Good morning, cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with Buck Henry & Mel Brooks' Maxwell Smart and The Chief to introduce today's puzzle.
If my research is correct, today's constructor Michael Paleos made his L.A. Times Debut on June 28, 2019. He has also had puzzles published in the L.A. Times on March 12, 2020 and, more recently on June 10, 2021. Apologies in advance if I have missed one or more.
The Cone Of Silence seemed appropriate today because Michael riffs on those silent letters that are not uncommon in the English language. The reveal comes at 54 Across:
54 Across. Cold shoulder . . . and a hint to four circled letters, individually and as a unit: SILENT TREATMENT
The interesting twist here is that the four circled letters spell, in order from top to bottom, MUTE. That is an impressive twist on an otherwise pretty straightforward theme.
17 Across. Aids for retrieving things: MNEMONIC DEVICES MNEMONIC DEVICES are tools used for memorizing a string of words. Well-known ones include HOMES (for the Great Lakes), King Philip Came Over For Great Spaghetti (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family Genus, Species) and ROY G BIV (for the colors in a rainbow and, yes, Indigo has been dropped by some).
28 Across. Hendrix's "Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, for one: GUITAR SOLO
33. Made bad news easier to take: SOFTENED THE BLOW
41. Bond of the '70s and '80s: ROGER MOORE. Not a T-Note or a Junk Bond, but a British spy.
. . . and now for the rest of the story:
Across:
1. Something going to the dogs: ALPO. Right "off the bat" a bit of misdirection. Not the idiom for a crumbling situation but literally something you would give to a dog.
5. Chirpy sci-fi critter: ARTOO. R2 D2 aka ARTOO DEETOO from the Star Wars franchise. R2 D2 visited us last Friday, also.
R2 D2 Noises
10. Joe by another name: JAVA. Slang for coffee.
14. Welsh actor Roger: REES. Unknow to this solver. Diolch, perps.
15. Domain: REALM.
16. Kalahari-like: ARID. The Kalahari Desert.
20. Hunted ones in a 2016 craze: POKEMON. POKEMON GO
21. Rare forecast: HAIL. Less frequent than sunny skies, overcast skies, rain or snow.
22. Teeing off: IRING. Alternative clue: What this clue is to solvers. Irking? Okay. But the present participle of IRE?
23. Provider of colt comfort: MARE. Not Cold Comfort. Nice wordplay. No, not jeu de mots.
24. "On the Road" narrator __ Paradise: SAL. Jack Kerouac's (nee Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac) thinly-veiled self in the book.
Cassidy (Cassady / Dean Moriarty) - 1977 - Grateful Dead
27. Zippered shelter: TENT. Looking at the local streets, other clues come to mind.
31. One might be slipped: DISC. Hands up for having had L5 / S1 or something similar added to your vocabulary at some point.
32. Some urban pollution: NOISE.
39. Word with box or light: IDIOT. Two idioms. IDIOT box for television and IDIOT light for the lights on an automobile dash board that illuminate to tell the driver that something has gone amiss.
40. Bush hoppers: ROOS. Bush is used to indicate Australia and hoppers provides a slangy hint for KangaROOS.
44. Part of CSNY: NASH. Crosby Stills NASH and Young. DSGN work not work as well. A local school once held a charity auction featuring Graham NASH's Nash Rambler automobile.
48. Its returns were never sales: Abbr.: IRS. Tax Returns.
49. Strong lobby for seniors: AARP. This clue requires no explanation here.
50. Game with scratching: LOTTO. Scratch off that ticket. You might be a winner.
51. 2019 Broadway biomusical: TINA. TINA Turner.
52. Big squeeze: BEAR HUG. Again, nice wordplay.
58. Rapper-turned-actor: ICE T. Alternatively, Rapper-turned-actor who often visits crossword puzzles.
59. Something one may be dying to hide?: ROOTS. Hair Dye. Nice pun.
60. Pro foe: ANTI.
61. Smart-alecky: CUTE. CUTE, real CUTE. Do we detect a note of sarcasm?
62. Affected: ARTSY. As used here, too, too pretentious.
63. Zap: LASE. Zap often turns out to be Nuke, as in microwave.
Zap Comix #0
Down:
1. Axilla, commonly: ARMPIT. Today's let's skip the graphics moment. The A from ALPO at 1 Across proved helpful as, initially, I had no idea about 14 Across.
