Friday, July 25, 2025, Dan Schoenholz

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a Friday puzzle by Dan Schoenholz who's puzzles have previously appeared in the LAT and NYT.  Today, at five places in the puzzle (I hope that the count is correct this time 😁) Dan conjures up homophones of common words by splitting the word into two parts.  The result each time is a punny, two-word answer to the themed clue.  All of these answers end with the sound of "ease".  Cleverly, the sound is created four different ways - EASE, IES, EES, IES (again) and EAS.  If, e.g., EZE could had been employed in lieu of the second IES then the feat would have been, perhaps, even more remarkable.

The gimmick is applied at:

17 Across:  Baseball player who flirts with joining the Kansas City squad?: ROYAL TEASE.  From ROYALTIES.

The Baseball Team

31 Across:  Release vital agricultural workers?: FREE BEES.  From FREEBIES.  Everybody loves free stuff.

37 Across:  Sound of a job seeker who ran hard to get to an appointment on time?: INTERVIEW WHEEZE.  From INTERVIEWEES.

46 Across:  Precaution for absent-minded drivers?: TWIN KEYS.  From TWINKIES.  Have you ever asked yourself "Where did I put my keys"?  While holding them in your hand?

64 Across:  Coast Guard's desire after a hurricane warning?: VACANT SEAS.  From VACANCIES.  Stay in port.

The completed grid looks like this:

. . . the the rest of the clues/answers:

Across:

1. Quarrel: SPAT.  Alternative clue:  Hocked a loogie.

5. Hosting, briefly: M C ING.  Rarely have I heard emcee employed as a gerund.

10. "Love & Basketball" actor Omar: EPPS.  A frequent visitor.

14. Electrolyte components: IONS.

15. Cartoon hunter Fudd: ELMER.

16. Dab: BLOT.   A Little BLOT' ll do Ya?  Meh.

19. __ carotene: BETA.  BETA carotene is a plant pigment that can be converted into vitamin A and has antioxidant properties.

20. Form: SHAPE.  What tree has fruits of all shapes and sizes?  The geometree.

21. Fill in for: ACT AS.

23. Three-in-one vaccine, familiarly: DPT.

24. Laughfest: RIOT.  A real hoot!

26. Cheap smoke: STOGIE.  A not-very-good cigar.  Presumably from stoga + ie, the former of which is derived from Conestoga, Pennsylvania.  The Conestoga Cigar Company (1880s) was one of the first Pennsylvanian cigar factories.

28. Legal action: APPEAL.  My buddy was trying to explain the APPEAL of invisible ink...but I just didn't see it.

33. Meadow: LEA.  Frequently visited.

34. French greeting: ALLO.  Sort of rhymes with Bardot.

Brigitte

36. [Bam!]: POW.

43. Hundred Acre Wood resident: ROO.   An A. A. Milne / Winnie The Pooh reference.  See also 2 Down.

44. Mascara site: LASH.

45. Unagi roll fish: EEL.  A frequent bite to eat.

49. Comes to: AWAKES.

52. Sneak: WEASEL. A WEASEL walks into a bar.  The bartender says “Wow, I’ve never served a weasel before. What can I get you?”  “Pop,” goes the weasel.

53. Attempt: STAB.  Idiomatic.

54. "To __ is human ... ": ERR.  . . . and our puzzles often prove us to be human.

55. Majestic: REGAL.

58. Iranian language: FARSI.

62. Suggestions, for short: RECS. RECommendationS

66. German chancellor who presided over reunification: KOHL.  Helmut KOHL served as chancellor from 1982 to 1998.

67. Kagan of the Supreme Court: ELENA.  A frequent visitor.

68. Bring in: EARN.

69. Vodka brand in blue bottles: SKYY.

70. Mean-spirited: NASTY.

71. Narrow opening: SLIT.

Down:

1. Old-fashioned letter opener: SIRS.  Dear SIRS:  . . .

2. Hundred Acre Wood resident: POOH.  See also 43 Across.

3. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA.  Not a name familiar to this solver.  Thanks, perps.

4. Airport express lane, briefly: TSA PRE.

5. With 56-Down, annual NYC fashion event: MET. and 56. See 5-Down: GALA.  The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Benefit, is the annual haute couture fundraising festival held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in Manhattan. The Met Gala is popularly regarded as the world's most prestigious and glamorous fashion event.

6. Sports stud?: CLEAT  One definition of CLEAT is "a projecting piece of metal or hard rubber attached to the underside of a shoe to provide traction".   Stud seems to be just a bit of a stretch.

7. Apple on a desk: IMAC.  These days, a clue that is a bit ambiguous.

8. Tree house?: NEST.  A "house" found in a tree.

Jackie, Shadow, Gizmo and Sunny's House.

9. Laundry challenge: GREASE.

10. Recede: EBB.

11. Promising time in public broadcasting?: PLEDGE WEEK.  Time to make a financial promise.  It seems as if it's perpetually PLEDGE WEEK.

