Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 ~ Parikshit S. Bhat

 BE the BRIDGE

This is P.S. Bhat's fourth LA Times contribution - and my first time working one of his constructions. The last one was on a Friday in 2021; the one prior to that was in 2018,  blogged by Santa ( Argyle ) on the editor' s (then) assistant Patti's B-day, and my anniversary, Jan 8th.  Yes, we have the circles again, outlining scrambled, or "troubled" bodies of water.  A handful of names, one of which I was totally "huh~?" about ( I am looking at you, 37D.), a mere 14 3LWs, a 'balance' of 22 4-letter and 20 5-letter words, and two of the four theme answers unique to crosswords.  The themers and reveal; 

19. Equanimity between nations: BALANCE OF POWER - OCEAN - my step-daughter's name, too

24. Technical support team's headache: COMPUTER VIRUS - RIVER

The acronym "PICNIC"

44. "Get Out" and "Nope" star: DANIEL KALUUYA - LAKE - no clue, and not who I envisioned; I figured his was more of a "Hawaiian" name - see 23A.  His IMDb 

More on the statue here

50. Difficult situation, or what can be found in each set of circled letters?: TROUBLED WATERS

Simon & Garfunkel - Paul explains his influences for the song here

And Away We Go~!

ACROSS:

1. Nonspeaking Marx brother: HARPO - not a tough name, but #1

6. Respectful title in India: SRI

9. Meaty pasta sauce: RAGU

13. Enhance, in a way: ADORN

14. Sn, to a chemist: TIN - from the Latin stannum, "alloy" of silver & lead; the Wiki

15. Adjusts the strings on a guitar, e.g.: TUNES - this one takes a while....

My Epiphone SG-1275 6- & 12-string - inverted for Lefty

16. Surgical tool: LASER - hey guys, "Laser Bird" is back - I have uploaded a short here; what species of bird is making that "pew-pew" sound~?

17. Weird: ODD

18. Warning signs: OMENS

23. Island host of the annual Spam Jam festival: OAHU - filled via perps - just missed the 2025 one

29. MC battle genre: RAP

30. Elitist: SNOB

31. Moralist's teaching: TENET

33. Get ready to cook: PREP

35. Kisses, in Kensington: SNOGS - British buss - not a British bus

Kiss on a bus

38. Guacamole and queso: DIPS

39. "The Sound of Music" role: MARIA - name #2

41. Lena of "The Reader": OLIN - seen frequently in crosswords, name #3

43. Thanks for waiting?: TIP - Cute.

48. Indigenous people of Canada: CREE - name(ish)

49. TiVo products: DVRs - Digital Video Recorders

56. Texter's "All good?": HOW R U - AND - 22A. Tepid reply to 56-Across: "I'M OK."

57. Card game for two: WAR

58. Heep of "David Copperfield": URIAH - name #4

60. German autos: OPELS - my mom had one, waaay back ( and name(ish) )

A 1960s  model 1900 Sport Wagon

61. Brownie __ mode: Á LA - I have been making a "truffle" dessert from a recipe on the box of a Betty Crocker mix

62. Part of a wash cycle: RINSE

63. Ruby and rose: REDS 

64. "Totally!": "YEP~!"

65. Barely beats, with "out": EDGES - better than last week's hairS

DOWN:

1. Sci-fi AI villain: HAL - "Im sorry, Dave." ( name~? )

Oh, we are on our way, aren't we~?

2. Small amount, as of hair gel: A DAB - Meh.  I don't care for the floating "A"

3. Civil rights icon Parks: ROSA - name #6

4. Early match, for short: PRELIMinary, a game of a tournament, not this Chinese invention

5. Merging sites: ON-RAMPS

6. California gold rush town: STOCKTON - No clue, filled via perps - I am sure our West Coast crowd nailed this one -the Wiki if you are interested

7. Fair attraction: RIDE - I have done all sorts of rides in the past, even at the big amusement parks, but I am no fan of them; by the time I graduated high school I had developed vertigo

8. Not alfresco: INDOOR - Ah.  Now that I think about it, that would be the "antonym"; fresco is Itlalian "fresh"

9. Alleged (to be), to a Brit: RUMOURED - That's Brisitsh behaviour for you

10. From the top: ANEW

11. Heredity unit: GENE - at least is was not clued as "Simmons" of Kiss

Kiss on a bus - get it ~?