2. Lost love in "The Raven": LENORE. Edgar Allan Poe.
James Earl Jones and Friends
3. Spy, in a way: PEEK IN. LOOK IN was, briefly, considered as was PEER IN.
4. "Pay It Forward" actor Haley Joel __: OSMENT. Unknown to me. Thank you, perps.
5. River in Tuscany: ARNO.
The Arno River at Night - Firenze 2015 - Photo By MM
6. Bit of equestrian gear: REIN.
7. Tic __: TAC. A bit surprised that it didn't turn out to be Tic Tok. What do you get if you cross some ants with some tics? All sorts of antics.
8. So last year: OLD HAT. Idiom meaning passe. It may have developed during the time when women often wore hats and the styles changed annually.
9. 1998 Masters winner Mark: O'MEARA. In 1998, golfer Mark O'MEARA became the oldest to win two majors in the same year. He was 41.
10. Monopoly corner: JAIL. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.
11. Parabolic path: ARC.
12. Contend: VIE.
13. They pop up too often: ADS. Online Pop-up ADS.
18. IM gasp: OMG. Instant Message gasp = Oh My God!
23. Emphatic end to a killer performance: MIC DROP.
24. Lowe's bagful: SOIL. Lowe's home improvement centers sell bags of SOIL in the Garden Department.
25. "And another thing ... ": ALSO.
26. MGM co-founder: LOEW. Marcus LOEW. Not to be confused with Lowe's from 24 Down.
28. Gimlet option: GIN. 2.5 ounces of GIN, 0.5 ounces of Simple Syrup, a squeeze of fresh lime and a lime wedge to garnish.
29. One of a Swiss Army knife's many: USE. Many uses.
30. Blubber: SOB. To cry. Not, in this case, flab.
31. Disembark, maybe: DETRAIN. Not to be confused with DEPLANE.
33. Aide to millions: SIRI. A modern-day reference. My girlfriend asked me why I was whispering at home. I told her that I was worried that Mark Zuckerberg was listening. She laughed. I laughed. Aexa laughed. SIRI laughed. We all laughed.
34. It could be fishy: ODOR.
35. Cookie fruit: FIGS. Fruit, as with fish, can be singular or plural.
36. __ the mark: TOE.
37. NBA's Raptors: TOR. A National Basketball Association team. TORonto. Canadian, eh?
42. Watchword: MANTRA. There was an indecisive Buddha. His mantra was, "ummmmmmmm...."
43. Address provider: ORATOR. A nice play on words. Why did Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address? Because the Gettysburg was naked.
44. Not odd: NORMAL. Not EVEN. Not even what?
45. She turned Arachne into a spider: ATHENA. I did not know this but the assumed that it would be an ancient goddess and the perps made it fairly easy to guess correctly.
46. Action film fodder: STUNTS.
47. Stymie: HOGTIE.
50. GPS finding: LAT. LATitude. For a modern take on location-finding take a look at the What Three Words app. What Three Words
51. It's under un beret: TETE. Today's French lesson. TETE = head.
52. Risks: BETS. This makes more sense as a couple of verbs than it does as a couple of nouns.
53. "Nothing to it!": EASY.
54. Attack, to Rover: SIC. (Not my error)
55. RN workplace: ICU. Registered Nurses work, sometimes, in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital.
56. Tennis call: LET. A serve that hits the net and lands in the correct court.
57. Rubbish: ROT. Another idiom Used as a noun not a verb. I was once on an airplane and found myself seated next to a man who held a backpack full of ROTting meat. He said that it was his carrion luggage.
Today's puzzle leads us into other dimensions of reality. Our captain for this journey will be Michael Paleos, an LA Times veteran who
last published here
on Thursday March 12th 2020. He has also been published at least twice by the NY Times. This
is what Will Shortz had to say about him for his Sunday puzzle debut on October
27, 2019:
Michael Paleos, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., is chief of staff at a major investment
bank. He started solving crosswords at a young age, but only got hooked on
them after discovering the archive of puzzles in the New York Times app.
"After doing enough of them, I started wondering what it would take to make
one, and down the rabbit hole I went." [my emphasis]
In this puzzle Michael leads us to close encounters with holes you don't go
down, but go through, and come out the another side!
