Friday, April 5, 2024, Laura Dershewitz

 

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the Friday recap.  Our puzzle-setter today is Laura Dershewitz who, often co-authoring with Katherine Baicker, has previously created and published several puzzles for us to solve.

Today, things do not go bad .  Things do not go south.  Things do not go to blazes.  Things do not go to pieces.  Things do not go belly up.  Things do not go awry.  Things do not go off the rails.  They do, however, go sideways.  Although it can, and often is, applied to different types of situations, the definition of the idiom, as provided in today's reveal, will suffice:

31 Down:  Completely fall apart, as a deal, or an apt title for this puzzle?: GO SIDEWAYS.

In the grid, the reveal and the themed clues/answers are placed vertically.  This provides the opportunity/necessity to incorporate the word GO horizontally/SIDEWAYS into the answers.  Let's have a look at the grid before taking a look the themers.

Here are the three themed clues and answers:

3 Down:  Mid-March cry: ERIN G BRAGH.

9 Down:  Gentle carnival ride: MERRY G ROUND.  You are probably familiar with the tune but do you know the name of the song that Loony Tunes adopted as its theme song?  It was written in 1937 and reached the #2 spot on the "Your Hit Parade" radio survey.

The Merry Go Round Broke Down

24 Down:  Without a care in the world: HAPPY G LUCKY.

Here are the other clues and answers:

Across:

1. Use a Keurig, say: BREW.  A coffee BREWing reference . . . and the first of (some might claim too) many proper nouns referenced in today's clues and answers.

5. Name associated with a philosophical razor: OCCAM.  I do not have trouble recalling the answer but I can never remember how to spell it.  The perps remind me.

10. Branded tees or mugs, maybe: SWAG.  SWAG is the name for the stuff they give you at e.g. conventions, symposia, reunions, etc.

14. Traditional wisdom: LORE.  As one of the oldest living people in my family, my word is LORE.

15. "I'm not seeing it": WHERE.

WHERE Wolf?

16. Follow: TAIL.  As in to follow a criminal suspect.

17. Bookworm: AVID READER.

19. Alan of "Marriage Story": ALDA.  With STACY and WALT being clued the way that they were, this solver did not know two of the names in that NW stack.  Alan ALDA helped out quite a bit.

20. Lunch option on the Shinkansen, say: BENTO.  Shinkansen (the Japanese bullet train) alerts us to think of Japanese cuisine.

BENTO Box 

21. Took away (from): DETRACTED.  Did you come across anything today that either added to or DETRACTED from your puzzle-solving experience?

23. "Who knew?": GOSH.  What did the fish say when the river stopped flowing? "GOSH dam it!"

25. With diffidence: SHYLY.

26. PD alert: APB.  Police Department.  All Points Bulletin.

28. Ingest: EAT.

30. In the past: AGO.  A few minutes AGO I came to the conclusion that tofu is overrated.  It's just a curd to me.

31. Dollop: GOB.  Given today's theme, that O after the G could be viewed as a bit misleading.

34. Sensitive subject: SORE SPOT.

37. Surname in a classic Styx song: ROBOTO.  Domo arigato Mister ROBOTO.

39. Meat in Hawaiian cuisine: SPAM.  How A Wartime Necessity Became A Hawaiian Delicacy

40. Teaser ad: PROMO.

42. Italian wine region: ASTI.

Asti Spumante Commercial

43. Divination: AUGURY.  This word does not appear often in our puzzles . . . but we should have seen it coming.

45. Head-scratchers: TOUGHIES.  Initially, I thought of POSERS but the word wasn't long enough.

47. Speedometer stat: MPH.

48. __ boost: EGO.

50. Twin set?: DNA.  A reference to the double-helix shape of the molecule.

51. Dr. of rap: DRE.  Née Andre Romell Young

52. French "Cheers!": SALUT.

54. Screwdriver, in a pinch: DIME.

56. Chewy candy bars introduced in 1921: BABY RUTHS.  Many people believe that the candy was named after Babe Ruth the baseball player.  It was, in fact, named after President Cleveland's daughter.