12. Marie Callender's purchase: POTPIE.

13. Mexico's 31: STATES.  Would have expected estados.

18. Kylo Ren's mother: LEIA.  A Star Wars reference.

22. NBA superstar Curry: STEPH.  Of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.

25. Patron saint of Norway: OLAV.  This solver often forgets which is OLAV and which is OLAF.

OLAV

OLAF

27. Bassoon kin: OBOE.  A musical instrument frequently heard in our puzzles.

28. Comedian Wong: ALI.  How do I clue thee?  Let me count the ways.  Muhammad, Laila, Mahershala, Wong, MacGraw, Baba  . . .

29. Author: PEN.  Used as a verb.  To write.

30. Male-dominated society: PATRIARCHY.   The longest word in this puzzle.

31. Cat-nippers?: FLEAS.  Cute play on words.  Fleas bite (nip) cats.

Sometimes The Cats Fight Back

32. Uses oars: ROWS.  A couple of Fridays ago ROWS was clued as fights.

35. Easter bloom: LILY.  Puns are blooming all over this write up....Like a cat fight between a dandelion and tiger LILY . . . Oops, a daisy.

 

38. So very long: EONS.  

39. Al of "Today": ROKER.  The weather reporter.

40. "Huh?": WHAT.  You can say that again!

41. Capital of Zimbabwe?: ZEE.  One of those clues.  Did it fool you?

42. Overhead trains: ELS. ELevated TrainS.

46. Shakes one's booty: TWERKS.

47. "Don't worry about us": WERE OK.  Or Not.

48. Nearing noon: ELEVEN.  This solver might have clued it differently.

The Grateful Dead

50. Float, as a scent: WAFT.

51. Belittles: ABASES.

53. Writer's angle: SLANT.  As in bias.  Anyone try to squeeze in ITALIC?

57. Nails: ACES.  As in the idiom "to nail it".

59. Authentic: REAL.

60. South Asian wrap: SARI.  SARI puns would be repetitious.

61. "__ that something?": ISN'T.

63. Sneaky: SLY.

65. Vote against: NAY.  We often have to choose between YEA and AYE for the pro votes but with the anti bloc it's EEZE - ier.

Well, it's now time to ease on down the road.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Friday, July 11, 2025, Wayne Bergman

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists, Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a Friday puzzle by Wayne Bergman, an LAT, NYT and WSJ veteran constructor.   Today, Wayne takes a dive down the rabbit hole that is automatic spelling correction on our electronic devices.  To do this, he takes the names of four well-known car makes/models and imagines how spell check might alter them in order to "make sense" - at least according to the spell checker's view of the world.  The use of car makes/models presents an opportunity for an amusing double entendre focused on AUTO which, today bounces back and forth between automatic and automobile.

The reveal is quite straightforward . . .

61 Across:  Texting feature that sometimes goes awry, and what was used on 17-, 28-, and 46-Across?: AUTO CORRECT.  In this instance, as is too often the case, it's AUTO INCORRECT as the names of the automobile manufacturers have become improperly altered.

. . . and the gimmick is employed at these four places:

17 Across:  Antelope who really loves bubble gum?: CHEWY IMPALA.  An impala is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa.

'59 Chevy Impala

Alternatively,

28 Across:  Expert on the hunt for the perfect eating utensil?: FORK EXPLORER.

46 Across:  One who organizes hecklers at a comedy club?: JEER WRANGLER.  Round 'em up.

Jeep Wrangler

Here is how everything appears in the grid:

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

Across:

1. Startle: ALARM.  Used, here, as a verb.   As in "That really startled me!"

6. Get straight: ALIGN.  A clue to be taken quite literally (not, for example, as "get straight" is used in the Paul Revere and the Raiders' song).

11. Place for de-stressing: SPA.  A wordplay riff on distressing.

14. Brown hue: COCOA.

15. Antler points: TINES.  As in Fork Explorer?

16. Silken trap: WEB.

19. Winter hazard: ICE.  Also, a name in the news.

20. Sun-Maid morsel: RAISIN.  Sun-Maid is a play on words (sun made) that we learned early on (although most of us would have preferred finding a Hostess cupcake rather than RAISINs in our lunch bags).

21. "General Hospital" network: ABC.  General Hospital is an American daytime television soap opera which has been broadcast on ABC TV since April 1, 1963.

22. Quiet summons: PSST.  Frequently heard in our puzzles.

23. Crumb carrier: ANT.  Why be satisfied with a few crumbs?

24. Old Pontiac: GTO.  Would auto correct change this to the Pontiac GOT?

26. "Wonderwall" band: OASIS.  Five letters - three vowels, two esses.  A constructor's friend often clued with references to the desert.