12. Letters in a Beatles classic: USSR - I started with HELP!, but that's sung, not spelled

15. First search result in a browser: TOP HIT

20. Basic grammar topic: NOUNS - Dah~!  I figured this was what the clue meant, but I didn't account for it being plural; clever

21. Most preferred, casually: FAVorite

24. Driving spot?: CAR AD - Har-har

The Porsche is nice, too

25. Gig for a tenor: OPERA - uh, well, I guess you'd call it a "gig"; "Hey, bro, where you performin' tonight~?" - "Some place called La Scala."

26. Paperless read: eBOOK - I ready every night before bed, fiction and non-fiction, and Kindle keeps track, but it can't tell when I've switched to an actual printed book

27. Teamwork trait: UNITY - Ah; so there IS an "I" in teamwork . . . .

28. Vintage photo tone: SEPIA - saw this yesterday, too

29. Speed fig.: RPM - Meh.  Yes, it's the "speed" of the engine, in revolutions, but still, meh.

32. Vanilla extract amt.: TSP - when I'm making my brownies, I pronounce this as a "TiSP" - the larger measurement is a "TiBbleSpiP"

34. Technique for making waves?: PIN CURLS - hair waves, that is - more here

36. Brand of plastic film: GLAD WRAP - HuskerG's go-to "cling" wrap, per his past Saturday

37. Luiz Inácio Lula da __: Brazilian president: SILVA - Geez.  A lot of clue for a non-theme answer

40. Helicopter giant based in France: AIRBUS - Ah.  I knew this was an airplane manufacturer, didn't know they did helicopters, too

We landed the helicopter PAD on Monday

42. Take under one's wing: NURTURE

45. Electric creature: EEL

46. Room to maneuver: LEEWAY

47. Password preceder: USER ID

50. Role for Chris Hemsworth: THOR - name #8

51. Clothesline, perhaps: ROPE

52. Was in the red: OWED

53. Valley: DALE

54. Wedding band: RING - there was the possibility that might be "TRIO"; that kind of band

55. Business letter encl.: SASE - Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope

59. "For __ a jolly good fellow": HE'S

Splynter

Thursday, June 3, 2021, Parikshit S. Bhat

 

Good Morning, Curciverbalists!  Malodorous Manatee here along with a semi-aquatic-mammalian friend to wish everyone a positively special Thursday.  Today, our puzzle setter is Parikshit S. Bhat, a veteran of at least two other previously-published L.A Times puzzles, who seems to have riffed on his own initials with today's very straight-forward theme.  P. S. Bhat has taken five common word pairs that begin with the letter P and added his middle initial, S, at the beginning to create new, amusing word pairs that all start with SP.

Today, The SP awards go to:

17 Across:  Fish eggs seller?: SPAWN SHOP.  Or, perhaps, baby salmon hit the mall?

25 Across:  Command to Siri to read the clock?: SPEAK TIME.  It sounds like Tonto is making the request of Apple. 

PEAK TIME Energy Pricing

35 Across:  Public relations fund?: SPIN MONEY.  Pin MONEY is a small sum used to pay for incidentals and SPIN doctors, a slang term for public relations professionals, mold public images of persons and events.

50 Across:  Recreational libation?: SPORT WINE.  A SPORT is a form of recreation and port wine is a Portuguese fortified WINE.

59 Across:  Music for a feisty orator?: SPUNK ROCK.  . . . . and a previously-thought-of riff, apparently.

Unless this madescent marine mammal missed something more, that's it for the uncomplicated, yet clever, theme.

Now, with a nod to Paul Harvey, for the rest of the story:

Across:

1. Multiple choice test options, often: ABCD.

5. Researched item: FACT.  Isn't it a FACT only after the research confirms it?

9. It may be knitted: BROW.

13. "Mississippi Masala" filmmaker __ Nair: MIRA.

14. Many a map dot: ISLE.  Sometimes, the same clue is used for TOWN.

15. Skirmish: RUN IN.  There are several ways this might have been clued but the puzzle setter went the argument, or dispute, route.

19. Delete: ERASE.

20. Admit a mistake: OWN IT.

21. City ESE of Phoenix: MESA.  MESA, Arizona

23. Morning drops: DEW

.