I'll
start by highlighting a key piece of information by showing a blank grid:
You will notice that there are what appear to be four circles. If
your publisher didn't include these, then the deep dive I'm about to take is
not going to make a lot of sense. I'm not sure I'm going to make sense
anyway, as this is the most convoluted theme I've had to explain ...
First I made the mistake of assuming that the circles actually were circles,
but that's not what they really are. Next I have to admit that
this was the first puzzle that I've blogged that I DNF. I expected that
the circles contained letters that could somehow be joined together to reveal
the theme. And after it was clear to me that I had reached a dead end, I
had to resort to reading the clue/answer file bloggers receive that contains
all the answers. Normally I only read this file after solving the puzzle
just to verify my solution.
Okay, so here are the themers, in which some of the letters appear to abruptly
end or begin out of nowhere. These are indicated by white letters CIRCLED IN RED in the text that follows.* Answers with these circles are connected to
other answers on the grid in temporal order, i.e. the order in which
they will occur, or have occurred in historical time:
In the not too distant future:
7A 22-Across captain:KIRK. Obviously a clue to the unfinished answer at 22A ... 22A
Classic sci-fi name: STARSHIP🅔Where is this taking us? To 56A via a 38A? 56A -:
🅝TERPRISE The clue "-" indicates that this answer continues from a
previous clue, but there is no indication of which one. The preceding three clues are all related to the voyages of
the STARSHIP 🅔🅝TERPRISE which will begin when she is
commissioned in 2245, in the EARTH's near future. She will
first be captained by
Robert April, then by Christopher Pike, and finally will be
turned over to James Tiberius KIRK.
And "A long long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
71A. 18-Across captain: SOLO. Obviously a clue to the unfinished answer at 18A ... 18A
Classic sci-fi name: MILLENN🅘Where is this taking us? To
62A
via a 38A? 62A. -:
🅤M FALCON. The clue "-" again indicates that this answer continues from a
previous clue, but there is no indication of which one. The preceding three clues are related to the
voyages of the MILLENN🅘🅤M FALCON, captained a long, long time ago by that irascible
STAR WARS rogue HANS SOLO and
his wookie companion CHEWBACCA And the reveal, dead center in our puzzle universe, tells us the real
meaning for the "circles":
38A. Theoretical shortcuts ... or
what the four circles in this puzzle represent:
WORM HOLES.
Are these WORM HOLES simply direct shortcuts from two parts of the puzzle to two others, or are they more than that, intended as actual shortcuts
thru interstellar space and time? The first possibility is pretty straightforward. An exploration of the latter possibility would require a deep dive down the rabbit hole of interstellar physics that is beyond the space and time of this review.
* The circled red letters are unavoidably shifted up a bit due to the
Unicode
font I had to use to generate them.
The final grid might help clear up any confusion you might have, if that's
possible!
Now let's get down to EARTH:
Across:
1. "The Devil Wears Prada" co-star: STREEP. I have not seen
this movie, but apparently Meryl presents another powerful performance as one of the
greatest actresses of our time. My indelible memory of STREEP was
her incredible portrayal of Zofia Zawistowski in the 1982 film Sophie's Choice, based on the
novel by William Styron. Here are two reviews of this 1982 film -
The first was written by the late
Roger Ebert, when the film was first released. The second is from the (SPOILER ALERT)
Wikipedia. If you haven't seen this film and plan to, read Ebert's review first,
see the movie, then read the Wiki review.
11. Some notebooks: PCS.
14. Pirouettes: TWIRLS.
15. Be in store: LIE AHEAD.
17. Not in a good way: POORLY.
19. Zeno's followers: STOICS. Zeno was also known for his
formulation of a series of PARADOXES, that is apparently
self-contradictory propositions. I recall being taught about the
DICHOTOMY PARADOX
in HS Math: "suppose someone wishes to walk to the end of a path. Before she can
get there, she must get halfway there. Before she can get halfway there, she
must get a quarter of the way there. Before traveling a quarter, she must travel
one-eighth; before an eighth, one-sixteenth; and so on", the implication being
that she'll never get there.
Our Math teacher Mr. Fritz
refuted it thusly: "Suppose we put all of the girls on one side of the room and
all of the boys on the other. Each side starts by walking a 1/2 of the way
to the middle, and then 1/4, then 1/8th, and so on. They may never get to
the middle, but pretty soon they'd be close enough for all practical
purposes."
