Friday, May 3, 2024, Jay Silverman

Watch the Birdies

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  It's the first Friday of the merry, merry month of May and it is time for yours truly, Malodorous Manatee, to have the pleasure of sharing with you a recap of today's puzzle by Ms. Ann Margaret.  Oops, Freudian slip.  I meant to say a puzzle constructed by Jay Silverman.

At the (somewhat) traditional four places within the grid, each one marked with a star for our convenience,  our puzzle setter has conjured up answers which, when we remove a type of bird, yield an appropriate answer to the clue as worded.  Let's start with the reveal:

66 Across:  Musical with the song "Put On a Happy Face," and a hint to making four answers match their starred clues: BYE BYE BIRDIE.  It might have been clued as Musical with the song "Bye Bye Birdie" but that would lie outside of the traditions of crossword puzzles...even on a Monday.

Here are the places where the theme is applied, and how it is applied:

18 Across:  *Promo for long-range basket shooters?: THREES A CROWD.  Say bye bye to the CROW and we get THREES AD.  A basketball reference.  An advertisement for three-point shots.  Or, perhaps, something spotted in the local personal ads?

27 Across:  *Easy-to-revisit search engine results?: BOWLING PINS.  Say bye bye to the OWL and we get BING PINS.  BING, of course, is an online search engine and if you PIN something it makes it easy to get back to what you have pinned (saved).

42 Acrooss:  *Frilly fabric from the Middle East?: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.  Say bye bye to the WREN and we are left with LACE OF ARABIA.

He's Not Dressed In Lace

But This Did Seem Appropriate

51  Across: *Award coveted by directors Anderson and Craven?: BEST WESTERN.  Say bye bye to the TERN and we get BEST WES.  The covetous directors are, of course, WES Anderson and WES Craven.

This is how it all looks in the completed grid:

Here, below, are the rest of the clues and their answers:

Across:

1. "I suppose it's true!":  MUST BE.  The puzzle starts right off with something someone might say.  No $#1+ would have fit, and would have been an appropriate answer, but that would lie outside of the traditions of crossword puzzles . . . even on a Friday.

7. Cab opening: PEDI. A wine reference?  Something about uncorking a Cabernet?  No.  Opening, in this case, means in front of.   Four letters.  Taxi cab?  Closer but, again, no.  A cab that must be pedaled to get you where you wish to go.  PEDI as in foot.

A Pedicab

11. Middle ear?: COB. Not an anatomical reference.  An agricultural/food reference.  The middle of an ear of corn.

14. Beseech: ENTREAT.

16. Treasury Dept. concern: ECON.  As in the phrase that James Carville is credited with having coined:  "The ECONomy, stupid."

17. Oft-torn knee pt.: ACL.  An anatomical reference and the first of several abbreviations, today.  Anterior Cruciate Ligament.

20. Passable grade: CEE.  A minor nit.  Dee is passing.  Cee is average.

21. Girl's name that means "small river": RIA.  Anyone know anybody named RIA?

22. Hop back in horror: RECOIL.

23. Teensy bits: IOTAS.  Can teensy bits be said to be frequent visitors?

25. Actor Omar: EPPS. Sharif was too long.

29. Title Pixar fish: DORY.  Hands up for first thinking NEMO?

31. Tiller's tool: HOE.

32. Give or take: ABOUT.  VERBS?  Not this time.  Sort of.  More or less.

34. Bring on: INCUR.   On the first day of college, the Dean addressed the students, pointing out some of the rules. "The female dormitory will be prohibited for all male students, and the male dormitory to the female students. Anybody caught breaking this rule will be fined $50 the first time." He continued, "Anybody caught breaking this rule the second time will be fined $100. Being caught a third time will INCUR a hefty fine of $200. Are there any questions?" At this, a student in the crowd inquired, "How much for a season pass?"

38. Wild garlic: RAMP.  New to this solver.  From an online source:  "The zesty spring green most commonly known as ramps goes by many names in English, such as ramson (British), buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wild leeks, wood garlic or bear’s garlic.  Known as ‘Bärlauch’ (bear’s leek) in German, the name derives from the fact that brown bears like to eat the bulbs of the plant and dig up the ground to get at them, as do wild boar."

