Thursday, February 28, 2013 Steven J. St. John

Theme: Pickup Lines

7A. With 22-, 37- or 48-Across, familiar line : HEY BABE...

22A. See 7-Across : COME HERE OFTEN?

37A. See 7-Across : YOUR PLACE OR MINE?

48A. See 7-Across : WHAT'S YOUR SIGN?

64A. Probable response to 7-/22-, 7-/37- or 7-/48-Across : GET LOST!!!!! Guffaw!  Great theme wrap-up!

SJ² is probably young enough to be my grandson, but I still loved his pickup lines! There was some other clever stuff in there too, as you will soon see.

Oh, and best pickup line I ever heard? "If I were to ask you out on a date, would your answer be the same as the one to this question?"

Marti here, so let's get crackin'!

Across:

1. Send with an email : ATTACH.

14. It has its charms : VOODOO. To soothe the savage breast, perhaps?

15. Password accompaniment : USER NAME.

17. Mail for King Arthur : ARMOUR. Legendary British king in the clue gives a hint to the British spelling of "armor."

18. "Pull it together" : GET A GRIP. Great fill!

19. Fed. management and support agency : GSA. General Services Administration.

21. Fabric : CLOTH.

29. Ken and Lena of Hollywood : OLINS.

30. Tell-all account : EXPOSÉ. Do tell!

31. Mosquito-borne fever : DENGUE. Also called "breakbone fever." Typically spread by the A. aegypti species of mosquito. (OK, I 'fess: I had to google the mosquito.) (But I did remember breakbone fever!)

33. Islet : AIT.

34. Preschool downtime : NAP.

41. Disapproving sound : SSS.

42. Ballpark fig. : EST.imate.

43. Two-___ : SEATER.

44. Shrill laugh : CACKLE. I got the part of one of the three witches in our school's production of Macbeth, because I could do the cackle so well...hee, heee, heeeee!

47. Bookkeeper's deduction : OUTGO. Anyone else want debit?

50. Literature Nobelist ___ Bashevis Singer : ISAAC. Definitely a Thursday clue.  Monday would be clued with Stern, Asimov or Newton.

52. ___ Lanka : SRI.

53. Words often said with a fist pump : NAILED IT. Nailed it! [Fist pump]

57. Easy pill to swallow : GEL CAP. With a spoonful of sugar, maybe.

62. Where a shopping list may be jotted down : ENVELOPE. Nope, I use "Evernote" on my phone. Goodbye, scraps of paper that I always forget on the kitchen counter, anyway!

63. Word of exasperation : ENOUGH. (...already!)

65. Saved : STORED.


Down:

1. Gardner of "The Killers" : AVA. Based on a short story by Ernest Hemmingway.

2. NYY opponent, on scoreboards : TOR.onto, opponents of the New York Yankees.

3. Cat on the prowl : TOM. "Alley" wouldn't fit.

4. Excitement : ADO.

5. Forks over reluctantly : COUGHS UP.

6. ___ trade : HORSE. This one stayed blank, waiting on perps to help. (Scroll down the right hand menu to "Olio" and click on "Comments Section Abbrs" to see the meaning of commonly used phrases or abbreviations on this blog.)

7. An O may symbolize one : HUG. OOOO !

8. Odessa-to-Austin dir. : ESE.

9. To this point : YET.

10. Leaflike parts : BRACTS. Bracts are different from leaves, and have specialized functions.

11. "Life of Pi" director : ANG LEE. Still have not seen it.

12. Unseen "Red" character in "Peanuts" : BARON. I was thinking of that cute little redhead that Charlie Brown is so fond of.  Then I remembered Snoopy's nemesis.

13. Give off : EMIT.

16. N.T. book : EPH.esians, book in the New Testament. I hear it got good reviews on Amazon, but I think I'll wait for the movie...

20. "All bets ___ off" : ARE.