21. Have a little lamb, say: YEAN. My favorite clue. I've
heard of calving (something ELSIE might do -
see 44A below), but I didn't know there was a verb specifically for
giving birth to a lamb.
25. Andean grazer: LLAMA. I wonder if they give birth by
LLAMINATION?
28. Gumshoe: TEC.
29. Keep in inventory: STOCK.
31. Vote of dissent: NAY.
32. "The Jungle" author Sinclair: UPTON.
Sinclair was born right here in Baltimore
in 1878, the son of an alcoholic father and a teetotaling Episcopalian
mother. At the time he wrote The Jungle (awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction in 1943) he was best known for his muck-raking novels and his
socialist leanings, but we owe the beginnings of the
Food and Drug Administration
to him.
49. It's often eaten with a fork and spoon: PASTA. Didn't know you
needed a spoon. Given the number and shapes of different pasta varieties I
suppose you might need a spoon for some, e.g DITALINI (not sure what
you'd do with the fork though):
Ditalini Pasta
52. 292.5 deg., on a compass: WNW.
53. Blueprint info: SPECS. I used to have to worry about those kind
of SPECS. Now that my license is up for renewal I might have to
worry about these:
59. Entreaty: PLEA.
61. Boatload, say: AMOUNT.
66. Scrabble coups: BINGOS. Never heard this term, which gets you
50 extra points for using all of your letters.
Scrabble is like a "moveable crossword puzzle" that you make up as you go
along. I used to play it a lot with my with my youngest sister before I
left for college. I was always looking for clever words but she played
for blood, consistently scoring higher than me.
Here's a good Scrabble resource
with lots of words for getting BINGOS, including would you believe it:
BOVINITY?
68. Spice that gives yellow curry its color: TURMERIC. Poor man's
saffron. This looks like a good recipe for what DW and I used to call "Dal and potato stew". The website says it all: "yummy!".
69. Balinese, e.g.: ASIANS. The aspect of Balinese culture that I'm
most familiar with is their distinctive music:
Gamelan, also spelled gamelang or gamelin, is the
indigenous orchestra type of the islands of Java and Bali, in Indonesia,
consisting largely of several varieties of gongs and various sets of tuned
metal instruments that are struck with mallets.
70. Eponymous ice cream maker: EDY. Add a D and you've got EDDY and a clecho to 14A.
72. One exchanging dollars for quarters?: RENTER. Clever
misdirection. Hands up if you thought this was for playing the slots.
Down:
1. Big racing sponsor: STP.
2. Texas dance: TWO STEP.
3. Cautionary reading?: RIOT ACT. No comment.
4. "404 Not Found," e.g.: ERROR. Generated by HTTP when it
cannot locate the specified URL you are trying to reach on the
Internet.
5. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS. Used as a gateway to the US
for immigrants.
Here is their story.
6. Inspires, with "up": PSYCHS.
7. Dutch carrier: KLM.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (in Dutch
Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) N.V., is the flag carrier
airline of the Netherlands.
12. Preserve, in a way: CAN. A great way to preserve garden
vegetables. We still CAN tomatoes, salsa verde (tomatillos), and
pickles. The Ball Blue Book is the authoritative source on canning :
13. '80s missile prog.: SDI. Often referred to as "Star Wars", a riff on the movie series and a clecho to 3 of our themers. A lot of
missiles were loosed in the series.
16. Get better: HEAL.
20. Obedience school command: SIT. Obedience training is really all
about training pet OWNERS, but it didn't SIT too well with us. DW took both our dogs to obedience training. Our Black Lab, NEPTUNE, didn't pass. Our Yellow Lab, JUPITER, was the "most improved" and excelled while attending the class, but forgot it all as soon as he got back home. They are both romping in DOG HEAVEN now!.
22. R-V man's name?: STU. Clever clue, with the answer embedded in
the alphabet range.
