Tuesday, June 13 2017, Parikshit S. Bhat

Theme: Right Out of the GATE. Anagrams.

18. Beverage from China's Wuyi Mountains : OOLONG TEA. The best tea I ever had was from a tea room in San Francisco's China Town - Oolong Formosa, selling for $30 an ounce. It tastes like caramel and butter. The complexity of teas from the highest peaks in Taiwan are becoming harder to come by as land is reclaimed to prevent erosion. Tragic.

 3. Make terrific progress : GO GREAT GUNS

5. Protective vests, gas masks, etc. : RIOT GEAR

28. Rep seeking promising performers : TALENT AGENT

42. "Stop sweating the small stuff!" : GET A LIFE

60. Attend a party uninvited ... and a literal hint to five sets of circled letters : GATE CRASH.  

Melissa here. "Crash" indicates the circled letters are scrambled. This was a little crunchy for a Tuesday - the circles helped fill in a few unknowns. Fun to see theme answers both across and down.

Across

1. Composer heard at graduations : ELGAR. Sir Edward Elgar composed Pomp and Circumstance, traditionally heard at graduation ceremonies.

6. Exerciser's target : FLAB

10. Rescue from trouble, with "out" : BAIL

14. Actress Watts of the "Divergent" films : NAOMI

15. Change the decor of : REDO

16. "... __ and for all!" : ONCE

17. Medical prefix with -plasty : ANGIO. Not rhino.

20. Insertion marks : CARETS

22. World's longest river : NILE

23. Accessory usually not worn on casual Fridays : TIE

24. Bearded antelope : GNU

26. Cast a spell on : BEWITCH

31. From time immemorial : AGE OLD

34. Eritrea's capital : ASMARA. Oh sure, I knew that. In the Horn of Africa, east of Sudan, and just west of the Red Sea.

35. Opel model meaning "stars" in Latin : ASTRA

37. Ears in the field : CORN

39. Move wearily : PLOD

40. On-call doctor's gadget : PAGER. Still?


41. Flightless Aussie bird : EMU

42. Ballpark figure : GUESS. Love this clue.


43. Lie adjacent to : ABUT

44. Small songbird : WREN. Did you know wrens can be colorful? Above is a variegated fairy-wren, and at left is a purple crowned wren.

45. German artist Max : ERNST. (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) Painter, sculptor, graphic artist, poet.

46. Movie theater : CINEMA

48. Six-line sonnet section : SESTET

50. Subjugate : ENSLAVE

52. Salty expanse : SEA

53. Nav. VIP : ADM

56. Drought-stricken : SERE. What? Is this Tuesday?

58. Torment : PLAGUE

65. Passport, e.g.: Abbr. : IDENT. Not GovID.

66. Like a thesis defense : ORAL

67. James of jazz : ETTA. A Sunday kind of love 💘.

68. Backyard border : FENCE

69. Flamingo color : PINK

70. Unhappy fate : DOOM

71. Fragrant compound : ESTER

Down

1. Make official, as a law : ENACT

2. Hawaiian island, or Hawaiian porch : LANAI

4. French sweetie : AMIE

6. To and __ : FRO

7. Novelist Uris : LEON. Known for his historical fiction novels.


8. Improvise on stage : AD LIB

9. Algebra type : BOOLEAN

10. Marsh : BOG

11. Pantry pest : ANT

12. Cubes in a tray : ICE

13. Grassy field : LEA

19. The first "N" of CNN : NEWS. Cable News Network.


21. __-cone : SNO

25. Stomach woe : ULCER

27. Contaminated : IMPURE. Sneaky, I was looking for a verb.

29. White symbol on Switzerland's flag : CROSS

30. Owned, old-style : HADST

32. Storybook sister who pushed the hag into the oven : GRETEL

33. Semicircular roofs : DOMES

35. Speedily : APACE

36. Polio vaccine developer : SABIN

38. Mystical letters : RUNES

44. Was indecisive : WAVERED

47. Opposite of fem. : MASC

49. Autumnal equinox mo. : SEP

51. Muse for poets : ERATO

54. Nincompoop : DUNCE

55. Taxi calculator : METER

57. This, in Spain : ESTO

59. Summer refreshers : ADES

60. Republican org. : GOP

61. Shapiro of NPR : ARI

62. Shade provided by the sun? : TAN. Great clue.


63. Moose kin : ELK

64. Popular Easter entrée : HAM

Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Parikshit Sreedhara Bhat

THEME: THE GREAT OUTDOORS

When the cold, harsh winter has given its last breath,
When the sky above shows life instead of death,
When the claws reaching to the frozen sky become decorated with leaves,
When the animals -long in hiding- scurry from trees,
We know winter has ended.
Camile Gotera

With spring in full bloom, what's better than to take a metaphorical roll in the hay! Parikshit has given us three words ending a two-word phrase denoting a bucolic area that "shows life instead of death" this time of year, at least for those of us north of the Mason Dixon Line. I wondered in what direction we were headed when I saw FLUSHING first but it was all good. I fully expected our crossword citizen LEA to show up too but was greatly entertained by this puzzle.  MONGER, MENORCA and ICE UP slowed up the swift completion of my appointed rounds.

