Friday, March 14, 2025, Matt Revis

 Theme:  AIR PRESSURE.

Constructor Matt Revis has whipped up an airy treat which pressures us to think of homonyms for the very stuff we breathe.  The theme clues and answers, all Across, are:

15. Time when everyone woke up achy and sore?: ERE MATTRESSES.  In days of yore, I went camping with my ex, and we eventually acquired air mattresses.  That time when we woke up achy and sore?  That was ERE (before) MATTRESSES.

Not bad, but then DH introduced me to the concept of hotels.
Reader, I married him.

22. "Reader, I married him," "I would always rather be happy than dignified," etc.?: EYRE QUOTES.  Jane Eyre is a novel by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847.  The title character tells the story in the first person, and the clue gives us some quotations from the book.  If I were to quote Jane Eyre to you in person, I might use air quotes.

air quotes

35. Key component of a royal line of succession?: HEIR POWER.  Air power usually refers to the use of planes in combat, reconnnaissance, transport, and bombing.  But a heriditary monarchy relies on a suitable HEIR to the throne, giving the ruling family some HEIR POWER.

The British Crown has plenty of HEIR POWER with these folks waiting in the wings.

48. Eligible bachelors in Berlin?: HERR SUPPLY.  Air supply is air delivered to a space.  Our youngest took her first scuba diving lesson recently, and of course had to carry her air supply while underwater.  But over in Berlin, there is a supply of men she might marry --  HERR Schmidt, HERR Bauer, HERR Klein, HERR Weber, et al.  If only she would stop and come up for HERR.

57. Car wash freebies, or an apt title for this puzzle: AIR FRESHENERS.  

Does your car wash throw in one of these for free?

Having cleared the ERE / EYRE / HEIR / HERR / AIR, let's review the rest of the puzzle.

Across:

1. Some tech support agents: CHATBOTS.  These pop up in a dialog box when you are completely frustrated with a website, and are looking forward to further frustration.

9. Director Peter recognized with an Academy Honorary Award in 2023: WEIR.  Peter Weir is a retired Australian film director. You may remember him for films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander (2003), and The Way Back (2010).

13. Professional charge from a 16-Down, perhaps: LEGAL FEE.

14. River through Florence: ARNO.  Eldest daughter used to live and work in Florence, so we had a few opportunities to visit and impress the Arno into our memories.

15. [Theme clue]

17. Like venison, compared to beef: GAMIER.  Meat of wild animals is said to taste "gamy" or "gamey," which means it has a strong flavor, possibly tainted due to mishandling.  "Game animals" or just "game" are wild animals hunted for food or recreation.  Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer.  It isn't much of a game when one player has a rifle and the other has no hands.

18. "That's sorta right": ISH.  -ish is a suffix added to a word to create an adjective:  Finnish, boyish, bookish, fortyish.  By itself, it is now used to mean "to some extent."  "Are you busy?"  "ISH."

19. Tear: RIP.

21. "__ go bragh!": ERIN.  “Ireland until eternity” or "Ireland forever."  

You may encounter this phrase on Monday.

22. [Theme clue]

26. Release: LET GO.

28. Western treaty gp.: OAS.  Thirty-five sovereign states of the Americas are members of the Organization of American States.  Cuba and Nicaragua are the only sovereign states that are not members, but both used to be.

29. Credit card giant: VISA.  What's in your wallet?

30. QB stats: TDs. Quarterbacks score touchdowns in football.

31. Deep purple: PLUM.

Pantone Plum

33. Picks up the tab: TREATS.

35. [Theme clue]

37. Mediterranean capital: ATHENS.

40. Era: SPAN.  An era is a long SPAN of time.

41. Nt. wt. units: LBS.  Net weight may be measured in pounds (LBS) or other units.

44. Home of the Mets from 1964 to 2008: SHEA.  Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, hosted the New York Mets and New York Jets.

45. Take to court: SUE.

46. Freedom, in Swahili: UHURU.  This word inspired the name of Star Trek character Lieutenant Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols in the original television series.

Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura

48. [Theme clue]

52. Deep purple berry: ACAI.

53. Antidiscrimination letters: EEO.  Equal Employment Opportunity laws prohibit specific types of job discrimination in certain workplaces.

54. 1950s political moniker: IKE.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, also known by his nickname Ike, was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961.

55. Sheepish reply to "Where's the rest of the pizza?": I ATE IT.

57. [Theme clue]

61. Crabby mood: SNIT.

62. Cellphone lack: DIAL TONE.

63. Socials with finger sandwiches: TEAS.

64. Playground game similar to hide-and-seek: SARDINES.  Sardines is a variation of hide-and-seek where players join the hidden person in the hiding place until they are all packed in tight.  News to me!

playing sardines

Down:

1. Took home, in a way: CLEARED.  One of many meanings of clear as a verb is to gain without deduction, or to "net."  

2. Loners: HERMITS.

3. Getting on: AGEING.  American and Canadian writers use aging.  Ageing is the preferred spelling outside North America. 

