Wednesday, December 6, 2017, Neville Fogarty

TITLE: BURIED TREASURE

Husker Gary here again on a search for buried (or at least concealed) treasure. Neville has constructed a hunt for us where GEM has been hidden in bigger phrases much as these Emerald Crystals that can be found in veins of calcite in the Muzo area of Columbia.

Our friend Neville has literally taken the word GEM and hidden it where the GE portion ends the first word of a phrase and the M begins the second word. If you search carefully below, you can see where Neville has hidden the GEM in these theme answers:

17. *Intricate feature of some Victorian gardens : HEDGE MAZE - Here is a MAZE near London along side a domestic CORN MAZE in Gretna Nebraska

24. *Politician for whom a Virginia university is named : GEORGE MASON - George Mason refused to sign the U.S. Constitution in 1787 because it had no national bill of rights (if you enlarge the picture below, you will see James Madison's signature in the Virginia section). He then helped author the Bill Of Rights that were added in 1791.

33. *Disney miser who swims in his money : SCROOGE MCDUCK - As seen here

49. *Game to settle a score : GRUDGE MATCH - These "matches" have sold a lot of tickets!

... and the reveal:

57. Diamond in the rough ... or a literal feature of each answer to a starred clue : HIDDEN GEM - American Idol was looking for a hidden GEM in the group of 4,000 hopefuls in 2013 auditions in Omaha

Here are some more of Neville's Gems:

Across


1. Rope often coiled : LASSO - Here's one attached to the cockpit of a working cowboy

6. __ Lanka : SRI - Formerly Ceylon located just off 30. Nepal's continent : ASIA 

9. Selassie of Ethiopia : HAILE 

14. "One more time!" : AGAIN - Rick actually said, "You played it for her, you can play it for me!"

15. See 16-Across : EAR and 16. With 15-Across, cochlea site : INNER - A cochlear implant can have an external component which can be recommended by an 29. Sinusitis-treating MD : ENT - Ears/Nose/Throat M.D.

19. Anglican leader : VICAR - Enter Murder At The Vicarage in YouTube and you can view an entire Miss Marple adventure (1:20:00)

20. Rainbow hue : INDIGO - ROY G BIV

21. Eye part that may become detached : RETINA

22. What circled R's may indicate: Abbr. : TMS - ®

26. Point of giving up : WITS END - The Giants were at their WIT'S END with QB play and so...

28. Quarterback Manning : ELI - After 210 consecutive starts, ELI's mediocre play in 2017 got him benched last Sunday

31. Swig or sip : DRINK

39. Clock radio feature : ALARM

40. Valley : DALE - "Over hill, over DALE" is now "First to fight, for the right"

42. Word after black or photo : OPS - Some celebrities and politicians are avoiding photo OPS these days

45. Nike's __-FIT fabric : DRI - DRI-FIT fabric can be found in all manner of Duck clothing like this hooded sweatshirt which 46. Guarantees : ASSURES you it will wick sweat away from your body

52. Badminton court divider : NET

53. President after Jimmy : RONALD - Reagan "The Gipper"

54. "Bob's Burgers" daughter : LOUISE - I have never seen this cartoon! I might have opted for 54. Maurice Chevalier's woman of song (Man, I'm old!)

56. Emcee's opening : INTRO

60. Give direction to : STEER

61. Salinger's "Franny __ Zooey" : AND - Would people think me more literate if I wore this t-shirt?

62. Tender beef cuts : LOINS

63. Frost-covered : HOARY - I had a picture of this last Wednesday

64. "Certainly!" : YES - Alternate pronunciation

65. Lived : DWELT


Down

1. __-di-dah: pretentious : LAH

2. Number on many a birthday card : AGE

3. Extremely cruel : SADISTIC

4. Communicate with a deaf person : SIGN

5. Antsy : ON EDGE - What's that dog doing?

6. Neptune, for one : SEA GOD

7. Shaving device : RAZOR - I'm a straight edge kind of guy

8. Boiling blood : IRE


9. Collective intelligence : HIVE MIND - Alll 31. Obama, e.g.: Abbr. : DEM's - voted against the tax bill last Sunday and all REP's but one voted for it. Tell me again why they waste hours and hours debating?

