Thursday, January 4th 2018 Robert & Marlea Ellis

Theme: Four by Fore! Golf-related punning.

17A. Duffer's flaw from the tee? : RECKLESS DRIVING. That's me. I've lost count of the times I've walloped my first drive out of bounds and onto the road at my local club.

26A. Duffer's impossible dream? : ACE IN THE HOLE. I've hit the flagstick a couple of times and holed-in-one once on a Par-3 course for my single career ace.

48A. Duffer's cry after botching a putt and settling for par? : BYE BYE BIRDIE. I think I've birdied every hole on my course, just not all in the same round. I've also double-bogeyed or worse every hole, on a bad day all at in the same round.

63A. Duffer's sad 18th-hole reply to "Bogey for you?" ... and 19th-hole request to the bartender? : MAKE MINE A DOUBLE. See above.

Nice enough theme, maybe your mileage may vary depending on your knowledge of the golf game and the lingo. It took me a couple of laps around this one, there were a few unfamiliar proper names and some challenges in other places, but as long as the crosses are solid I can usually figure everything out. Let's see what attracts further attention:

Across:

1. Waldorf __ : SALAD. Does "Astoria" have anything to do with the Astor family? I need to go and look that up.

6. Crawford of the Timberwolves : JAMAL. Tried JALEN for no good reason at all. Wrong last name, wrong team.

11. Rx watchdog : FDA

14. Cast out : EXILE

15. Where glasses may be raised? : OPERA. Technically, it should be "the opera" but I'll let this one slide, I'm feeling charitable today.

16. Standee's lack : LAP. Nice. It's why you can't use a laptop standing up. There's no lap to top.

20. Wingless parasite : FLEA. Two "wingless" clues today.

21. "Cheers" actor Roger : REES. I never associate him with Cheers. I saw him on stage in London in an adaptation of a quite amazing treasure-hunt book called "Masquerade" by writer and artist Kit Willliams. Williams created a bejeweled gold sculpture of a hare and buried it in a ceramic container beyond the reach of metal detectors. The book contained the clues to find it. It went undiscovered for more than three years. Many of the audience went to see the production hoping to get some additional clues.

22. Approximately : CIRCA

23. Speech characteristic of Dustin on "Stranger Things" : LISP

25. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" newsman : BAXTER

31. Family dinner entrée : ROAST

32. __ de guerre : NOM. An assumed name.

33. It may be sharp : NOTE

37. Pageant VIPs : MCS. Masters of Ceremonies.

38. Handyman's tasks : ODD JOBS

42. Each : PER

43. Bean used in Asian sauces : SOYA

45. Classic auto : R.E.O. 

46. Cutting : ACERB

52. Yelp piece : REVIEW

55. Move, in Realtor lingo : RELOcation

56. They have pHs below 7 : ACIDS

57. "Let It Go" singer in "Frozen" : ELSA. Known from crosswords.

59. Landing : QUAY. Took me a while to see the clue wanted a noun, not a verb. Nice.

66. Miner concern : ORE

67. Make __: rake it in : A MINT

68. Deal with : SEE TO

69. '60s activist gp. : S.D.S. Students for a Democratic Society. I can never seem to remember this. The first S was my last fill, crossing an unknown actress in Sarah Ramos.

70. Help for the graveyard shift, maybe : NO-DOZ

71. Slurpee insert : STRAW

Down:

1. Lowly worker : SERF

2. Winter Olympics jump : AXEL. The Winter Olympics are coming soon. Matt Lauer appeared in almost all of the promo spots that had been produced, NBC spent quite a chunk of change reshooting or editing them.

3. Wingless parasites : LICE

4. They have pHs above 7 : ALKALIS. Very nice job to get ACIDS in the puzzle as well.

5. Second-smallest U.S. state : DELaware. It's quite a bit bigger than Rhode Island, the smallest.

6. Nativity figure : JOSEPH. I tried SERAPH when I had the PH. I'm not quite sure why I sometimes overlook the totally obvious sometimes.

7. Church area : APSE

8. Rx specifications : MEDS. I was looking more for something along the "dosage" lines at first.

9. Itinerary abbr. : ARR.

10. Not of the cloth : LAICAL. Slow to emerge. I was thinking on the right lines, but neither LAIC nor LAITY was working.

11. Toy (with) : FLIRT

12. Hula or hora : DANCE

13. __ score: neonatal measure : APGAR. New one on me. I now learn it is "a method to quickly summarize the health of newborn children. Dr. Virginia Apgar, an anesthesiologist at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, developed the score in 1952 in order to quantify the effects of obstetric anesthesia on babies.". Thank you, Wikipedia.

18. Once, quaintly : ERST

19. Kit's mom : VIXEN. A kit is another word for a fox cub. I didn't know that until today. Cute little guys, aren't they?

24. Absorbed by : INTO

25. Fall flat : BOMB

26. Readies for battle : ARMS

27. 2017 Pixar film set in Mexico : COCO. I was looking at "LOCO" first. ALE IN THE HOLE is another thing entirely.

28. Like Sunday morning, in a Commodores title : EASY

29. "Have a nice time!" : ENJOY

30. "Woo-__!" : HOO!