26. Red Guard leader: MAO. Chairman MAOZEDONG was
the founder of the Chinese communist party and a
distant relative
of our very own Chairman MOE. MAO also features as a
character in the opera Nixon in China by composer John Adams. The
opera presents the events surrounding Nixon's historic visit to China in
1972. Here is an outtake from one of the scenes in opera called
The Chairman Dances, a foxtrot for orchestra that is performed much more
frequently than the opera. Performance by Cole Conservatory Symphony Orchestra at CSU Long Beach,
Johannes Müller-Stosch, Music Director:
27. Objectivist Rand: AYN.
Here is the Wikipedia's explanation of Objectivism. I agree with some of what Rand espouses, particularly the existence of an
objective reality that we can contact directly with our senses and use to
guide our behavior. [BEGIN RANT] But I'm disturbed by the parts that
seem to derive from Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch or
"Superman", the heroic figures that Rand places at the centers of her
novels. The milieu of Superman is a mythological world (10D) and
my perception of the real world is that, while it has many heroic figures,
those figures are ultimately dependent on the vast interwoven network of all
humanity to accomplish what they will. To the extent that they exploit
this humanity for their own purposes I think they are not only wrong, but
ultimately foolish. [END OF RANT].
30. Kenan's one-time comedy partner: KEL. I have not seen
Kenan and Kel, an American sitcom created by Kim Bass. A kid's show, it originally aired
on the Nickelodeon network for four seasons, from August 17, 1996, to July 15,
2000. Set in Chicago, Illinois, the series follows Kenan Rockmore (Kenan
Thompson) and best friend Kel Kimble (Kel Mitchell), who go on a number of
misadventures.
33. Run a tab, say: OWE.
34. Fiction opening?: NON.
36. Big name in denim: LEE.
37. Au pair's subj.: ESL.
An Au Pair is defined as a young person (between the ages of
18-30), who goes abroad to live with a native family and learn (or
perfect) a language in exchange for childcare.
As distinct from a Nanny who provides child care for a salary.
39. Criticize: RIP.
40. Big name in shoes: MCAN.
41. Lambda followers: MUS.
42. Nile menace: ASP.
According to Plutarch, Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned
people and concluded that the bite of the asp (from
aspis—Egyptian cobra, not European asp) was the least terrible
way to die; the venom brought sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of
pain.
Apparently she was doing contingency planning.
She chose this method to commit suicide
to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph
celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who would become Rome's
first emperor in 27 BC and be known as Augustus.
43. Prepare, as tempura: DEEP FRY.
A Japanese dish, consisting of thin slices or strips of vegetables or seafood that are dipped
in the batter, then briefly deep-fried in hot oil. Vegetable oil or canola oil
are most common; however, tempura was traditionally cooked using sesame
oil. Vegetarian Indian cooking has a similar dish called
pakoras, deep fried vegetables or paneer (an Indian cheese) using peanut oil. I
think both of these dishes are best suited for serving at restaurants, as they
use a lot of oil.
45. Attempt to hit: SWING AT. Sums up my career in little league
baseball.
55. Monica of tennis: SELES.
MONICA SELES is a retired professional tennis player, who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. She was born and raised in
Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to an ethnic Hungarian family.
She became a naturalized American citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian
citizenship in June 2007. A former world no. 1, she won nine Grand Slam singles
titles, eight of them as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia, and the final
one while representing the United States.
57. Grace under fire: POISE. Not the "fire" of war, which
takes fearlessness. Rather the stresses of everyday life. Has anyone
seen this series?
58. Quarrel: RUN IN.
60. Start to bat?: ACRO.
62. Beehive State athlete: UTE.
The UTES are the University of Utah Football Team, named for the
Ute Indian tribe. In case anyone is wondering: OnMar 4, 2020, the University of Utah and the Ute Indian Tribe
announced a renewal of their agreement, or “memorandum of
understanding,” to use the name “Utes” as part of the
athletics program for the next five years. The Ute are the indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture
among the indigenous peoples of the Great Basin.
They have lived in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the
Southwestern United States for many centuries. The state of Utah is
named after the Ute tribe.
Utah's nickname is the Beehive State, due to its original
title of “State of Deseret.” Deseret, meaning honeybee in the Book of
Mormon. ... Also tying in with Utah's roots, the beehive is a symbol
of industry, which is the state motto. This is the state
seal:
63. Word with wrestling or pie: MUD.
64. Artist's medium: OIL.
65. Sgt., for one: NCO.
67. Abbr. on a pre-1991 map: SSR. If you want to see what the world
was like circa 1935, I'd recommend a visit to the 3D
Mapparium at the Christian Science Museum in Boston, where you can walk inside a giant glass globe of the world:
Mapparium
A WORM HOLE back to a different
time on EARTH.
waseeley
Cheers, Bill
And kudos to DW for proof reading and for the dog obedience story!