32. Personal pronoun: SHE.

34. Magic, on ESPN crawls: ORL.  The ORLando, Florida NBA team.

35. Spanish title: SENORA.

36. Walks like a hippo: PLODS.  What do you do with a hippo with three balls?  Walk him and pitch to the rhino.

38. Hawks, on ESPN crawls: ATL.  The ATLanta, Georgia NBA team.

40. Put off: DELAY.  One television outlet had to DELAY televising the 'World Origami Championships' but it's currently available on paperview.

41. Ineffective shepherd of rhyme: BO PEEP.

43. Alley-__: OOP.  A basketball play and an old cartoon strip.

45. Overhead trains: ELS.  Chicago is famous for its ELevated TrainS.

49. Quartet voice: TENOR.  Bass, tenor and alto appear so often in our puzzles that it might be helpful to take a look at the overlapping ranges:

50. Coltrane's horn: SAX.  John Coltrane.  Would that be a TENOR SAX?

51. Big primate: APE.   What do APEs use to fix things?  Gorilla Glue.

54. "Ragnarok" hero: THOR.  Ragnarok is a Norse myth that depicts the cataclysmic destruction of the gods and the world, followed by a new age of rebirth.  The name was appropriated for a 2022 motion picture.

56. Family room: DEN.  Everyone knows Las Vegas is Sin City but are you familiar with Den City?  Mass over volume.

58. Metaphor for fitting items into a tight space: TETRIS.  This solver used to play until his wrist began to hurt severely.  Then he took a couple of aspirin and kept on playing.

60. Greet warmly: HUG.

63. In the past: AGO.

64. Sound during allergy season: ACHOO.

Men In Tights - 1993

65. Name on some compact trucks: TONKA.  Very compact (toy) trucks.

66. Unionize?: WED.  Cute, or cutesy, cluing.

67. Bob Marley's "Get Up, __ Up": STAND.

68. Hotel bookings: STAYS.

Down:

1. West African capital: ACCRA.  Often visited in our puzzles.

2. "Mean Girls" star: LOHAN.  Lindsay.  With four Golden Raspberry Awards and seven "official" arrests.

3. Stick the landing, so to speak: ACE IT.  Meh.  ACE IT is usually reserved for exams in our puzzles . . . but NAIL IT wouldn't fit.

4. Tiffs: ROWS.   Tiffs is only one of several possible definitions of ROWS.

5. Request to be excused: MAY I GO.

6. Scratch removal device?: ATM.  Scratch, in this case, is used as slang for money.

7. "New Love" singer Dua __: LIPA.  A frequent visitor.

8. Ready for shipping: IN A BOX.  Anybody remember the SNL bit with Justin Timberlake?

9. Some oral meds: GEL CAPS.  Abbreviated clue . . .

10. Intel org.: NSA.  Abbreviated clue . . .

11. Snack cake with a swirl: SWISS ROLL.

12. Bench press targets, for short: PECS.  PECtoral muscleS.

13. Criminally aid: ABET.  There is an annual day devoted to puns.  Abet and Aid Punsters Day

18. Foreword: INTRO.  Not an abbreviated clue but I guess INTRO is now an accepted form of the word INTROduction.

22. First of a kind: PIONEER.

25. Oft-pickled pod: OKRA.  I have a friend who always baits his hooks with OKRA when fly fishing . . . He's really into podcasting!

27. Arctic coaster: SLED.

28. Tennis great Roger: FEDERER.

29. Pop icon John: ELTON.  Covered, here, by Country Gazette (Byron Berline, Roger Bush, and Alan Munde):

30. Notable stretches: ERAS.

31. Bright line: RAY.  A little RAY of sunshine, a little bit of soul (The Turtles).

32. Blackthorn fruit: SLOE.  As in a SLOE gin fizz.

33. Fervently wish: HOPE TO GOD.

Animal House - 1978

36. Brown bag sando: PBJ.  Sando = Sandwich  PBJ = Peanut Butter and Jelly

37. Stitched: SEWN.

39. Records: LOGS.

42. Result of multiplying: PRODUCT.

44. "Theory of Forms" philosopher: PLATO.  This solver was not familiar with the title but his limited knowledge of philosophers actually made the answer easier to perp.  LOCKE didn't work out and Aristotle wouldn't fit.

47. Franklin who received honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale: ARETHA.  This solver thought, initially, that Franklin was being used as a first name.  The next thought was Benjamin.

The Blues Brothers - 1980

48. Wields, as influence: EXERTS.

51. Taylor Swift concert venue: ARENA.  Anagrams to, or when read backwards, AN ERA.  Apropos.

52. Hard to please: PICKY.

53. "¿Cómo __?": ESTAS.  S'up?

54. Become friendlier: THAW.  As in detente.

55. King-size: HUGE.

57. Morning's end: NOON.

59. Home run pace: TROT.

61. Some Energizers: AAS.  Energizer, capitalized, is a brand name of batteries.

62. Atlantic food fish: COD.  My girlfriend tried giving me some flatfish last night instead of COD!  Know your plaice woman!

. . . and on that note

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