Thursday, June 16, 2022, Robert Wemischner & Mark McClain

 

Good Morning Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the Thursday recap.  Our Princess of Power friend She-Ra, above, is having a tough time.  We all know what that can be like.  That said, the fact that this puzzle seemed to be a bit more difficult to solve than most Thursday puzzles is certainly a "first-world" problem.  I will try to remember to point out the ROUGH PATCHes that I encountered as we go along.

Today's puzzle is a collaborative effort from Mark McClain and Robert Wemischner.  Mark's first puzzle was published in the LAT in October, 2014.  Robert had a puzzle reviewed here in February 2020.  There may have been others too, and you can find several of his puzzles listed on the Crossword Fiend site.

Let's begin with the themed entries - all of which were starred for our convenience.   At four places within the grid, the puzzle-setting team has placed answers within which can be found adjacent, scrambled letters that form the word PATCH when they are unscrambled.

 18 Across:  *Supply on a gift wrap station: SCOTCH TAPE.  Often use it.

27 Across:   *Messaging app: SNAPCHAT.  Never use it.

39 Across:  *"Some Enchanted Evening" musical: SOUTH PACIFIC.  They don't seem to make 'em like this anymore.  Okay, so it's not the best version of the song, but did you know that Jay & The Americans (Western Union, She Cried) recorded it in 1965?  This rendition is from 2019:

Jay & The Americans

54 Across:  *Second game of a doubleheader: NIGHTCAP.  NIGHTCAP, obviously, has a couple of other meanings, too.

The reveal comes at:

66 Across:  Difficult time, or what is hidden in each of the answers to the starred clues?: ROUGH PATCH.  I suppose that we are supposed to interpret ROUGH to mean something along the lines of "approximation".  In this context I find ROUGH to be a bit of a stretch.   But, hey, we're talking crossword puzzles, here.   We're not drafting legislation.  Hmm, perhaps the pols should consult puzzle creators for editing assistance.

Here is how this looks in the completed grid:

 . . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. Fountain output: SODAS.  Not the Trevi Fountain or something similar.

6. Basics: ABCS.  Today's "let's pass on the Jackson 5" moment.

10. Cause a scene: ACT UP.

15. Join forces: UNITE.

16. Bring (out): TROT.

17. Old Scottish landholder: THANE.  We've seen it before but it was still a bit of a rough PATCH.

20. Cancels: VOIDS.

21. As suggested by: PER.  ALA, anyone?

22. Cratchit boy: TINY TIM.  A Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol reference.  God bless us, every one.

God Help Us, Every One

24. Drink that may cause brain freeze: ICEE.

25. Go by: ELAPSE.  From Casablanca, "As Time ELAPSEs".  Play it, Sam.

29. Verne captain: NEMO.  He preceded the clownfish.

30. "Lion" Oscar nominee Patel: DEV.  DEV has been visiting us often recently.

33. Zesty Twirls maker: ORE-IDA.

34. Constellation near Ursa Minor: DRACO.  A rough PATCH for this solver.  Some familiarity with the word DRACO helped.  Most of that familiarity came from a dive into the history of Vlad (The Impaler) Dracul.  Dracula = son of Vlad the Dragon.

36. Chicago suburb: CICERO.  The site of a race riot in 1951.

43. Mato __: third-largest state of Brazil: GROSSO.  A rough PATCH for this solver.  "Largest" helped.  A bit of Romance Language knowledge helped.

44. Flower holders: STEMS.  Hand up for first going with VASES.  Commander Cody would not have made that mistake.

Asbury Park, New Jersey - August 5, 1977

47. First name in mysteries: AGATHA.  AGATHA Christie, nee Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller.

51. GPS heading: ENE.  East North East.  The answer to this type of clue can be any one of the many secondary intercardinal directions denoted by the first letter of North, South, East and West.

53. Congeal: CLOT.

57. Stick (to): ADHERE.  I tried to start the Church of Teflon . . . but I couldn't find any adherents.

59. "Thanks for explaining": I SEE.  "I SEE," said the blind man as he spit into the wind.  "It's all coming back to me now."

60. Barbecue spot: TERRACE.  A rough PATCH.  PATIO was too short.  I guess that I will have to move to a high-rise condo.

63. The way things are usually done, for short: SOP.  Standard Operating Procedure.

64. Learned league?: MENSA.  A rough PATCH.  Would they revoke one's membership for being stymied here for a while?

68. Wood used in guitar-making: ALDER.  Many other types, too.

69. Beachy vacation spot: ISLE.  Beachy?  That's almost as bad as PROSY.

70. Minimal amount: TRACE.  Rough PATCH.  Hand up for LEAST, initially.  It would have gone well with 71 Across.

71. Paper for a pad: LEASE.  Cute.  Pad as in beatnik slang for the place where you live.

72. Examined: EYED.

73. Sports: HAS ON.  As in wears.

Down:

1. Hang: SUSPEND.  SUSPEND me from the highest tree?

Roger Miller - 1978

2. "The Lorax" voice role for Ed Helms: ONCE-LER.  A rough PATCH.  Thanks, perps.  I know some of Geisel's characters but not this one.