Grateful Dead - Morning DEW

24. Tim who voiced Buzz Lightyear: ALLEN.  That's Tim ALLEN on the right, below.

27. Arranged: LAID OUT.

29. "You're on the right track": WARMER

.

30. North end?: ERN  North end.  South end.  East end.  West end.  F end.

31. Golf date ruiner: RAIN.  Or not.

Swinging In The Rain

34. She played Thelma in "Thelma & Louise": GEENA.  GEENA Davis

38. One of a 15th-century seagoing trio: PINTA.  In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

41. Soft drink nut: KOLA.  In the 1880's, a pharmacist in Georgia, John Pemberton, took caffeine extracted from KOLA nuts and cocaine-containing extracts from coca leaves and mixed them with sugar, other flavorings, and carbonated water to invent Coca Cola.

42. Clamorous sound: DIN.

45. "Let me rephrase that ... ": I MEANT.

47. How Clint Eastwood usually delivers his lines: TERSELY

.

53. Copious: AMPLE.  I think of copious as being more than AMPLE.  Abundant, if you will.

• 

54. Top __: TEN.

55. "Too great a burden to bear": M.L. King Jr.: HATE. 

56. Food recall reason: E COLI.

57. Address with style: ORATE.  Not a calligraphy reference.

62. Drag racer's fuel, briefly: NITRO.  NITROmethane.

63. Word repeated in a combat term: MANO.  In this case, MANO A MANO - meaning hand to hand combat.

64. Scary-sounding lake: ERIE.   Right now, everyone in Cleveland is taking social distancing very seriously.  Even the walkway by the lake is deserted.  It's ERIE.

65. Tend: LEAN.

66. Hebrew for "skyward": EL AL.

67. __ date: SET A.


Down:

1. Early hrs.: AMS.  Ante Meridian, although everyone just uses AM.

2. Like Earth: BIPOLAR.  The earth is indeed BIPOLAR.  But it's not a disorder."  Neil deGrasee Tyson

3. Enter on hands and knees: CRAWL IN.

4. Finally occurred to, with "on": DAWNED.

MST3k

5. It may be pumped in victory: FIST.

6. Stuff in a tray: ASH.  Remember ASH trays?

7. Tread noisily: CLOMP.

8. Tent made of skins: TEPEE.  Also spelled TEEPEE.

9. Fragile goods concern: BREAKAGE.

10. Play that gave us the word "robot": R.U.R.  Rossumovi Univerzalni Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots).

11. Instantly: ON A DIME.

12. Biblical trio: WISE MEN.  The Three Wise Men.

Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar

16. Exclusive MLB cap supplier: NEW ERA.  The NEW ERA Cap Company, founded in 1920, is headquartered in Buffalo, NY.

18. Boy of la casa: NINO.   NINO is, of course, Spanish for boy.

22. Spotted: SAW.  A tool for cutting.  An old saying.

24. Golden brew: ALE.

25. Smelled really bad: STANK.

The Grinch's Take On Last Year

26. Three-pointer, in hoops lingo: TREY.

28. Ocean State sch.: URI.

32. Texter's "I feel": IMO.  In My Opinion

33. "Tropic Thunder" actor Nick: NOLTE.

Down and Out in the Golden Triangle

35. Rating unit: STAR.  Often, one to five STARs.

36. Temple of the gods: PANTHEON.

The PANTHEON, Rome - Photo by MM

37. Scot's refusal: NAE.

38. Moving engine part: PISTON.

39. Leave vulnerable: IMPERIL.

40. Recent delivery: NEONATE.

42. Regret strongly: DEPLORE.

43.Under-the-table:  ILLICIT

.

44. Bill promoting science?: NYE.  Not an act by the legislature.

46. Defunct flier: TWA.

48. Bike storage aid: RACK.

49. Marshmallow treats: SMORES.

51. Response at the door: IT'S ME.

52. Site of many a climber's goal: NEPAL.

56. Hydroxyl compound: ENOL.   The name is a contraction derived from alkene alcohol.  More formally, Alkenol.

58. La-la preceder: TRA.

60."Sonata Quasi __ Fantasia": Beethoven's "Moonlight": UNA  My mother's favorite pianist was Murray Perahia.

.

Moonlight Sonata - 3rd Movement  Murray Perahia

61. New Zealand parrot: KEA.  Alternatively, a bird sometimes seen in crossword puzzles.

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