60. Full of the latest: NEWSY.  Current and/or topical.

63. Triumphant cry: I WON.   A big cat said this after every race that she ran.  She was a cheetah.

64. Fresh start: CLEAN SLATE.   A somewhat anachronistic figure of speech.

66. U2 singer: BONO.  Not Sonny BONO.  Paul David Hewson.

67. Little meower: KITTY.  It might have been clued with a "Gunsmoke" reference but then it would have been yet another proper noun.  Speaking of which,

68. Cannon of film: DYAN.

69. Toy on some holiday cards: SLED.

70. Matzo's lack: YEAST.  Exodus:  This day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the Lord, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.  For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

71. "Last four digits" IDs: SSNS.

Down:

1. Say too much: BLAB.   Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Everyone I BLABbed to told me that they wouldn't say anything to anyone.

2. Wander about: ROVE.  We never know, initially, if it is going to turn out to be ROVE or ROAM but we can fill in the R and the O.  I sometimes wonder why this is rarely, if ever, clued with "Karl".

4. United with: WED TO.

5. Have loans: OWE.

6. African lake in four countries: CHAD.

7. Surrenders: CEDES.

8. First name in soul: ARETHA.

ARETHA Franklin - "Think"

10. Gwen __: Spider-Man's first love: STACY.  A Marvel Comics reference.

11. Sky's "Breaking Bad" spouse: WALT.  In times past, this might have been clued with a reference to Whitman or Disney or Kelly or Frazier.

12. Campaign staffer: AIDE.

13. Chuffed: GLAD.  New to this solver.

18. Bunch of romantics?: ROSES.  Not a group of impractical visionaries but, rather, a bouquet of flowers that a romantic person might give to their beloved.

22. __ gobi: South Asian potato dish: ALOO.  The first of two South Asia Subcontinent references in a row.

26. State in northern India: ASSAM.  The second.

27. Temporary, as a bar or restaurant: POP UP.

29. Publisher with a mountain peak logo: TOR.  We sometimes see TOR clued with just the mountain peak reference.  Self-published, as it were.

32. Marine mammal that uses rocks to crack shells: OTTER.

33. State capital in the Treasure Valley: BOISE.  In a recent Sunday puzzle, BOISE was clued as "the City of Trees".  With three vowels and an S it's a useful word for constructors.

35. Flightless bird: EMU.  Did you hear about the EMU who was taller than his friends?  He was ostrich-sized.

36. Word with tater or tiny: TOT.  At least we were spared the casserole reference (unlike last Saturday).

Tater TOT(s)                                                Tiny TOT

38. "Curses!": BAH.  How would a sheep say BAH?

41. Online admin: MOD.  MODerator

44. Bring up, or something to bring up: REAR.  Cute.  Raise your children or be in last place.  Alternatively, what you are sitting on as you read this.

46. Acquires: GAINS.  What does a doctor get from a urine test?  She GAINS whizdom.

49. Extend past: OUTLIE.

52. Church council: SYNOD.

53. Angle symbol, in trigonometry: THETA.  By definition, much as Delta represents a difference or Pi represents the ratio of a circle's circumference and diameter.

55. Merges: MELDS.

56. Lobsterfest wear: BIBS.

57. Missing GI: AWOL.  Absent WithOut Leave

58. Fillet's lack: BONE.

Fillet Minion

59. Coll. entrance exams: SATS.  

61. Superfan: STAN.  Current slang.  The term comes from a song on an Eminem album.   The song tells the story of an obsessed fan named, you guessed it, STAN.  Possibly, a portmanteau derived from "stalker" and "fan".

62. Strong desires: YENS.  YEN is the shortest of the bunch (URGE, ITCH, DESIRE, HANKERING, etc.) and was handy here because, including the S, only four letter could be used.

65. "The 1619 Project" publisher, for short: NYT.   New York Times  "The 1619 Project" focused on slavery and the founding of the United States.

That's it for today.

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Notes from C.C.:

 

1) Chairman Moe (Chris) made Wednesday's Newsday puzzle. Click here to solve and let him know your feedback. 

2) Happy 83rd Birthday to dear Irish Miss (Agnes), the sunshine of our little corer. Thanks for the care and love you've shown everyone on our blog, Agnes! I'm so lucky to have you as a close friend and puzzle collaborator.

 

Agnes (right) and her sister Eileen, Nov 22, 2013

 

Friday, March 22, 2024, Katie Hale

Greetings, Cruciverbalists. Anomalous Moderate here with a recap of today's puzzle by Katie Hale.  As was the case with the puzzle reviewed by yours truly this past December 29th, Lisa Simpson leads the way to anagram-ville (well, it's kinda close to being an anagram of Margaritaville).

At five places in the grid Katie has a bit of fun by rearranging the initial three or four letters of everyday vocabulary and thereby produces humorous themed answers.  After the first few of these were figured out by this solver (not in top-to-bottom order) I thought that the theme would also have an electronics angle (STEM, USB, RCA) but this was not to be.

Here are the five he terms, er themers:

18 Across:  Shirts for a coders vs. physicists softball game?: STEM JERSEYS.  (New York) METS JERSEYS has been rearranged.  A tech reference.

24 Across:  Break-even transactions involving vintage TVs and turntables?: RCA WASHES.  CAR WASHES  RCA was an early brand of TVs and other electronic gear (although I do not recall ever seeing an RCA turntable).  A break-even transactions is sometimes referred to as "a wash".  Six of one a twenty-fourth of a gross of the other.

38 Across:  One issuing tickets to the over-50 crowd?: AARP TROOPER.  PARATROOPER  If anyone here needs AARP explained please drop me a line.

51 Across:  Animated image of an apple falling on Sir Isaac?: GIF NEWTON.  FIG NEWTON  A popular cookie morphs into an animated illustration of an aha moment in the history of physics.  Here, now, a GIF:

59. Lab work focused on data storage devices?: USB CULTURES.  SUBCULTURES

This is how all of this appears in the grid:

Here are the rest of the clues and answers:

So, Cars:  Oops, Across:

1. Trailhead posting: MAP.  My hiking friends and I used to rely heavily on the USGS contour maps.

4. Courtroom drama on NBC from 1986 to 1994: LA LAW.  Today's first TV show reference.

9. Lariat: ROPE.  Drop the L from the clue and we could form RIATA.

13. Spring mo.: APR.  APRIL.  This could have been clued with a credit card interest rate reference.

14. Vague afternoon time: ONE-ISH.  Probably not Katie's favorite fill.

16. Multicolored gem: OPAL.  We have all seen some so-so posts on blogs but here are some gems:  emeralds, sapphires, OPALs, rubies

17. "Gotta __!": JET.  New to this solver.  "I gotta JET is, apparently, a phrase that means "I have to go (quickly)".

20. Miner concern: ORES.  Often found in crossword puzzles but rarely seen pluralized.

22. Water coolers: ICE.  The use of the plural in the clue lead to a bit of head scratching but, I guess, ICES would not be not used in this context.

23. Water movers: MAINS.  Not the first water conduit that came to mind but the clue is on target.

27. Dead set on: WED TO.  Pairing Dead with WED might be perceived as a slippery slope.

29. Tangy red spice: SUMAC.  Popular in middle-eastern cuisine.

30. "Jingle Bells" contraction: O'ER.

32. CSNY's "__ House": OUR.  It was very, very, very fine house with two cats in the yard.

33. Making one's hair stand on end?: TEASING.  A clue to be taken literally.

37. Doesn't take well?: ROBS.   Don't take this wrongly . . .

40. Mark left by a bumper: DENT.  If a plane has a small DENT does that make it an airline fracture?

42. Afternoon rests: SIESTAS.

43. Sprint: RUN.  Did the clue jog your memory?

44. Dudes: MEN.  By definition.

45. Romance novelist Dare: TESSA.  Unknown to this solver although I am aware that Romance Novels exist and I have heard such books referred to as "bodice rippers".

49. Make space on the whiteboard: ERASE.  Clued many ways.

55. "__ you a barrel of laughs": AREN'T.  See also 63 Across.

57. Nintendo character option: MII.  Completely unknown to this solver.  Thanks perps.  MII is a customize-able avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles.

58. Artemis org.: NASA.  With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.  The first manned, excuse me, the first crewed lunar landing is scheduled for 2026.

62. Gov. or sen.: POL.  POLitician.  We often encounter POLs in our puzzles.

63. Barrel of laughs: RIOT.  See also 55 Across.

64. Big-box shop: COSTCO.  I was in one just prior to starting to work on this write-up.

65. 68-Across restroom: LOO.  We often go there in our puzzles.

66. Drummer Ulrich: LARS.  Of Metallica.

67. "Anything Goes" star Merman: ETHEL.

68. U.K. part: ENG.  United Kingdom.  ENGland

Down:

1. Focuses in college: MAJORS.  If marine biology was the right MAJOR for you then your grades were probably above c-level.

2. Brief sketch: APERCU.

3. Comms experts: PR TEAM.  COMMunicationS experts - Public Relations TEAM

4. Rock's __ Lonely Boys: LOS.

5. Opposition parties: ANTIS.  ANTIS is a word not often heard, seen or used.

6. Hanger-on: LEECH.  Idiomatically and literally.  Ugh.

7. Teegarden of "Friday Night Lights": AIMEE.

8. Financial paper, for short: WSJ.  Newspaper.  The Wall Street Journal

9. "The Jetsons" maid: ROSIE.  That's ROSIE in the back.  You know the other names from the theme song.  Another TV reference.

10. What love is, per a "Frozen" song: OPEN DOOR.

11. Earnings report: PAY STUB.  Of a sort, I suppose, for an individual but not for a company.

12. Lapel edges?: ELS.  Lapel begins and ends with the letter L.

15. Take up, in a way: HEM.  See also 37 Down.

19. Playful "grr" alternative: RAWR.  Used to express anger, flirtation or affection.

21. Try to hit: SWAT AT.

25. Lenovo rival: ACER.  DELL and SONY would also have fit the allotted space.

26. Wireless speaker brand: SONOS.  Hand up for ANKER.

28. RN workplaces: ORS.  Registered Nurse.  Operating RoomS.

31. Elton John accomplishment, briefly: EGOT.  Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony.   Elton John is the most recent person to complete this feat and, of all who have done so (less than twenty people) he was the oldest at "completion".

34. Basilica alcove: APSE.  Do you struggle to find domed recesses in cathedrals?  There's an APSE for that.

35. Result of angering a wasp, probably: STING.  Not the ethnic kind of WASP.

36. Fury: IRE.

37. Taken up, in a way: RE-SEWN.  See also 15 Down.

38. University of Michigan city: ANN ARBOR.  Go Blue!

39. Spread out at a cocktail party: PATE.  Not splayed.  An edible spread that might be put out (served).

40. Rap's Dr. __: DRE.

41. "1984" superstate: EURASIA.

44. Maitre d' offering: MENU.

46. Paper clip alternative: STAPLE.  Alternatively:  You shouldn't eat stationery.  It might become a dietary STAPLE.

47. "Time to go already?": SO SOON.

48. Like a watch with hands: ANALOG.

50. Factions: SECTS.

52. "You can't stop me": I MUST.

53. Colin of "1917": FIRTH.  An actor/motion picture reference.

54. Extended family member: NIECE.  In Nice, nièce.

56. "No Scrubs" group: TLC.  A music/"girl group" reference.

59. Clickable link: URL.  Here's One

60. Little piggy: TOE.

61. Mexican lager: SOL.  Aaahhh, a nice cold beer to wrap things up.

________________________________________________________

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 83rd birthday to our sweet Pat (PK on our blog), who's been with our blog for a long time. PK used to be a reporter.

 

Cake from Dave