3. Grade school exhibits: DIORAMAS.  Three-dimensional models.

4. NFL passing stat: ATT.  ATTempts.  At least it wasn't pluralized.

5. Splinter groups: SECTS.

6. Env. directive: ATTN.  ATTeNtion.

7. Sound like an ass: BRAY.  After watching too much TV leading up to last Tuesday's primaries, my mind initially went in a different direction.

8. Egyptian Christians: COPTS.  The largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East.

9. Biergarten vessel: STEIN.  A German theoretical physicist walks into a bar.  He orders himself ein stein.

10. Off-rd. rig: ATV.  All Terrain Vehicle

11. First-class: CHOICE.

12. "Meditation in motion" discipline: TAI CHI.  I wanted to do TAI CHI but I ended up with chai tea.

13. Like zombies: UNDEAD.  I prefer this type of Zombie:

2019 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

14. Coin replaced by the euro: PESETA.  Spanish.  Neither Pound nor Franc nor Lira was going to fit.

19. Made haste: HIED.

23. Haka dancers of New Zealand: MAORI.

Kapa Haka

26. A bit, in music: POCO.  Italian. . . or . . .

2015 Colorado Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

28. Faculty figs.: PROFS.  PROFessorS.  Not the worst plural-y abbreviation that we have come across.

31. Amazon gadget: ECHO.  Amazon's smart speaker.

32. Celebs given the red-carpet treatment: VIPS.

35. Should, with "to": OUGHT.  What did the librarian say when the books were in a mess?  We OUGHT to be ashamed of our shelves.

37. Word in many Encyclopedia Brown titles: CASE.  The boy detective series of books.

38. MBA course: ECON.  ECONomics.  B'school reference.  UCLA GSM class of '79, here.

40. Piece of land: TRACT.  "Sherlock, what do you know about the gastrointestinal tract?"  "It's alimentary, my dear Watson."

41. Hankering: ITCH.  URGE?  

42. Keyboard instruments that sound like glockenspiels: CELESTAS.  A rough PATCH.  Thanks, perps.

45. "Casablanca" setting: MOROCCO.

46. Composer Sondheim: STEPHEN.

47. Twisted balloon shape, often: ANIMAL.

48. Supermodel Bündchen: GISELE.  A bit of a rough PATCH.  Thanks perps.

49. Board meeting outline: AGENDA.

50. Dissertations: THESES.

52. Per item: EACH.

55. American Eagle Outfitters loungewear brand: AERIE.  A rough PATCH.  Usually clued with an avian reference.  Thanks perps. 

56. Unlike poetry: PROSY.  We kinda guessed that PROSE would be a likely jumping off point but PROSY?

58. Pool statistic: DEPTH.

61. Wear the crown: RULE.

62. Like some dried meats: AGED.

65. "__ you decent?": ARE.

"Me?  Sure, I'm decent."

67. Coach Parseghian: ARA.  University of Notre Dame Head Football Coach from 1964 to 1974 and occasional visitor to our puzzles.

That wraps things up for today.  May your day be without much in the way of rough spots.

Robert and Mark, you are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever in the Comments section.  We'd love to hear from you.

____________________________________________________________

Thursday, February 6th 2020 Robert Wemischner

Theme Back to Front - each theme entry reverses direction.

20A. Parvenu's business venture?: UPSTART STARTUP

25A. Quarterback's nonchalant move?: OFFHAND HAND-OFF. As demonstrated by Penn State QB Antony Morelli to RB Austin Scott.

42A. Down Under withdrawal?: OUTBACK BACKOUT

48A. TSA agent's perfected search technique?: DOWN PAT PAT-DOWN. I've had more than my share of these in my time.

A very neat theme from Robert, and going by the blog history this is his LA Times debut. I don't see him in any of the other major publications, so congratulations if this is indeed the first.

A quick Google search turns up a gentleman here in Los Angeles who is an accomplished pastry chef, cookbook author and lecturer on the culinary delights that are the dessert course. Are they one and the same?

Let's look and see what we've got to chew on in the fill!

Across:

1. Diamond problem: FLAW

5. Plush carpet: SHAG

9. Test versions: BETAS

14. Feminist poet Adrienne: RICH

the thing I came for:

the wreck and not the story of the wreck

the thing itself and not the myth

the drowned face always staring

toward the sun

the evidence of damage

worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty

the ribs of the disaster

curving their assertion

among the tentative haunters.

From "Diving into the Wreck" (1972)

15. It's partially submerged: HULL. I tried HULK at first but that led to the odd-looking GKUT. Happy coincidence with the extract above!

16. Valuable violin: AMATI. Could be "STRAD" so wait for some confirmation.

17. Italian wine region: ASTI. If you only do crosswords, you'd think this was the only wine region in Italy. Strictly speaking, Asti isn't a wine region, it's part of the Piedmont region and a DOCG.