10. Baker with Grammys : ANITA

11. Cut into : INCISE

12. Use for support : LEAN ON - The wonderful lyrics from Bill Withers' song

13. Knight-__ : ERRANT - Literature's most famous

18. Demeanor : MIEN

21. Artifact : RELIC - What? You were alive when JFK got shot?

22. Bankrupt airline : TWA


23. Battleship call : MISS - Hasn't every math teacher used Battleship® to teach coordinates?

25. Microbe : GERM

27. Poet Teasdale : SARA - Okay

32. African antelope : KUDU - An amazing looking animal

34. The Stars and Stripes : OLD GLORY

35. Rowed : OARED - It ranks right up there with "APED" on my Verb dishonor roll.

36. Dreadful : GRIM

37. Manhattan concert hall : CARNEGIE - How do you get to CARNEGIE Hall? [You all know the punchline]

38. Bauhaus artist Paul : KLEE - An icon for the Bauhaus Art School in Weimar, Germany and an example of work by one of its students Paul Klee (Senecio 1922)

41. Superlative suffix : EST

42. Like Shrek : OGRISH - My Spell Checker said, "Huh?" and Dictionary.com offered OGREISH as the preferred form

43. "ASAP!" : PRONTO

44. Beverage brewed outdoors : SUN TEA - A summer tradition here in the hinterlands 

46. Not seeing eye to eye : AT ODDS - I know our tea connoisseur friends Steve and C.C. would be AT ODDS by my choice of Lipton tea bags

47. Gulf War missile : SCUD - Saddam Hussien's futile weapon of choice

48. Lancer's protection : SHIELD - Here's a Lancer using his SHIELD for protection by shattering his opponent's weapon

50. Challenger : DARER

51. Flared skirt : A-LINE

55. It may come down in winter : SNOW - It can be pretty before you have to get out the blower

57. Stable serving : HAY - For the unbridled appetite.

58. Photo blowup: Abbr. : ENL

59. Salt Lake City hrs. : MST - 14th largest city with MST. Seven AZ cities are bigger












Now we await the GEMS you uncover in your mines/minds:

DA GRID:

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to dear Lucina, who's been with our blog since Feb 2010. So sweet to see this picture again. Lucina travels to CA once a year, and she often meets with our Californian Coven there.

Left to Right: Chickie, JD, Garlic Gal and Lucina.

June 3, 2015 

Thursday April 27th 2017 Neville Fogarty

Theme: Hash-Slinging - as the reveal tells us, the theme entries have the word ORDER reading upwards:

40D. Diner call ... and what the answer to each starred clue literally contains : ORDER UP!

2D. *One of a romantic dozen : RED ROSE

8D. *Neighborhood TV host? : FRED ROGERS. Here he is with a model of his bailiwick:

17D. *Computer network component : WIRED ROUTER. Routers were just plain routers until wireless routers came along.

26D. *Many a dorm accommodation : SHARED ROOM

This is a neat theme from Neville with the four "ORDER"s breaking at the same place in each two-word answer. The theme answers are all downs, as obviously you need to have the word reading upwards. The central 11 creates the blocky feeling with the two black squares top and bottom which are required. The grid must have been a little tricky to fill because there are six more helper squares in addition to those four. However, there's a lot of fresh fill here, nice work.

There were quite a few unknowns in here for me, but solid crosses made everything fall into place. Let's see what jumps out:

Across:

1. Letter from school : GRADE. Nice clue!

6. Tabloid fodder : AFFAIR

12. Pop singer Spektor : REGINA. Russian-born American singer-songwriter.

14. Safari guide's weapon : DART GUN

16. Saws with wisdom : ADAGES

17. Auburn University's avian battle cry : WAR EAGLE! Who knew? (Well, apart from Auburn alums). The mascot is a tiger.

18. Jewish ceremony for a newborn son : BRIS. Yikes.

19. Photographer's buy : TRIPOD

21. Elastic wood : YEW

22. __ fide : BONA

23. Four-time discus gold medalist : OERTER.  Al took the gold in four consecutive Olympic Games (from 1956 to 1968), the first track and field athlete to do so.