4. Far from daring: TAME.

5. Strident noise: BLARE.

6. Many times o'er: OFT.  An archaic or poetic form of "often."  "O'er" (for "over") lets us know that the answer will be archaic or poetic.

7. Lunar festival in Vietnam: TET.  Tết is the Vietnamese lunar new year festival, which celebrates the start of spring and the transition from the old year to the new. It's the most important holiday in Vietnamese culture. This year, the national holiday fell on January 31st.

8. Word on some Emmy Awards: SERIES.  The 2024 Emmy for outstanding drama series went to Shōgun.  It was truly outstanding!

Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko in Shōgun

9. St. Louis sch.: WashU.  Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.  "At WashU, we’re connecting learners, thinkers, leaders and doers who inspire each other to ask big questions and find real solutions – together. This is what WashU can do."

10. Hosp. areas: ERs.  Hospital areas:  Emergency Rooms.

11. Resistance to change: INERTIA.

12. Most optimistic: ROSIEST.

16. Atty.'s title: ESQ.  Attorney's title:  Esquire.  In the United States, esquire (often shortened to Esq.) is a title of courtesy, given to a lawyer and commonly appended to his/her surname (e.g. , John Smith, Esq. or John Smith, Esquire) when addressing the lawyer in written form.  The title comes from England, where it used to mean someone superior to a gentleman but inferior to a knight.

17. Hanukkah chocolate: GELT.  Gelt is Yiddish for money, and German for gold.  Money used to be given to children at Hanukkah, but has been replaced in many families by chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil.  At our house, the dreidel players tend to eat a lot of their winnings before the game ends.

20. Some ads: PSAs.  A public service announcement is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media, without charge, to raise public awareness and change behavior.

23. Part of FYI: YOUR.  For Your Information.

24. Builds dramatically: RAMPS UP.  Increases in amount, intensity, extent:  builds.  A company ramps up production to meet booming demand.

25. Above: OVER.

27. Willing to talk: OPEN.

32. Fleur-de-__: LIS.  The fleur-de-lis is a stylized image of a lily (fleur being French for flower, and lis being French for lily).  It has been used to represent France for a thousand years.

Fleur-de-lis design on the coat of arms of the French monarchy.

33. Bygone airline: TWA.  Trans World Airlines was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.

34. Big name in saline: RENU.  A cleansing solution for soft contact lenses from Bausch & Lomb.

35. Catch, in a way: HEAR.  Did you catch that?

36. Astra and Corsa automaker: OPEL.  Opel is a German car manufacturer.  Astra and Corsa are model names.

37. Tennis legend Arthur: ASHE.

38. Whence one Wicked Witch: THE EAST.  Whence means "from what place or source."  Where did one Wicked Witch come from?  The East.

The Wicked Witch of the East did not get much screen time in The Wizard of Oz.

39. Wonder Woman, for one: HEROINE.

41. Swiss home of the rock relief known as the Lion Monument: LUCERNE.  The Lion Monument in Lucerne, Switzerland, honors the Swiss Guards who were killed during the French Revolution, defending the family of King Louis XVI in Paris.

42. Sears and simmers: BRAISES.  To braise is to cook slowly in fat and a small amount of liquid in a closed pot.

43. Diamonds, for one: SUIT.  A standard deck of playing cards comprises 13 ranks in each of the four suits:  clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades (♠).

45. Exceeds the limit: SPEEDS.

47. Disparage: HATE ON.  "Hate on" is an informal verb phrase that means to criticize or say bad things about someone in a public way. For example, "These kids get hated on for no good reason at all."  You can hate someone in private, but once you go public with your antipathy, you're hating on them.

49. Combs (through): SIFTS.

50. Kyiv's country: Abbr.: UKR.  Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine -- which we've all come to know through a prolonged tragedy.

Kyiv, Ukraine

51. Make way: YIELD.

56. Against: ANTI.

58. Narrow waterway: RIA.

59. "Unstoppable" singer: SIA.  "Unstoppable" is a song by Australian singer-songwriter Sia, taken from her seventh studio album, This Is Acting (2016).  It was released as a single in the U.S. in 2022, reached one billion streams on Spotify in 2023, and was named Most Performed Australian Work Overseas in 2024. 

60. Laugh syllable: HAR.

Here's the grid:

Did this puzzle have you walking on AIR?  Or did you ERR along the way?

NaomiZ