As best as I can determine, it appears that Parikshit is a PhD candidate in India where The LA Times Crossword runs in this newspaper below. I hope he will drop in to give us more info on himself and this lovely puzzle. It would also be interesting to know how he came about acquiring all these American cultural references.

THEME FILLS

17. New York City park that hosted two world's fairs : FLUSHING MEADOWS - The Unisphere of the 1964 World's Fair serves as a backdrop for this comedy opening

35. Rice cultivation lands : PADDY FIELDS - The 31st Infantry Regiment in a rice PADDY FIELD

54. More exciting circumstances : GREENER PASTURES - How they are made in Nebraska

Across     
   
1. Sleep lab study : APNEA - How do you sleep in these?

6. Dalí works, por ejemplo : ARTE - Art in español  

10. Drug cop : NARC 

14. Some storytellers : LIARS

15. Midday : NOON - Astronomical high NOON occurs 36 min. sooner in Chicago than Omaha but both are on CDT

16. Chevy hatchback : AVEO

20. Current fashion : RAGE

21. Put on any old way : DAUB - One section has been DAUBED and the rest of the wattle awaits 

22. Permissible : LICIT

23. Ordinal suffix : ETH and 34. Wks. and wks. : MOS - Our FIFTIETH anniversary is nine MOS. away

24. First-rate : A-ONE

25. Albania's capital : TIRANA - At the Mickey Dee's in TIRANA you'll get 38Lek in change for this bill when you buy a Big Mac meal

26. Dry out, so to speak : DETOX

28. Fall behind : LAG

29. Periodontist's deg. : DDS

30. "How Deep Is Your Love" group : BEE-GEES

37. Prefix with life or wife : MID

38. Star in Scorpius : ANTARES

39. Voice legend Blanc : MEL

40. U-verse provider : AT&T

41. "Not just a scooter, a way of life" brand : VESPA

45. Kind of surprise kick : ONSIDE - Football trickery

47. Popular berry : ACAI

50. Trawler's catch : COD

51. Present moment : NONCE - "For the NONCE, however, he (Queequeg) proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans." Chapter XII Moby Dick

52. Farm implement : PLOW - My minimum tillage neighbor and many others sold their PLOWS years ago

53. Coil in a garden : HOSE

57. Tan tone : ECRU

58. Scale for rock hounds : MOHS

59. Alaskan native : ALEUT - The volcanic island homes of these subarctic Alaskans

60. Filing tool : RASP

61. Petty fight : SPAT

62. Señorita's parent : MADRE - I'll bet you can translate this truism about Mamas  - "Si la MADRE no es feliz, nadie está content" (* translation at the end of the write-up)

Down

1. Valet at Wayne Manor : ALFRED

2. Hand-washer of the Gospels : PILATE - "Pilate . . . took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. "—Matthew, 27 : 24.

3. All for __: in vain : NAUGHT

4. Celtic language : ERSE - "Maidin mhaith" is "Good morning"

5. Volcanic cloud that can disrupt flights : ASH - Can rise from those islands of the ALEUTS

6. 1997-2006 U.N. leader : ANNAN

7. Disobedient way to go : ROGUE

8. Mummy's resting place : TOMB - Lord Carnarvon, a real occupant of Highclere Castle below, financed the 1923 opening of King Tut's TOMB and died the next year. Curse?

9. Yakima-to-Spokane dir. : ENE

10. Low point : NADIR

11. Guacamole ingredients : AVOCADOS

12. Goes back a scene or two : REWINDS

13. Bob of "Football Night in America" : COSTAS

18. Words before a kiss : I DO

19. Sacha Baron Cohen alter ego : ALI G - Talk about a POSEUR (43 Down)

24. Shown the office door : AXED

25. Stun gun brand : TASER

27. Bk. after Amos : OBAD - OBADIAH with only one chapter and 440 words is the shortest book in the Old Testament 

28. Daughter of Darth : LEIA - Almost LEA

31. Bit of online courtship : E-DATE - I suppose

32. Ibsen's "Peer __" : GYNT - Surely some constructor has clued Oslo as "Where PEER GYNT premiered in 1876"

33. Young newt : EFT

34. Inventory: Abbr. : MDSE - Exchange students from the Baltic States are AWED by MerchanDSE in our American stores

35. Tapered beer glasses : PILSNERS

36. Big name in jeans : LEVI - LEES knew the wrath of my Delete Key

37. One of Las Islas Baleares : MENORCA - ENE of Valencia

39. Fish tail? : MONGER - A seller of fish. A WARMONGER? 

40. Yemen coastal city : ADEN - Where the USS Cole was attacked in October 2000

42. Made a point : SCORED

43. One with affectations : POSEUR - also Poser

44. Carol opener : ADESTE

46. Acquire a winter coat? : ICE UP - Very dangerous on airplane wings

47. Omega's opposite : ALPHA

48. Move effortlessly : COAST 

49. Cribside chorus : AWS

52. Pocket watch, to a hypnotist : PROP

53. Luau dance : HULA - Did MEL sing Aloha'Oe? 

55. Ambulance letters : EMS

56. Edinburgh bonnet : TAM

*62 Across roughly - "If mama ain't happy, ain't no one happy!"

Now let's put me out to PASTURE and FIELD some of your comments:

Answer Grid: