Learning moments: Cotton Mather and his father Increase Mather, and then reading various articles about the film Imitation of Life.
Across:
1. Sticking point?: CRAW.
5. Mixed __: MEDIA. " The term “mixed media art” is a broad definition that covers many arts and crafts, including collage, assemblage (both 2D and 3D), altered objects, including books and boxes, handmade greeting cards, artist trading cards (ATCs) and tags, art journalling and book making.
The “mixed media” used includes paints, papers and board of all descriptions, glues, buttons, fabrics, found objects, photos, metal bits, fibres, things from nature, inks, pencils, crayons, markers, pastels and polymer clays, to name a few." - Mixed Media Art . Net
10. Surveillance network, briefly: CCTV. Closed Circuit TV
14. Adonis: HUNK.
15. Finals, e.g.: EXAMs.
16. Vibe: AURA.
20. Plunging neckline type: DEEP V.
21. Island chain: LEI.
22. Annoying: PESKY.
23. Not an exact fig.: EST.
25. __ King Cole: NAT.
36. Panache: ELAN.
37. Número after cero: UNO. Numbers zero and one, in Spanish.
38. "Gypsy" (2008) Tony winner: LUPONE. At the point in time, I was missing the last two vowels, so I and O went in. Fortunately worked out Lupone instead of Lupino.
39. Airs: SONGs. Back in the early days of my solving experiences, we had a clue Troubador' s offering and the answer was AIRS. Here are the responses in the blog comments that day.
44. Code prohibiting singing?: OMERTA. The Mafia code of silence, to anyone outside of the organization, but especially to authorities.
46. Trashy newspaper: RAG.
48. Hard to find: RARE.
52. Old records: LPs.
53. Bobs and weaves: DOs. Female hairstyles. Butches and flattops for males.
54. Eye color: HAZEL.
58. "Barry" channel: HBO. No idea, but the O was in place, so it was probable that it would be SHO or HBO.
"Barry follows Barry Berkman, a former Marine from Ohio who works as a hitman. Lonely and dissatisfied with life, he travels to Los Angeles to kill a target and ends up "finding an accepting community in a group of eager hopefuls within the L.A. theater scene"
60. Major religion of Indonesia: ISLAM.
68. Rackets: DINs. My father nicknamed my niece Rachael "Racket" when she was about two.
When Madame Defarge referred to her granddaughter as "The Blonde Tornado" back in 2016, I immediately understood.
69. Yankee Candle emanation: AROMA.
70. Retailer with a meatball recipe to make at "höme": IKEA.
OK, then let us translate from Finnish as well:
The Swedish version sounds more appealing.
71. Nervous: EDGY.
72. Frisky swimmer: OTTER.
73. Whimper: MEWL.
Down:
1. Libya neighbor: CHAD. Testing your geography knowledge, as well as country names.
2. Deceptive ploy: RUSE.
3. Poker entry fee: ANTE. "Feed the kitty" followed by "Pot's right. Deal."
4. Sitcom radio station: WKRP. The show was inspired by a Harry Chapin song.
34. __ nous: ENTRE. Listen, do you want to know a secret ? Do you promise not to tell ?
35. Discourage: DETER.
40. Designer McCartney: STELLA. Daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2013 for services to fashion.
51. "That'll be the day!": AS IF. "You have to be kidding me !"
54. Conceal: HIDE.
55. Surrounded by: AMID.
56. "Oh snap!": ZING.
57. Handmade goods website: ETSY.
59. Abrupt dismissal: BOOT.
61. __ to none: bad odds: SLIM. Muhammad Ali famously quipped about Joe Frazier's chances, "Frazier's got two chances. Slim, and none. And Slim just left town."
62. Go for: LIKE.
63. Several: A FEW.
64. Event with courses: MEAL. No-brainer, but my mind strayed to golf. Specifically, The Pebble Beach Pro-Am, played on three different courses: Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
If you've never been able to solve a Friday, today should be your lucky day.
20. Avian athletic contest?: GAME OF FINCHES.
28. Advanced degree for a gemologist?: DOCTOR OF FLAWS.
47. Metropolis, thanks to Superman?: CITY OF FLIGHTS.
57. Flunk out ... and what three long answers do?: GET STRAIGHT FS.
Straight Fs would be bad for your GPA. No one should flunk out today.
I always enjoy solving Mark's puzzles. He's definitely in my top 5 favorite constructors. Today was no different, and each of the the three theme answers made me smile.