Theme Happy Days - if you remember the date. Unhappy days if you forget!
17A. First anniversary gift for a zookeeper?: PAPER TIGER.
38A. 10th anniversary gift for a musician?: TIN HORN. There's a bar near me called the Tinhorn Flats in Burbank, used often for location shoots for commercials. It's got those great saloon doors that swing back when you push through them.
57A. 50th anniversary gift for a fast-food worker?: GOLD NUGGET
11D. 15th anniversary gift for a golfer?: CRYSTAL BALL
25D. 25th anniversary gift for a chef?: SILVER SPOON
Cool theme from Michael today. Plus, if you thought that you'd never seen GOLD NUGGET in a crossword before, you very likely haven't. None of the major puzzles have used it before. Yay! Something new!
Let's go roaming through the gloaming and see what we turn up:
Across:
1. Soft end of the Mohs scale: TALC. Diamond is at the other end.
5. Old Toyota models: ECHOS
10. Order to go: SCAT. Get outta here! Fun clue.
14. Squiggly lines in the funnies, maybe: ODOR
15. Hot day refuge: SHADE
16. "Him __?": love triangle ultimatum: OR ME
19. Like eyes "you can't hide," in an Eagles song: LYIN'
20. Ring loudly: PEAL. I've been in a bell-tower while the bells were being rung, and they're quite muffled. It's outside that you get full volume. I'm sure that you know a true cockney has to be born within the sound of Bow Bells - the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside in the City of London. A full peal of eight bells must have at least 5,000 changes, that's a lot of bell-ringing.
21. It can spice things up: TABASCO. Avery Island, where the sauce is produced, it very pretty. I was making a dish at the weekend which called for Louisiana Hot Sauce. I've got about 20 types of hot sauce, but did I have Louisiana? Then the penny dropped - Doh! Tabasco!
23. Prescription specs: DOSES. Another fun clue - "specs" as in specifications.
26. 2000 Gere title role: DR. T.
28. Gere, for one: ACTOR. Shifting into second "Gere".
29. Super Mario Galaxy consoles: WIIS. I did a little digging on this one, and a lot of the "gaming community" say the the plural is Wii, just like fish or sheep.
30. Japanese ice cream flavor: GREEN TEA. Tea grown in the shade has the best flavor, such as matcha or gyokuro.
32. "It's __ good": ALL
33. Livid: IRED
34. Lots and lots: OODLES
37. Race in place: REV
40. Wire-concealing garment, perhaps: BRA. Professional male soccer players in the major leagues now wear what looks like a sports bra - it "conceals" a tracking device so that sports scientists can analyze the movement, speed and distance traveled on the pitch during a game.
41. Least encumbered: FREEST
43. Musical work: OPUS
44. "A lie that makes us realize truth," per Picasso: ART. Pablo had a bit of a mean streak. This is another of his: "I'm a joker who understands his epoch and has extracted all he possibly could from the stupidity, greed and vanity of his contemporaries". Ouch!
45. Adds insult to injury: RUBS IT IN
47. Hair gel squirt: GLOB
48. Bow ties, e.g.: PASTA
50. The Spartans of the NCAA: M.S.U. Michigan State.Their mascot, a Spartan, is creatively named "Sparty". They really went out on a limb with that one.
51. "Well, I'll be!": GOLLY
52. Totally jazzed: AMPED UP
54. Like many 45 records: MONO.
56. Jordanian queen dowager: NOOR
62. Stop discussing: DROP
63. Hail: GREET
64. Passion: LOVE
65. __ pool: GENE
66. __ pool: STENO. Fun cluing today. A close-proximity clecho.
4. Brunch choice: CRÊPES. Food! Strictly speaking, crêpes are sweet and galettes are savory (unless you come from a certain part of Brittany, but let's not get into that, it causes a lot of argument!).
5. "¿Cómo __?": ESTA
6. Kids: CHILDREN
7. "Macbeth" role: HAG
8. "Swan Lake" princess: ODETTE
9. Blood fluids: SERA
10. Comforted: SOLACED
12. Palermo pal: AMICO
13. Barbershop part: TENOR
18. In medias __: RES. A narrative device where you open a story in the middle of it, then go back and fill in the bits as you go. Shakespeare was fond of its usage, such as in Hamlet.