22. Buffalo Bill and the Wyoming city named for him : CODYS. One way to clue a plural proper name!

23. Kitchen spreads : OLEOS.

24. Frigid forecast word : MINUS. Brrrr...I am ready for spring!

25. Tech sch. grad : ENGR. Engineer.  I have seen this abbr. as egr., eng. and engr.

26. "Bingo!" : EXACTLY. Loved this clue/ans.

27. Andy's TV son : OPIE. Let me get it right this time: from the old "Andy Griffith Show." (Not "Mayberry RFD.")

28. Pics : FOTOS. Slang-y clue deserves equally slang-y answer.

32. To-be, in politics : ELECT. As in "President-elect," before actually taking office.

34. Capone associate : NITTI. I have no nits with this!

35. Words after crack or fry : AN EGG.

36. 1996 role for Madonna or Jonathan Pryce : PERON. They played Eva and Juan Peron in "Evita".

38. Sets a price of : ASKS.

39. Adjust, as to a new situation : REORIENT.

40. Prey for a Hauskatze : MAUS. German clue for "cat" and German answer for "mouse." In written German, all nouns are capitalized, whether they are common nouns or proper nouns.   (I guess they're also capitalized in spoken German, but I never really noticed.)

44. Alpine dwelling : CHALET.

45. Battery not included, perhaps : AA CELL. Great clue!

46. Aurora, to the Greeks : EOS.

48. Refrain from claiming : WAIVE.

49. Prods : URGES.

50. Like Vivaldi's "Spring" : IN E. (Major.) Musical interlude. I know you like this one. 6:05 for Part 1. Click on the "Part 2" video on the right for the rest. 4:26

51. Joined the choir : SANG.

54. Scooby-___ : DOO.

55. Tape speed unit: Abbr. : IPS. Inches Per Second.

56. Hanoi holiday : TET.

58. John of London : LOO. Did the clue fool you?

59. Nasty mutt : CUR.

60. Birthday candle number : AGE. DH decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and put only one candle on my birthday cake this year.  Unfortunately, it was a 4" x 8" pillar candle...

61. Prof's deg. : PHD. "Piled Higher and Deeper."  (^0^)

'Til next week!

OOOO,
Marti

Saturday, Jan19th, 2013, Steven J. St. John

Theme: None

Words: 68

Blocks: 30

   I do believe this is my first time blogging a puzzle from our SJSJ constructor~!  As I look, I see that this may be his first Saturday LAT.  Thick triple stacks/10-letter corners - one I got, one took way too long.  I did have to check ONE thing on Google (see below), but the rest of the grid did fill in slowly and steadily.  A crossing of a spanner and a climber;

35A. "Hold your horses!" : "ONE SECOND PLEASE"~!

8D. One-on-one strategy : MAN-TO-MAN DEFENSE - I see it's predominantly used in basketball and football; I am just happy that hockey is back; dad is watching with EddyB tomorrow....

3 and 4 word answers, and two more -

53. Loving way to walk : HAND-IN-HAND - oh, if only there were a hand for me....

11. Erect : STAND ON END - ummm, yeah, that too....

Sorry if this one turns out to be a little rough, Cruciverb was not available until 4am, and I usually stay up Friday to do the write up. 

onward

ACROSS:

1. World Series components : POKER GAMES - locked into baseball; night games wouldn't work with OMEGA, which I knew was right