But IMHO, this was way, way too easy for a Friday. A scheduling error ? What do you think ? Oh, and I'm sorry if I burst your bubble.
I was confounded by the answer to 9D, IN A HUFF. It obviously doesn't fit with the theme answers of the added F. The two Fs still gave pause.
Across:
1. President before Wilson: TAFT.
5. Sign of shock: GASP.
9. Classical inspiration for the 2004 film "Troy": ILIAD. Troy ? Hello, Irish Miss ! Hope you are feeling a little better.
14. Another, in Mexico: OTRO. Fill in OTR and check the perp to decide if it will be A (feminine) or O (masculine). Oh no ! The perp is also Spanish. Good thing we all know the Spanish word for bullfighter.
15. __ ID: USER. You can make your USERIDs complex, but there's no need. Keep them simple. Make your passwords complex, and change them frequently.
16. Chip in a bowl: NACHO. Doritos Nacho Cheese are favored chips in this casa.
17. Almost at: NEAR.
18. Long vehicle: LIMO. A conversation starter for your Limo driver ? It's derived from Limousine. From Limousin, a region in France. A Gallic tribe (Celtics on the continent) lived there in the time of Caesar. They were known as Lemovices, which means "those who vanquish by the elm." Lemo - elm, and uices - victors. In the end, their elm bows and lances were no match as Caesar's armies laid siege. Even though the Roman Army was outnumbered 4 to 1, they won the battle and claimed Gaul once and for all as a Roman province. If you driver has no interest, just talk about the weather.
19. It has no subs: A TEAM. Loved this clue.
23. Like a disciplinarian: STERN.
24. Torque symbol, in mechanics: TAU.
25. RV chain: KOA.
33. Ominous: DIRE.
34. Destinies: FATEs. There were three Goddesses of Fates, as we learned in Steve's write up on June 18th. They were Clotho the Spinner, Lachesis the Alloter, and Atropos the Inflexible. Speaking of destinies, the all girl group Destiny's Child consisted of Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams.
35. Push-up targets: PECs. Pectoral muscles.
39. Not against the rules: LEGAL. Licit.
42. Like a hairpin: BENT.
43. Stretched circles?: OVALs.
45. Brewpub array: ALEs.
52. Corrida cheer: OLE. For the torero.
53. Waze suggestion: Abbr.: RTE. Waze is a GPS app from Google.
54. Estée Lauder subsidiary: AVEDA. Never heard of it until solving C.C.'s "Back to Basics" crossword puzzle last Sunday. She remarked in the review that it is a Minnesota based company owned by Estee Lauder.
62. Problematic bacterium: E. coli.
64. The Mississippi forms its eastern border: IOWA. And the Missouri forms most of its western border.
65. Northern European capital: OSLO.
66. Singer nicknamed "The Velvet Fog": TORME. I read that at age 19 he composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics for this song made famous by Nat King Cole.
67. Visible pollution: SMOG. Fog and then smog ? And ice crystals in the air forming a sundog ?
68. Comics icon Lee: STAN. Marvel Comics.
69. Vast chasm: ABYSS.
70. Sun dog, e.g.: HALO. I believe you pretty much have to be in a colder climate like the northern states or Canada to see these when the sun is at the horizon.
7. Big rig: SEMI. One of my "other duties" in the Army was driving one of these M818 5 ton tractor trucks. Mine was a -A2 multifuel with a ragtop and a semi trailer rather than the lowboy pictured. 10 wheels on 3 driven axles with a lot of torque, and no creature comforts in the cab.
8. Stat relative: PRONTO.
9. Highly annoyed: IN A HUFF.
10. Having missed the deadline: LATE.
11. Item of hockey equipment: ICE SKATE. Like some potato chips, one is usually not enough.
12. Cry of discovery: AHA.
13. Champagne title: DOM.
21. Like much '80s-'90s music: ON CD.
22. Half-__: coffee order: CAF.
26. Wilson who voiced Lightning McQueen in "Cars" films: OWEN. Also the first name of our resident poet and host of Jumblehints Blogspot
27. A new exec may hire one: ASST. The position title is usually ...
29. Shop __ you drop: 'TIL. "Honey, look how much money I saved !"
32. Yellow __: LAB. The most popular dog in the United States is the Labrador.
35. Somewhat, to Schubert: POCO. When it came to music, he was anything but poco. He went full-bore. One of the most prolific composers of all time. Schubert only lived to age 31. Steve had poco yesterday in Joe Denney's puzzle yesterday with the clue [Slightly, in scores].
36. Villainous: EVIL.
37. One in a Trivial Pursuit sextet: CATEGORY.
38. Slick: SLY.
40. Big name in Islam: ALI.
41. KFC selection: LEG.
44. Military pilot's missions: SORTIEs.
46. Heavy carpet: SHAG.
48. NBA foul shots: FTs. Free throws.
49. Magic charm: FETISH. 1. any object believed by some person or group to have magic power
2. any thing or activity to which one is irrationally devoted to make a fetish of sports
3. Psychiatry any nonsexual object, such as a foot or a glove, that abnormally excites erotic feelings
50. Jay Leno, for many years: TV HOST.
51. Starts: SETS TO.
55. Key of Chopin's "Minute Waltz": D FLAT.
56. In concert: AS ONE. Harmony, unity, accord
58. "Slippery" trees: ELMs.
59. Capital SSE of Firenze: ROMA. Florence / Rome in Italian.
17. Magazine for masseuses?: ROLF DIGEST. GOLF DIGEST
21. Magazine for nurses?: IV GUIDE. TV GUIDE
26. Magazine for golfers?: PAR AND DRIVER. CAR AND DRIVER
44. Magazine for crossword constructors?: PUNNERS WORLD. RUNNER'S WORLD
38. Magazine for beekeepers?: HONEY. MONEY
51. Magazine for pharmacists?: MEDBOOK. REDBOOK
60. Magazine for farmers?: HEN'S HEALTH. MEN'S HEALTH
We have another debut at the LA Times and Crossword Corner. Welcome, Stu Agler !
Rolf Digest was the first themer to fill, but I had never heard of Rolfing. Wikipedia tells me "Rolfing is a form of alternative medicine originally developed by Ida Rolf as Structural Integration. It is typically delivered as a series of ten hands-on physical manipulation sessions sometimes called "the recipe" Who knew ?
Consistency in changing only the first letter of the existing magazines may have made this puzzle a bit easier to solve, but it's still funny and punny. Excepting IV / TV, they all also rhyme.
Stu probably had more choices and could probably have created a Sunday sized grid with this theme. How about "Magazine for helicopter designers? Rotor Trend. Or, "Magazine for practitioners of animal husbandry ?" Sired. Maybe, "Magazine for Lumberyard professionals ? Wood Housekeeping.
I'll stop now and leave it to the professionals. Great job, Stu. We're now going to explore that which remains. And pardon me while I wander and reminisce.
Across:
1. Cook Islands language: MAORI. The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific ocean with 15 islands having a combined total land area of about 93 square miles. For perspective, the city of Chicago covers about 234 sq. miles. Los Angeles 469, and Houston 600 sq. miles. The land area of the Cook Islands is about the size of Milwaukee (96), Sacramento (98), Lincoln, NE (89) or Tallahassee (100 sq. mi.).
Spanish explorers visited the islands in the late 1500s and named one of the islands St. Bernard. British Navigator James Cook came to the islands in the 1770s, and named one of the islands Hervey Island. The name "Cook Islands" first appeared on a Russian naval chart in the 1820s.
78 % of the people on the island nation are Māori and another 7.8 % are part Māori. The official languages are English and Cook Islands Māori. The capital (and largest city) is Avarua, which might be a good answer in a crossword puzzle.
6. Place for mascara: LASH.
10. Rims: LIPs.
14. Ray __, NBAer with the most regular season 3-point field goals: ALLEN. Retired HOF'er with 18 years in the NBA making 40 % of his attempts from beyond the line for 2973 buckets. Active player Stephen Curry has hit 43.5 % of his 3-pointers during his 11 year NBA career, and is about 500 makes behind. Note the consistency in the non-shooting hand.
15. Northern Oklahoma city: ENID. Known as the "Wheat Capital" of Oklahoma for its immense grain storage capacity. It has the third-largest grain storage capacity in the world. Yes, that is a line of rail cars in the foreground. The place is huge.
There were some great shots on The Smithsonian Channel's Aerial America - Oklahoma the other day. If you don't get that channel, watch for it to be shown on The Smithsonian's Aerial America YouTube channel.
16. Legal memo phrase: INRE.
19. Campus area: QUAD.
20. Place with shells: SEASIDE.
23. Informal negative: AIN'T. Isn't wrong.
25. Chopper topper: ROTOR. One of my part time military jobs (ODAA - other duties as assigned)) was working as part of the team at the "Can Point" when I was assigned to Coleman Army Airfield, Coleman Barracks, 70th AVIM (aviation intermediate maintenance) Battalion, 1st Support Brigade (later, 21st Support Command), USAEUR (US Army Europe) at Sandhofen (Mannheim), Germany.
My real job was in the computer vans, 3rd shift, feeding stack after stack of 80 column cards into a card reader, and then inserting magnetic ledger stock into the platen feed of an NCR 500 computer system.
It was all part of the inventory control system used to keep track of orders and disbursements and stock on hand. Occasionally keypunching new cards to replace mangled cards, and running the 088 card sorter from time to time after dropping a tray full of cards. Tray after tray, night after night, week after week. So monotonous. I digress.
Any rotor wing aircraft that went down in USAEUR were transported to the cannibalization point for selected salvage. Rotor wings could not be salvaged for re-use, but were in demand by Air Cavalry battalions and companies around the country. They would be used as art on the hangars or as gate toppers at entrances to Kasernes that housed rotor wing companies.
Most impressive and awe inspiring was when the heavy lift helicopters came in for inspection and maintenance. The roar of the engines and sound of the rotors pounding the air was thunderous as the beasts approached and landed on the tarmac.
CH-47 "Chinook" on the left and CH-54 "Tarhe" (Skycrane) on the right. The Skycranes were being phased out of military service in Europe in the late '70s when I was there, and many passed through our airfield on their way back to the U.S.
32. Salchow relatives: AXELs. Figure skating.
33. __-deucey: ACEY. A card game or a backgammon game.
34. Hook partner: JAB. Boxing.
37. Gobble (down): WOLF.
40. Coke __: ZERO. Zero calorie, sugar free version of Coca-Cola. Artificially sweetened. I've never had one.
41. __-Caps: SNO. Semi-sweet chocolates topped with nonpareils. White ones, of course.
42. "Be there in __": A SEC. What my wife says 10 minutes before she gets to the door as we are preparing to leave.
54. Pal of Barbarino in "Welcome Back, Kotter": EPSTEIN.
59. Afterthoughts: ANDs. Oh, and the guy in the lower left is Barbarino and the guy in the top right is Epstein.
62. Leave in: STET. Don't dele. Obelisms. A proofreader knows these symbols.
63. Half of Mork's sign-off: NANU. Mork was the ET from the planet Ork on the sitcom Mork and Mindy.
64. Brew hue: AMBER.
65. __ d'oeuvres: HORS.
66. First column to add, usually: ONEs. Units. The first column of whole numbers to be added in a place-value numbering system. Typically in base-10 (decimal) for most people, and the second column would be tens, the third hundreds and so on. I know you knew that, but I'm building here.
Programmers and others in technology use other place-value numbering systems, such as in base-8 (octal) where the columns would be units, eights, sixty-fours and so on, and in base-16 (hexadecimal) they would be units, sixteens, and the third column two hundred fifty-sixes.
Quick, what's the first numbering system that comes to mind that is not place-value ?
67. Funny Anne: MEARA. So many roles, but perhaps best known as one half of the Stiller and Meara comedy team.
Down:
1. Second-smallest of eight: MARS. Our solar system's planets. The "Red Planet", fourth from the sun. Mercury is the smallest.
4. Works the game: REFs. Referees the game or bout.
5. Team with the longest World Series drought (71 years): INDIANS. Should be championship drought. They were in the 2016 World Series, and they were leading it 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 series over the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs won the next two games, evening the series at 3 each.
In the seventh and deciding game that many pundits have called one of the greatest game 7s (and series) in MLB history, the teams were tied at 6 runs each after 9 innings. Then the skies opened up with a sudden downpour. After the rain delay play resumed, and the Cubs scored two to take an 8-6 lead in the top of the tenth inning. In the bottom of the tenth, the home field Indians plated one run with two out before the Tribe's loyal fans had their hopes squashed on a weak grounder to third baseman Kris Bryant.
It was only the fifth time in World Series history that a Game 7 went to extra innings, and it was the first time the extra inning Game 7 was won by a road team. The series and Game 7 were both dubbed "instant classics".
The Cubs won and ended a 108 year championship drought of their own; the longest in professional sports history.