45. Actress Redgrave: LYNN.

Lynn Redgrave and Her Sister Vanessa

46. Eclipse: OUTDO.  Did anyone here get to observe the recent solar OUTDO?  Oh, used here as a verb.  Isn't English a funny, and extremely flexible, language?

47. "The gloves are off!": ITS ON.  An idiom for a clue and an idiom for an answer.  Another example of things-people-might-say.

48. Some tense periods, briefly: OTS.  OverTimeS  Neither a reference to societal issues nor a reference to personal stress.  A sports reference.

50. Gp. that includes the UAE and Gabon: OPEC.  Well, even with the mixed messaging, two abbreviations out of three in the clue should have been enough of a tip off that the answer would be an abbreviation.

58. Totally on board: SOLD.  Convinced.

61. Star part: CAMEO.  Not a portion of a celestial body.  A (small) role for a movie star.

62. Neatens: TIDIES.  My ex-wife once remarked, "You think I have OCD when it comes to tidiness, but you are wrong.  I just want to clear that up.”

64. Negative conjunction: NOR.  Rearrange the letters in NOR Do We to make one word.

65. AI exec, perhaps: CTO.  Chief Technology Officer   The reference to Artificial Intelligence in the clue leads us to something technology related.

69. "Not a mouse!": EEK.  Didn't they get this one backwards?  EKE out a living.  EEK a mouse!  Oh, I get it.   As in, "Please, please, please let it not be a mouse!"

70. Actress Skye: IONE.  Three vowels out of four letters.  A frequent visitor.

71. Follows shampoo bottle instructions: LATHERS.  Not enough room for LATHER RINSE REPEAT.  I have always thought that the last step was just a way to double sales.

72. Booze-free: DRY.  As opposed to WET.  An alcohol (or lack thereof) related idiom.

73. Horn sound: TOOT.  BEEP would have fit but would not work.

The Playmates - 1958

74. Dusty or Cody of pro wrestling fame: RHODES.  Father or son.

Down:

1. Reading length: METRE.  Not the length of a Monopoly game railroad.  Not a literary (book) reference.  Ah, a unit of length in Reading, England, with the appropriate spelling.

2. Square: UNHIP.  What does Huey Lewis have to say on the subject?

August 1987

3. Secure, in a way: STRAP DOWN.

4. Billie Joe Armstrong bandmate __ Cool: TRE.  A Green Day reference.  

That's Frank Edwin Wright III (aka Tre Cool) 

On Drums

5. Suds: BEER.   Obviously, not a cleanliness reference.  Slang.  Do beer puns make you hoppy?

6. Float past: EASE BY.  Huh?  Thanks perps.

7. Endangerment: PERIL.  As in "The PERILs of Pauline".

8. Reason to boil water: E-COLI.  Giardia used to suffice for a reason.  Can you say tetraglycine hydroperiodide tablets?

9. Stock market name: DOW.  Clued this way it could have referred to any listed stock.

10. Part of Roy G. Biv: INDIGO. Mnemonic for the colors in a rainbow.

11. Arizona roadside sights: CACTI.

12. Antarctic, for one: OCEAN.  From the specific to the general.

13. Word after a sneeze: BLESS.  Why Do We Say This?

15. Fajita-like fare: TACO.  Okay, but quite imprecise.  The Differences Between Tacos and Fajitas

19. Slow moo-ver: COW.  Cute cluing.  Cute song.

24. Runs: OPERATES.  Not as in a foot race.  As in she OPERATES the machine.  See 28 Down.  

Shirley Muldowney

26. Moment of unpleasantness: SOUR NOTE.  An idiom with a musical genesis.

28. Drag org.: NHRA.  Not cross dressing.  A Drag Race reference.  Again, not that kind of drag race.

30. GPS option: RTE.   A  Global Positioning System might show you a  RouTE.

32. Everything: ALL.

33. Baffin, for one: BAY.  Again, from the specific to the general.

34. Post-ER facility: ICU.  A medical reference.  Emergency Room   Intensive Care Unit

35. Gain: NET.  A bit imprecise.  NET income, for example, can be a subset of gain (as in capital gains NET of taxes).

36. Mark Kurlansky book subtitled "A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World": COD.  New to this solver.