11. Unleashes : SICS - and a semi-clecho  23D. Cut free : RELEASE - which was unLEASh at first

15. Better : AMELIORATE

16. Hardware item : T-NUT

17. What good debaters pounce on : WEAK POINTS

18. No longer tied up : ASEA

19. FBI employees : AGTs - Like Sculder and Mully, I mean Mulder and Scully - do you think he was "stand on end"?

20. Fills : SATES

21. Too curious : NOSY

22. Some grad students : TAs - ah - not EEs, AAs, BAs, MAs, but the Teaching 56A's

23. __-Tahoe Open: annual PGA Tour event : RENO

24. USCG VIP : ADMiral

25. File manager menu option : RENAME

27. Ancient Aegean region west of Lydia : IONIA

30. Sweet-talk : CAJOLE

33. Decking : ADORNING - total WAG for me; I was trying to get TimberTech to fit (it's what I used on the church ramp)

37. Ran out of clothes? : STREAKED - HAR-HAR~!!  Running across the baseball diamond 'sans skivvies', 'bare-ass naked'

38. Colors : TINCTS

39. Memorable swimsuit model Cheryl : TIEGS - she's 66 now

40. Put a new cover on, as a book : REBIND

42. Space shuttle astronaut Jemison : MAE - and another semi-clecho, 47D. Curiosity org. : NASA

43. It may be lost or saved : FACE

44. Learning ctr. : SCHool and a TRUE clecho, 28D. Learning ctr. : INSTitution, not UNIV

47. "Sunset Boulevard" genre : NOIR

49. Better : AMEND

51. TV's "__-Team" : THE "A"

52. Not much : A TAD

55. Hypotenuse, e.g. : SIDE - of a triangle

56. Helping people : ASSISTANTS

57. Gp. with common goals : ASSN

58. Least helpful, as a description : SKETCHIEST

DOWN:

1. Investigate, as a toy mouse : PAW AT - had NUDGE to start

2. Greek horseshoe? : OMEGA - sure looks that way ~!

3. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" poet : KEATS

4. Big bucks : ELKS - ah, not the money kind, like THOU, or GEES

5. Let-'er ender : RIP - "Let 'er RIP~!"

6. Manipulable lamp : GOOSE-NECK - ARGH~! I knew what the word meant, but I just couldn't get my mind off "touch" something; this is what we're looking for

7. Richards of "Jurassic Park" : ARIANA - My mind was stuck [again] on Richard Attenborough (John Hammond), so I finally went to find out who the "other" Richard was - little Lex is all grown up ~!

9. Kitchen add-on : ETTE - Kitchenette

10. Court period: Abbr. : SESSion

12. Hardly a dreamer? : INSOMNIAC - I keep a journal of all my dreams, and I try to recall every detail I can.  Then I go online to see what certain imagery pertains to; once had a dream about a fish hook stuck in my neck -you can find out what it meant here

13. Sticks around the pool hall : CUES - the sticks that one shoots with

14. Vacation period : STAY

24. Delta, but not gamma : AIRLINE

25. Metaphorical dream world : ROSE GARDEN - I didn't promise you one....

26. Onetime Leno announcer Hall : EDD

29. Forever, it seems : AGES - ugh, not EONS

30. Pain from a sticker? : COST - Sticker shock, like on new cars

31. Foe : ANTI - meh

32. Lamentations : JEREMIADS - new word to me; more here

34. Anatomical blind spot site : OPTIC DISC - see more here - unless it's in your, well....

36. Poetic location word : O'ER

41. Oater baddie : BANDIT and, his 50D. 41-Down's accessory : MASK

44. "A man has to be what he is, Joey" speaker : SHANE

45. Single divisions : CENTS

46. Possessed, biblically : HADST

48. __ B. Driftwood, Groucho's "A Night at the Opera" role : OTIS

49. Cries of clarity : A-HAs

51. Pad __: stir-fried noodles : THAI

54. Degree in algebra? : NTH - just about every Saturday, it seems

Splynter

Notes from C.C.:

1) Some of you might not be aware of this, Splynter lost his father to dementia and kidney failure last Saturday. He never let this on through his posts, but it was really tough the past few years for him, his  mom and his brother. 

Baby Splynter and His Parents

2) Here is the obit of dear Spitzboov's daughter Gretchen. She's a beautiful person with a great family and a great career. My heart aches for Al & Betty, Gretchen's 8-year-old son Max and their whole family. A big "Thank you" to Manac for finding this link.

3) I'm also sad to say that Jazzbumpa's mother-in-law Rita was put into hospice on Thursday. Our thoughts are with him, his loving wife Gloria and his whole family.

We probably will never meet one another in this life, but we're a family. Thank you so much being supportive of those who're in difficult time.