18. Founder of Edom: ESAU. Thank you, crosses.

19. R2-D2 or BB-8, e.g.: ROBOT. or Droid. Both characters from "Star Wars", the former much more familiar than the latter.

23. Beantown NHL nickname: ESPO. Boston Bruins legend Phil Esposito.

24. "__ whiz!": GEE

32. Vague time period: WHILE

33. Spots for AirPods: EARS. Fun clue. AirPods are those wireless Apple earbuds. Personally I'd rather have my earbuds connected, so I don't lose one or drop one down a drain (and I would!) They're also ferociously expensive.

34. One may be decorated for the holidays: FIR

35. Sprightly: AIRY

36. Marmalade bits: RINDS

38. __ Ren, "Star Wars" villain: KYLO. More "Star Wars". Completely unknown to me, but the crosses were sound.

39. Trig. function: COS. I remember SOHCAHTOA from my high school math days, but I've no idea what the significance of the cosine being a function of length of the adjacent side of the triangle over the hypotenuse. It was terribly important when I was 15, but I've not really needed it since. The hypotenuse does feature in a rather jolly Gilbert and Sullivan song, here rendered by the English National Opera.

40. Aloha State bird: NENE

41. Plumlike fruit: SLOES

46. Disney doe: ENA, or "Aunt Ena" as she is known in the movie.

47. It's just over a foot: SHIN

55. Tropical porch: LANAI

56. Murdoch who received the 1978 Booker Prize for "The Sea, the Sea": IRIS. It could have been Rupert, as his tabloid empire published as much fiction as the entire history of Booker prize nominees and winners combined and still continues to do so.

57. "What's the big __?": IDEA

58. Habituate: INURE

59. Retail outlet: MART

60. Mattress option: KING

61. Zaps: TASES

62. Neverland pirate: SMEE

63. What this puzzle does here: ENDS. I like this, but it's an item for friendly argument. In numerical order, indeed it's the last clue, but in the common style of across, then down, then the end would be LIT in this puzzle. My puzzle ended with DENEB when the crosses helped me out.

Down:

1. German spouse: FRAU. Could be "HERR" so don't jump to conclusions.

2. Speech therapy target: LISP

3. Tries to look: ACTS

4. Plant leaf pest: WHITEFLY

5. Himalayan guide: SHERPA

6. "Prizzi's Honor" director or actress: HUSTON. Anjelica, the actress, and father John, the director.

7. Word of regret: ALAS, poor Yorick!

8. Excess: GLUT

9. Scrubby wastelands: BARRENS. This as a verb noun was new to me. I'm familiar with "barren wastes" as an adjective. Mark this one down as a learning moment.

10. Chewed the scenery: EMOTED

11. Perfume that sounds forbidden: TABU. Apparently, it "features a dazzling mixture of jasmine, narcissus, rose, ylang-ylang and amber notes." So now you know. Suitably dazzled.

12. Surmounting: ATOP

13. "Pull up a chair": SIT

21. Arthur in the International Tennis Hall of Fame: ASHE

22. Seaweed-based thickeners: AGARS

25. Buckeye State sch.: OHIO U. They're the Bobcats, the Buckeyes, with something of  a lack of imagination, are Ohio State, or THE Ohio State University, as they like to style themselves.

26. Leading: FIRST

27. Brightest star in Cygnus: DENEB

28. Taken in: HAD

29. "All Because __": 2005 U2 song: OF YOU. Not one of their best-known tracks, but the video is a lot of fun.

30. Steakhouse order: FILET

31. Picked dos: 'FROS

32. Dr Pepper Museum city: WACO. I've been to the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta. It was oddly very interesting.

36. Postgame postmortem: RECAP

37. Skin pics: INK

38. Yukon gold rush region: KLONDIKE

40. Au pairs: NANNIES

41. Burlesque bit: SKIT

43. "'__ the Jabberwock, my son!'": Carroll: BEWARE  "... Beware the Jabberwock, and shun the frumious bandersnatch." What a great flight of fancy that poem is.

Interestingly, in some published versions, the line is "Beware the Jabberwock, and shun. The frumious bandersnatch". I'll try to find a copy of the manuscript to check this one out, but I suspect the period is a mistake because the first line of each verse is capitalized per the convention of the day.

"Beware the Jabberwock and shun

The frumious bandersnatch".

44. Have great plans: ASPIRE

45. Pure: CHASTE

48. Mike's "Wayne's World" co-star: DANA. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.

49. Obligation: ONUS. Sometimes a burden. If it's an obligation it's on us.

50. Gets in the crosshairs, with "at": AIMS

51. Disneyland transport: TRAM

52. Norse god: ODIN

53. Make (one's way): WEND

54. Old horses: NAGS. Old horses never die, they just say "neigh".

55. Put a match to: LIT

... and I think that pretty much wraps it up. An enjoyable debut from Robert. Here's the grid!

Steve