37. Vehicle for E.T.: UFO.   A pretty standard crossword pairing.

39. Ran away (with): ABSCONDED.  The Dish ABSCONDED With The Spoon?

40. Mine, in Milan: MIO.  Today's Italian lesson.

41. Hook's nemesis: PAN.  Not a boxing reference.  Not a golfing reference.  Not a musical reference.  Not a fishing reference,

Peter Pan and Captain Hook

43. Winning margin: NOSE.

44. Tear: RIP.

49. Cheap: TWO BIT.  TWO BITs are a quarter of a dollar.  The derogatory expression dates from the early twentieth century.  With inflation, the expression should be updated to, say, five dollar.

50. Sign of poor service?: ONE BAR.  Not at a restaurant or a retail store.  A cellphone reception reference.

51. Covertly added to an email: BCCED.  From the days when we used the stuff, Blind Carbon CopiED.

52. Foodie website: EATER.  EATER serves as a local restaurant guide offering reviews and news.

53. __ quartz: SMOKY.  New to this solver.  Smokey The Bear retains the E and there was not room for him.

54. Memo taker: STENO.  Memorandum  STENOgrapher

55. Lhasa locale: TIBET.  Not where your dog hangs out.

56. Big name in frozen treats: EDY.

57. Cambodian currency: RIEL.  In my experience, the US Dollar is the de facto currency of Cambodia.

59. Valley with many vineyards: LOIRE.  A French wine reference.  NAPA was too short.

60. __ the part: DRESS

63. "Star Wars" bad guys: SITH.

67. Teo __ of "Past Lives": YOO.  This might have been misleadingly clued as "German-born Actor".

68. Pi follower: RHO.  A Greek alphabet reference.

Well, it's time now.  Say Bye Bye, Ann.

 

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Friday, April 19, 2024, Rebecca Goldstein

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE ?

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  It is Friday and it is time for yours truly, Malodorus Manatee, to present a recap of today's puzzle by veteran (and that's an understatement) constructor Rebecca Goldstein.

Today's solve was no walk in the proverbial park as there were several elements in this eclectic mixture that challenged this solver and, perhaps, you, too.

Depending on what one wishes to include, there are roughly fifteen proper nouns in this puzzle.  Proper nouns are great if you know the answer but they can be trouble if you don't.  There are several foreign-language answers in the grid and several answers that, again depending on what one wishes to include, consist of more than one word (e.g. does I-beam count?).  Toss in a couple of references of the wurst kind, two (or three) Greek alphabet references, and some obligatory oblique (Friday) cluing and the head scratching becomes inevitable. . . and that's before we deal with the clever theme.

Upon completing the puzzle, and for some time thereafter, this solver was not able to identify a theme.  A unifying clue/answer would have helped - but there was none.  I saw the "international" two-word clues, each punctuated with a question mark, but failed to put the pieces together.  Perhaps I was a bit word weary from the solve itself or maybe I just could not see the forest for the trees.  In any event, I reached out to the Crossword Corner blog staff and, with their assistance, the fog lifted.  Each themed clue is a common expression in English which includes a country name.  Each themed answer fits the clue but requires that we re-imagine the expression as being defined in terms of  something other than its common meaning.  The theme is not in the answers.  It is to be found in the clues themselves.

Here are the themed clues and their answers:

17 Across:  American cheese?: POTUS.  Not as in what you might have used last Friday on National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.  As in the idiom the "Big Cheese".  The President Of The United States is a "Big Cheese".

19 Across:  Irish cream?: EUROS.  Not Baileys.  Cream can be used, apparently, as a slang term for money.  Irish money.  See #27 in  100 Slang Words For Money

36 Across:  Spanish inquisition?: COMO ESTAS.  In this case not THE Spanish Inquisition.  As in to inquire, in Spanish, "How are you?"  Well, I guess the answer to that depends:

7 Down:  Australian open?: G'DAY MATE.  Not a tennis tournament reference.  Open as in an opening comment/greeting, I suppose.  

41 Down:  French press?: LE MONDE.  Not a coffee brewing reference.  The French newspaper (press).

43 Down:  English channel?: THE BEEB.  Not as in what we just now crossed to get to Great Britain from 41 Down (the English Channel).  A television channel.  Slang for the BBC.  British Broadcasting Corporation

49 Down: German mark?: UMLAUT.  Not the former German currency that was replaced by the Euro.  A punctuation mark used in the German language.

Let' take a look at the completed grid.  Its symmetry is elegant even without the placement of the themed answers.  With the placement of those answers it is even more impressive:

Here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. AMC car known as "The Flying Fishbowl": PACER.  If you knew your American Motor Corporation models then this one was fairly easy.  If not, you had to wait for the perps which is a tough way to start a puzzle especially, in this instance, where the crossing with 1 Down might have formed a Natick.

6. "Saltburn" studio: MGM. As a further sign of the "updating" of our puzzles, a 2023 film was chosen to clue this instead of one of hundreds of classic MGM flicks.

9. Office characters: STAFF.  Because of the obligatory leading "cap", the clue might have been thought to refer to the cast of the TV show.  The answer did not require that degree of specificity.

14. Meaty flavor: UMAMI.  One of the five so-called basic tastes (together with Salty, Bitter, Sweet and Sour), UMAMI has been defined as "savory - characteristic of broths and cooked meats".

15. Nev. neighbor: IDA.  IDAho  What did Ida Ho?  She hoed her Mary Land while wearing her brand New Jersey.

16. Undefeated Ali: LAILA.  A frequent visitor.

18. Goldin of "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed": NAN.  A reference to the subject of a 2022 documentary about the activist named in the clue (and who's first name is the answer).

20. Uncertain syllables: UMS.  The topic of the inclusion of these sounds-people-might-make answers has previously, and extensively, been debated on The Corner.

21. Long-horned grasshopper: KATYDID.  A funny word and a funny-looking insect.

24. Captcha capture: BOT.

25. Slip through the cracks: SEEP.  The clue might have been taken as the idiom but that would have thrown one off the scent.

27. Ramblin' man, maybe: NOMAD.  Well, Rebecca and Patti did tee it up:

Allman Brothers Band - 1972

28. Root vegetable with purple-flecked flesh: TARO.  A starchy vegetable frequently served up in our puzzles.

29. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA.  Although a winner of both a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe, this actress' name was unknown to this solver.  Perps to the rescue.

30. Spoken exams: ORALS.  My son recently took a battery of ORAL exams in hopes of qualifying to become a pirate.  His grades were okay, but not great.  He got high C's.

31. Washington University's business school: OLIN.

32. Arterial insert: STENT.  Today's let's-pass-on-the-graphic moment.

34. Fig. texted from traffic: ETA.  Or, a Greek alphabet reference.

35. Actor Nick: NOLTE.  This actor's name was known to this solver.

39. Some charcuterie slices: SALAMI.  One of the wurst clues.

 

42. Polling place sticker: I VOTED.  They now include the sticker with our mail-in ballots.

46. Walk through knee-deep snow, say: TREK.  A bit misleading (hey, it's Friday) because the answer is not snow-dependent.  

47. Unrefined: CRUDE.  I recently heard a dirty joke about oil drilling.  It was really CRUDE.

51. "Goodness": OH MY.

52. Pinnacle: ACME.  Sometimes it turns out to be APEX.

53. Alfa __: ROMEO.  Wherefore art thou?  Nah.  An automobile reference.

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint

54. "Ja" opposite: NEIN.  Today's German lesson.

55. Letter before sigma: RHO.  One of today's Greek (alphabet) lessons.

56. Spicy sausage: HOT LINK.  The other wurst clue.

58. Lingerie buy: BRA.  There are many possibilities here but the three-letter requirement cuts things down to size (number and letter) pretty (lace, different colors) quickly.