22. Relay sticks: BATONS
23. Middle-earth figure: DWARF. Might be small, but definitely not to be messed with.
24. Gulf ship: OILER
27. Fiery candies: RED HOTS
30. South side?: GRITS. Another cracking clue.
31. Like a shutout: NO-RUN
33. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat this": IT'S BAD
35. Screen legend Flynn: ERROL
36. Failed to act: SAT BY
39. Long-outlawed smoking establishment: OPIUM DEN
42. Greek Muse of music: EUTERPE. I didn't know this, but the crosses were solid.
46. Oil, for many: IMPORT. Via your 24D
47. Look-up aid: GOOGLE
48. Herbal Essences maker, for short: P. AND G. Proctor and Gamble. "I supervised the exam and then hit the casino. I proctored and gambled" Pa-da-ching! I'll be here all week.
49. 64-Across, at La Scala: AMORE
51. Serengeti herbivore: GNU
53. Fleece-lined footwear brand: UGGS. These things were all the rage not too long ago. They even convinced Tom Brady to wear a pair.
55. Not duped by: ONTO
58. Two-time Emmy-winning actress __ Grant: LEE
59. OMG part: GOD
60. 67-Across outcast: EVE. Quite a bit of cross-reference and clue play today.
61. Number of Canadian provinces: TEN. I tried to recall them, I missed British Columbia and Alberta, but invented Victoria, so I was roughly on the right track, and thought Newfoundland and Labrador were seperate. So I had ten, just not the right ten.
With that little geography challenge out of the way, here's the grid!
is a new constructor who already has an NYT and a WSJ publication under his belt. Why he keeps them there I do not know, but it isn't for me to judge. The New York Times was October 24, 2018, and the reveal and puzzle were great. The WSJ on May 9 of this year also had a really fun reveal. Today, we are presented with a reveal that hints at the solution but lets us work at the solve. The rest of the fill is very gettable, but you have to unravel 38A. Splitting with one's group ... or a hint to the theme found in four puzzle rows: BREAKING RANKS (13). First, you need to understand that ranks are military ranks. The next hint is that the military ranks are hidden 4 different across rows. Then you need to picture the military ranks split into two pieces like...
1A. Pickle: DILEMMApaired (7) with8A. Important biblical river: JORDAN (6) which together gives us a MAJOR. Then knowing the rule of symmetry we go to the very last row and find:
67A. Oregon city where Nike was founded: EUGENE(6) paired with 68A. Comes back: RALLIES (7) which together gives us a GENERAL. Now to find two more rows...you can quickly discard rows 2 and 3, but behold! Row 4 has the delightful pairing
18A. Rundown: RECAP (5) paired with 19A. IMPURE: TAINTED, which together gives us CAPTAIN. Then go up 2 rows from the bottom to maintain the grid symmetry and locate 56A. High wind: PICCOLO. (7) Very tricky, a high wind instrument paired with 59A. "M.O." rapper: NELLY (5) which gives us COLONEL. And now you know how I solved the puzzle. Michael needed many "cheater"(helper?) squares to make this work, 8 in all which are shown with a pink sign in the black squares in the grid.
The stacks of seven and six in the top three and bottom three rows were impressive and the theme was so close to being elegant if he could only have had the Captain Major Colonel General appear in order. There lots of common fill but also he squeezed in AIR ASIA, ECOTOUR, ICELAND, PICANTE, CABLECAR, DEADLOCK, RETAPING, and the timely and controversial ROE V. WADE. Now that my write-up is all out of control, let us examine the rest.
Across:
14. Whale-watching excursion, say: ECOTOUR. I found this definition of ECOTOURISM: “Environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and accompanying cultural features, both past, and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact and provide for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local peoples.”
15. It's about 80 miles SW of Buffalo, N.Y.: ERIE, PA. Major (pun intended) to our Erie folk. Do you this BILLIONAIRE?
16. Hot and spicy: PICANTE.
17. Only Jet who was a Super Bowl MVP: NAMATH. The Jets along with the Tampa Bay Bucs and New Orleans Saints have each played in and won 1 Super Bowl.