24. "The Gold-Bug" author : POE. This came courtesy of crosses, but I read the fascinating synopsis of the book here on Wiki. Now added to my reading list.

25. Admin. aides : ASSTS.

27. Bentley of "Ghost Rider" : WES. Nice looking chap. He had a bad heroin problem for a while but appears to have got that particular demon out of his system.

28. 1930s N.Y. Giants star Lefty : O'DOUL

30. Earn : GET

31. Pay attention to : HEED

33. Land mentioned in the spiritual "Go Down, Moses" : EGYPT

Go down, Moses,

Way down in Egypt's land

Tell old Pharaoh

Let my people go

34. 1959 Gidget player : SANDRA DEE.

36. Classic V-8 : T-BIRD. Cue The Beach Boys. Did Gidget drive a T-Bird?

38. What the nose knows : ODOR

39. "That's amazing!" : WOW!

42. Blow one's top : GO APE

43. Chum : BUD

44. Alarm : SCARE

46. Remote button : REC. RE and wait for the cross.

47. Ohio aviation city : DAYTON

50. Literary alter ego : HYDE. Dr. Jekyll's dark side in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella.

51. Comic strip outburst : ACK!

52. Matures : RIPENS

53. Treated with a pack : ICED

54. Nabisco chocolate treat : MALLOMAR. News to me. I must have walked past these things thousands of times in the store and never noticed them.

56. Extra number : ENCORE

58. Hose connections : SPIGOTS

59. Tottenham tint : COLOUR. North London soccer rivals of my club Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur play in white at home, blue on the road. We beat 'em 4-2 last weekend in the FA Cup semi-finals. Yay!

60. John of "Fuller House" : STAMOS

61. Gives a hand : HELPS

Down:

1. Source of party gifts : GRAB BAG

3. Versus : AGAINST

4. Tries to unearth : DIGS AT

5. Storm's dir. : E.N.E.

6. Learns new technology, say : ADAPTS

7. __ Islands: Danish archipelago : FAROE. Although part of Denmark, they have their own soccer association and as such enter the World Cup and European Championships independently. The players are all part-timers and they play their international fixtures in Sweden because there are no grass pitches on the islands.

9. __ crossroads : AT A

10. The Stooges frontman : IGGY POP. His "Lust for Life" was used as the theme to the movie "Trainspotting". Not for the weak of stomach.

11. Remove from consideration : RULE OUT

13. Regarding : AS TO

15. Banister post : NEWEL

20. Took another plunge? : RE-WED. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, for example.

29. Vat filler : DYE

32. Last part : END

33. Istanbul : Constantinople :: Tokyo : __ : EDO. Where Noh was performed.

34. Nurse : SIP. As one's drink. Cheers!

35. Extra purchase : ADD-ON

36. Boot reinforcements : TOECAPS

37. Like some e-readers : BACK-LIT

39. "Outstanding!" : WAY COOL!

41. Gardening tools : WEEDERS. I wasn't quite sure what one of these was, so I went to look:

42. Lab units : GRAMS

43. Way around the city : BYPASS

45. Chewing gum ingredient : CHICLE. Natural gum sourced from trees.

48. "We __ please" : AIM TO

49. Tiny bit of time: Abbr. : NSEC.

55. Airport near Citi Field: Abbr. : LGA. La Guardia in New York, a few miles from the Mets' ground in Flushing Meadow.

57. Masked drama : NOH. Japanese cultural staple dating back to the 14th century.

That's about it from me. Time to post the grid, and then a stroll down the Strip. I'm in Las Vegas for a convention.

Steve