59. Packed tightly: DENSE.

61. Tiny powerhouses?: AAS.  This one was not another of those sounds-people-might-make answers.

62. Part of building bridges: I BEAM.  Named for its shape when viewed in cross section.

64. Boss (around): ORDER.

65. "For shame!": TUT.  This is yet another one of those sounds-people-might-make answers.  It might have been clued as yet another proper noun.

66. Sell a bill of goods: LIE TO.   Everything You Want to Know About the "Sell A Bill Of Goods" Idiom

67. Daisy known as the "Rosa Parks of the North": MYERS.  The Myers Family Story

68. UFO beings: ETS.  Extra TerrestrialS  Unidentified Flying Objects are now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs

69. Neuroscience segments: LOBES.

Down:

1. Food with a national holiday in El Salvador: PUPUSAS.  If you started the puzzle at 1 Down then it might have been a rough start.  Oddly, while working on this recap I asked Valerie what I might snack on.  She served up a PUPUSA that she had recently purchased at that temple of Salvadoran cuisine - Costco.  It was delicious.

2. Terse request to chat: A MOMENT.  The only way this one seems to make sense to this solver is as a request to talk to someone and not as a request to chat electronically.  As in "Have you got A MOMENT?"

3. Reflective effect in some gemstones: CATS EYE.

         CATS EYE Gemstones                           Looking For Their Royalty Checks

4. Bird in a eucalyptus forest: EMU.  Eucalyptus tells us to conjure up something Australian.

5. Chance: RISK.  Noun or verb?  It didn't matter this time.

6. Cookie with green creme: MINT OREO.  How do I clue thee?  Let me count the ways.

8. Geometric designs that represent spiritual journeys: MANDALAS.

9. Toy in the final "Calvin and Hobbes" panel: SLED.  Here it is.  Bill Watterson walked away at the top of his game after declining to monetize his characters by, among other things, turning them into plush toys. 

10. Letter after sigma: TAU.  Another one of today's Greek (alphabet) lesson.

11. Big whiff: AIR BALL.  A basketball reference.

12. "Go! Go! Go!": FLOOR IT.  As we move into the electrified automobile future, FLOOR IT might survive whereas "Step On The Gas!" probably will not.  She's real fine my 400 NM?

13. Trick: FAST ONE.  As in to Pull a FAST ONE.

22. "I'll take that as __": A NO.  Yes

23. Face cards?: IDS.  Not IDS as compared to EGOS.  I.D. as in an identification card with, in this case, a head shot photo on it.

26. Blowout patch, at a diner: PANCAKE.  New jargon for this solver.  Usually, it is a sheet rock (drywall) reference.

28. "That may never be funny": TOO SOON.  Often posed as a question:  "Is it TOO SOON?"

33. "Top Chef" judge Colicchio: TOM.  Thanks, again, perps.  Often clued with a turkey reference.

35. Pt. of Loran: NAV.  Long Range NAVigation.

37. Prefix with economics or biology: MICRO.

38. Attach: TIE ON.  As opposed to a Liger?  (well, it was close)

39. Fame and fortune: STARDOM.  I always thought that I was destined for STARDOM but then I realized that my mass was below 0.08 solar masses.

40. Shooting sport: ARCHERY.  Hand up for first trying to make something firearm-related work out.

44. Kuwait or Qatar: EMIRATE.  People in Qatar don't like "The Flintstones" but people in AbuDhabi do.

45. Real powerhouses: DYNAMOS.

48. Turn: ROTATE.  A clue to be taken literally.  Not as in, for example, a baseball game at bat or a time to spin/roll the dice when playing a board game.

50. Many of the founding fathers, religiously: DEISTS. Deism is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe. 

56. Women's health brand: HERS.  Lots of possible ways to clue this.  This way was fitting for a Friday challenge.

57. Decide not to run: KILL.  A press (run) reference as in to KILL a story.

60. Honorific in "Game of Thrones": SER.  I might be the only person around who has never watched an epidsdoe of "Game of Thrones" so thanks, perps.

63. Book jacket blurb: BIO.  Short for BIOgraphy and also a short biography.

That includes our international tour for this Friday.  Have a great weekend, everyone.  If you go  exploring, please travel safely!

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