21. Photo lab abbr.: ENLarge.
22. That, south of the border: ESO. Spanish, man.
24. Food additive: DYE.
25. Something you can stand to lose: LAP. Not a racing lap, the one that goes away when you stand.
28. Lyric tributes: ODES.
30. Med. school subject: ANATomy.
32. Name on a banana sticker: DOLE. This multinational company is at the forefront of growing ORGANIC FRUIT.
33. Winery cask: TUN. I like the definition: an imperial measure of capacity, equal to 4 hogsheads. Cutting the quantity in half each time, volumes were measurement went as follows: tone (tun), butt/pipe, hogshead, barrel, kilderkin, and firkin. While working at a start-up brewery my son reintroduced the firkin as a part of both brewing and sales.
35. Iconic San Francisco sight: CABLE CAR. This is not just a sight, it is a really fun way to get around the city and not get totally worn out by the hills. LINK.
41. Landmark 1973 decision: ROE V. WADE. Now it is all politics.
42. Oxford, to Oxonians: UNIversity.
43. Pay to play: ANTE. Poker and other gambling card games.
44. Mideast seaport: ADEN. Again no comment, but you can watch.
46. Natural floor covering: MOSS.
50. __ green: PEA. Or green pea.
51. __Kosh B'gosh: OSH. My boys were dressed in this children's clothing manufacture when they were young.
53. Louis XIV, par exemple: ROI. I hope you remember this from two weeks ago. He was a French King.
55. Something you might grab in a hammock: NAP. Also, the sides to keep from falling off.
61. "Okay, that makes sense now": AH, I SEE.
63. Budget carrier headquartered near Kuala Lumpur: AIR ASIA.
65. Scammer: CONMAN. Sexist, it can be a con woman.
66. Nordic Council member: ICELAND.
Down:
1. Hinge (on): DEPEND.
2. It's pointy and cold: ICICLE. They look very pretty at first.
3. "Livin' la Vida __": LOCA.
4. Military day's march: ÉTAPE. This is a place where troops camp after a day's march, or the march itself.
5. Many a fed. holiday: MONday.
6. Chop meat: MUTTON. This was tricky because in the US we think only of lamb chops or beef, pork and veal as chop meat.
7. Calculation often using pi: AREA.
8. Spinning __: weaving innovation: JENNY. The STORY of this invention and its impact on the industrial revolution.
9. Provide an address: ORATE.
10. Frosty coating: RIME.
11. Stalemate: DEADLOCK. I am not sure why but I had trouble with this dead-heat being the last to fall away.
12. Fitting: APT.
13. "You're dreaming": NAH.
18. Speed Wagon make: REO. The Reo Speedwagon was a very creative vehicle from Mr. Olds and his Reo company. REO Speedwagon was a band.
20. Aid in reuniting a lost suitcase with its owner: ID TAG.
23. Coffee brand with an orange cap: SANKA. It was all there was for decaf for years unless you wanted to drink grain like Postum.
26. Word of regret: ALAS.
27. __ se: PER.
29. L.A. Clippers owner Ballmer: STEVE. I love that he could be called Steve "Basket" Ballmer, but he is much MORE.
31. Blemished, in a way: ACNED. Meh.
32. Commonly blue fabric: DENIM. Levi Strauss started with Canvas because the miners needed strong pants to hold their gold.
34. Motor City org.: UAW. United Auto Workers.
36. Musical Mars: BRUNO. Two for one. 41D. Cardi B genre: RAP.
37. Office PC nexus: LAN. Local Area Network.
38. Fillet's lack: BONE.
39. Recording over: RETAPING.
40. Panhandle state: IDAHO.
45. Beethoven's Third: EROICA.
47. Browsing, nowadays: ONLINE.
48. Tortilla shell fillers, perhaps: SALADS. When? okay, there is lettuce and tomato along with the cheese and meat, but really, just salad?
49. Special Stratego piece: SPY.
51. Broad expanse: OCEAN.
52. A co-star might steal one: SCENE.
54. Taken together: IN ALL.
57. "Woe __!": IS ME.
58. Villain's hideout: LAIR.
60. Morales of "NYPD Blue": ESAI.
61. Great service?: ACE.
62. Astros, on sports tickers: HOUston.
64. Shinto, for one: Abbr.: RELigion.
You already have the grid above so don't be greedy. Welcome Mike and I hope you stop by and say hello. I enjoyed reading your comments when your NYT was published. Lemonade out.
