter S.  By removing the S from the second word and appending the S onto the end of the first word, they make that first word possessive and, thereby, manage to completely alter the original meaning in a humorous manner without in any way altering the letter sequence.

The gag is implemented at these five places in the grid:

19 Across:  Having to watch the hare win over and over, perhaps: Tortoise Shell morphs into TORTOISE'S HELL.

27 Across:  Cabbie who picks up crustaceans, perhaps:  Crab Shack morphs into CRAB 'S HACK.  HACK, of course, being slang for taxi driver.

35 Across:  Birdhouse opening, perhaps: Cardinal Sin morphs into CARDINAL'S IN.  As in the bird's way in.

43 Across:  Device needed to renovate a small pad, perhaps: Toad Stool morphs into TOAD'S TOOL.  Toads, of course, like to hang out on lily pads.

54 Across:  Legal proceeding in the grazing meadow, perhaps: Sheep Shearing morphs into SHEEP'S HEARING.  Or, a different type of hearing . . .

Here is the completed grid:

. . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. Goal for some night sch. students: GED.  While you may hear other meanings for GED such as Graduate Equivalency Degree or General Educational Diploma, GED traditionally stands for General Educational Development Test. 

4. Class for a 1L: TORTS.  A law school reference.  A 1L is a first-year law school student.

9. Device with 1080p resolution, e.g.: HDTV.  High-Definition TeleVision

13. Actor Malek: RAMI.  He portrayed Freddie Mercury in the film Bohemian Rhapsody.

14. Star ingredient in Chinese five-spice powder?: ANISE.

Star ANISE

15. Irish cheddar?: EURO.  Cheddar, in this case, being slang for money.

16. Sunburn soother: ALOE.  A frequent soother.

17. Bushel fractions: PECKS.

18. "Call Her Daddy" podcast host Cooper: ALEX.  All you might wish to know:  Wiki - Call Her Daddy

22. Common mark on a beginner's crossword: ERASURE.  Not limited to beginners.

23. March VIP: ST. PAT.  VIP is abbreviated.

26. Timetable locale: DEPOT.

31. Unenviable grade: DEE.  Although better than an EFF.

33. Hubbub: ADO.

34. "Who am __ judge?": I TO.  Cute.  Without the punctuation marks, and the space, it reads Judge Ito.

39. Something to shoot for?: PAR.  A golf reference.

41. Believer's suffix: IST.  Does a Cruciverbalist believe in crossword puzzles?

42. Homey room: DEN.

47. Stage: PHASE.

51. Fake ID?: ALIAS.  I know a guy who know’s a guy. I had him make me a fake ID card with a different name.  My alias was Justin Case.

52. Did the dishes: CATERED.  Clever.  Not something to do with cleaning up.  Prepared the dishes (food).

58. Besmirch: SOIL.

60. Was circumspect about: GOT AT.  Not sure I agree with the way this one was clued. 

61. East, in El Salvador: ESTE.  A directional Spanish lesson.

62. Salon service, informally: MANI.  MANIcure.

63. "Here we go __": AGAIN.

64. Square one?: NERD.

65. Minor name in constellations?: URSA.  Hope this one wasn't too much of a bear.

66. Doctrine: DOGMA.  What did the Catholic say to the Hindu?  Your karma just ran over my dogma!

67. Carry-on inspectors: Abbr.: TSA.  Carry-on luggage

Down:

1. In spades: GALORE.

2. Genre with moody hip-hop elements: EMO RAP.  Never heard of it but not too difficult to perp.

3. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, for one: DIET SODA.

4. Herbivore with a short proboscis: TAPIR.

5. "Hold your horses": ONE SEC.  Idiomatic clue.

6. Sushi component: RICE.  Rice is so basic and this solver thought of several other possibilities before the AHA moment.  Doh!

7. Shows judgment: TSKS.  Not as in sagacity.  As in being judgmental,

8. Casual get-together: SESH.  We've seen this for Session before.

9. __ food: HEALTH.  So many words could have filled the blank.  If they'd fit.  And perp'd.

10. Ache: DULL PAIN.

11. Three, in Rome: TRE.

12. News site that hosts the "Future Perfect" reporting project: VOX.  All that you might wish to know:  Vox

13. Placed on a scale: RATED.  Not as in weighed.

20. The "O" of North Carolina's OBX: OUTER.  The OUTER Banks.

21. First of September?: ESS.  One of those clues.  September starts with S.

24. Perform in a play: ACT.

25. Bout-ending decision: TKO.  A boxing reference,  Technical Knock Out.

28. Totaled: RAN TO.  Like this but past tense:

29. Law that led to many curb cuts, for short: ADA.

30. Fearless: BOLD.

32. Make shipshape, in a way: EDIT.  A bit of a mixed metaphor.   EDITing text puts it into shape.

35. Ocean Spray snack: CRAISINS.

36. Kin of equi-: ISO.

37. Commuter's way around Philly: SEPTA.

38. Bone-deep: INHERENT.

39. School support gp.: PTA.  Group is abbreviated.

40. MSN rival: AOL.  This solver still uses America OnLine for some emails.  My kids were right.

44. National flower of Mexico: DAHLIA.

45. GPS heading: SSE.  Sur Sureste

46. Hebrew toast: L'CHAIM.

48. Comes up: ARISES.

49. Compact Nissan: SENTRA.  An automotive reference.

1982 Datsun Sentra

50. Finished some landscaping: EDGED.

53. Insurer owned by CVS: AETNA.

55. "Crikey!": EGAD.  My sentiments, exactly.

56. __ stick: POGO.   So many words could have filled the blank.  If they fit.  And perp'd.

57. Partnerless: STAG.

58. The Mustangs of the ACC: SMU.

59. Paddle kin: OAR.  When rowing I often do not know which paddle to use.  I guess that it is a case of either OAR.

Wishing everyone a great holiday long weekend.  I will be off to the mountains for a while to recharge and will be taking a break from blogging over the next month.  Rest assured, however, that Friday commentary will be in extremely capable hands.

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