34. Newspaper page : OP-ED

35. Actress Garr : TERI

36. Kathryn of "Law & Order: C.I." : ERBE. Another unknown.

39. Used charcoal pencils, say : DREW

40. Society newcomer : DEB. Debutante, to use the posh term.

41. Glide (through) : SAIL

44. Bear : ABIDE

47. Alice had to play it with flamingos as mallets : CROQUET

49. Sycophant : YES MAN

50. Not authentic : ERSATZ

51. Rosary unit : BEAD

52. "Parenthood" actress Sarah : RAMOS

53. Digital greeting : E-CARD

54. Twin Cities team, familiarly : VIKES. Minnesota's Vikings.

57. Oklahoma city : ENID. Nailed it, due to crosswords past.

58. Carson's successor : LENO

60. Taxi alternative : UBER. No umlaut on the company name.

61. Utah ski resort : ALTA. I always forget this one too, then kick myself when the rather obvious answer emerges.

62. "Ouch!" : YEOW!

64. Texting qualifier : IMO. In My Opinion. My opinion is always humble, therefore IMHO.

65. CIA predecessor : OSS.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!

Steve

Thursday Nov 9, 2017 Robert & Marlea Ellis

Theme: T-TOPS (52. Features of some sports cars, and what this puzzle's four longest answers have in common) - T is added to each R-starting theme entry. 
 
3D. Conductor's job? : TRAIN CHECK. Rain check.

5D. Recycling, composting, etc.? : TRASH DECISIONS. Rash decisions.
 
15D. Livestock feed approximation? : TROUGH ESTIMATE. Rough estimate.
 
30D. Tongue-in-cheek presidential tribute? : TRUMP ROAST. Rump roast.

C.C. here. I did not see a draft post from Steve, so I'm just going to put a short skeletal write-up. Hope he's OK. He never missed a write-up before, no matter how busy he was. So I'm a bit concerned.

The theme entries are placed in Down slots for visual effects. T is consistently added to the R-starting phrase for extra layer.

This must be Robert & Marlea Ellis's LAT debut. I did not find their name under our blog Labels. Congratulation!

Across: 

1. Animated film set partly in Insectopia : ANTZ

5. By way of, to Burns : THRO

9. Try : STAB

13. Like many trees in winter : BARE. Certainly in our yard. Winter here. High is 27F today.

14. Respond : REACT

16. Approximately 2.2 lbs. : KILO

17. West Point, e.g.: Abbr. : ACAD

18. "Are you calling me __?" : A LIAR

19. Currier's partner : IVES

20. Moment-of-truth words : THIS IS IT. Sparkly fill.

22. Fight : OPPOSE

24. Geological period : EON

25. Track-and-field events : SHOT PUTS. This word is pluralble, D-Otto?

27. Bugs often caught : COLDS

29. DOJ chiefs : AGs

30. Cough syrup amt. : TSP

33. Jessica Simpson's pop-singing sister : ASHLEE
 

35. Extreme degree : NTH

36. Cookie with a limited-edition Swedish Fish variety : OREO. Constructors and Rich work hard to come up with new clues for OREO.

37. Went over the limit : SPED

38. Hidden supply : CACHE

40. Club charges : DUES

41. Some twitches : TICS

42. Nigerian native : IBO. Wiki seems to prefer Igbo.

43. Not covering much : SKIMPY

45. Calligraphy supply : INK. To answer your question, Jayce, in Chinese dictionaries, you can find a word both by pinyin and the character components if you don't know how the word is pronounced. As for google, here is an easy way. Just type in pinyin, Chinese characters will show up. Then you can copy and paste it to Google Translate.

46. Corvallis sch. : OSU. Oregon State.

47. Like either main face of El Capitan : STEEP. Got via crosses.

48. Slightly embellished truth : WHITE LIE. Nice entry as well.
 
50. Decay : ROT

53. Energetic worker : DYNAMO

56. Part of a proverbial secretive trio : LAMPPOST

58. Jet engine sound : ROAR

59. "The Wonder Years" mom : NORMA

61. Old El Paso product : TACO. We also have 2. Dipping chip : NACHO. Food! By the way, Anon-T, my favorite soy sauce brand is Lee Kum Kee.
 

62. Related : AKIN
 
63. Move quickly : SCOOT

64. Quickly, in memos : ASAP

65. Alice's workplace : MEL'S

66. New Year's Day word : SYNE

67. Orch. section : STRS. OK, strings.

Down:

1. Taper off : ABATE

4. Last letters in Canada : ZEDs

6. Greek sun god : HELIOS

7. "Nick of Time" singer : RAITT

8. Andean tuber : OCA. Still have not tried them.

9. Moves merrily : SKIPS

10. Couch potato's device : TIVO

11. Brown bar orders : ALES

12. Highly respected speakers maker : BOSE

21. Cruise stop : ISLE

23. NBA stats : PTS

26. It may be beaten : PATH. So spoiled by Springbrook this summer.

28. Bygone automaker : OLDS

31. Barely flow : SEEP

32. Bouquet : POSY

33. Italian wine city : ASTI

34. Public relations distortion : SPIN
 
35. Mil. category : NCO. Also 60. Army training ctr. : OCS

36. "Garfield" dog : ODIE

39. Touch on : ABUT
 
44. Board and lodging : KEEP

46. Electrical unit : OHM

47. Hit hard, as the brakes : SLAM ON

48. Yells "Fore!" at : WARNS. I was once hit hard on my left arm. Terrifying.

49. Junior Jetson : ELROY

51. First name in bologna : OSCAR

53. Eighth of a fluid ounce : DRAM

54. Oxen coupler : YOKE

55. Carpentry fastener : NAIL

57. Sch. support groups : PTAs

C.C.