6. Folklore tale: LEGEND. An example of early American literature was Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleep Hollow, but what inspired the work ?
7. Suffix with hex-: ANE.
8. "Absolutely!" in Madrid: SI SI.
9. Best Buy purchase: HDTV.
10. __ license: LIQUOR.
11. Greenland language: INUIT.
12. Madrid museum: PRADO.
13. Where the same questions are asked annually: SEDER.
18. "__ it my way": I DID.
22. Ethically uncertain, in Sussex: GREY. I loved Dash-T's explanation a few weeks ago that, "Gray is a color, while grey is a colour".
24. Spells: TRANCEs.
26. Treat holders: PAWs.
27. Nerve impulse carrier: AXON.
28. HR dept. concern: RELO. United Van Lines packed up my belongings and car when I was relocated from Houston to Chicago in late '87. The company footed the bill for my relocation moving and living expenses. Actually lived for almost two months in a new Holiday Inn that was still in the process of being constructed.
Then January came, and I learned fast that my southeast Texas blood and wardrobe was ill-equipped to deal with Chicago's gusting winds and biting cold that would shiver your bones. I ran to the mall and bought thermal underwear and the heaviest lined Burberry style trench coat I could find. I didn't bother to ask HR to foot the bill on those items. I know'd the answer was NO !
29. Alien from Melmac: ALF. Another extraterrestrial from TV land. Anne Meara played the grandmother in occasional appearances on the sitcom.
30. __ dancing: ICE. Like figure skating, but more freeform and interpretive.
31. "Oy __!": VEY. Oy vey ! This crossword puzzle review has gone on too long. But wait, there's more !
34. Boo: JEER. Please. Bear with me, it'll be over soon.
35. Seed covering: ARIL.
36. M's favorite agent: BOND. James Bond's boss and head of MI6, portrayed by Dame Judy Dench in eight of the movies.
38. 24 hrs.-per-day retail channel: HSN. Home Shopping Network
39. Wine: Pref.: OEN. From the ancient Greek word oinos. "The translators of the KJV, by uniformly rendering the Greek word oinos as wine, replicated the Greek word’s reference to both fermented and unfermented juice with an English word that, in their day, was similarly general in reference."
40. Wild place: ZOO. The nickname for Gerszewski Barracks in Knielingen (Karlsruhe) Germany, my second station while serving there. The Zoo had an entirely different atmosphere than Coleman. Still the military, but significantly fewer officers and Warrant Officers (mostly helicopter pilots at Coleman) and MPs than Coleman. Definitely more relaxed.
Coleman was the home to the USAEUR Confinement Facility, where soldiers in serious trouble awaited trial, were serving sentences up to a year, or for the most serious offenses, were awaiting orders for transportation back to the U.S. to serve extended time at Ft Leavenworth, KA.
42. Jam component: AUTO. Seriously, was I the only one that first thought of pectin ?
43. Type of fastball grip: TWO SEAM. Baseball. Even ardent fans may not be aware of the arsenal that Yu Darvish brings to the mound.
44. Blue Ribbons, e.g.: PABSTs. PBRs, for short. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Not my cuppa, but it'll do in a pinch.
45. Monkey used in research: RHESUS.
46. Future junior: SOPH.
47. Big hit: SMASH. As in an exceptionally popular TV, movie or stage show, or for tennis fans such as Sandyanon, the return shot answer to a poorly placed near-net lob shot.
48. :50, another way: TEN TO. Me: "It's ten to five. Are you ready yet ? Are you coming ?" Her: "I'll be there in a sec."
49. Stranger: ODDER.
52. "That's awful!": OH NO.
53. New Jersey university: KEAN. Not familiar. About Yellowrocks, is that near you ?
55. Domesticate: TAME.
56. People Magazine's 2018 Sexiest Man Alive: ELBA. Idris. Hi, Lucina !
57. Old Roman road: ITER.
58. Dragster's org.: NHRA. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) are the two largest sanctioning bodies for drag racing. The Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin is still going strong. The "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday" radio commercials for drag racing events can still be heard on radio stations across the country. Well, maybe not right now, but they'll be back.
61. Austin-to-Dallas dir.: NNE. For some, I-35 is known as Main Street, Texas. Almost half of the Texas population (and most of my siblings and extended family) lives along this central artery that starts in Laredo, Texas near the Rio Grande, and exits the state just north of Gainseville at the Red River. From there I-35 travels generally NNE all the way to Duluth, Minnesota, comparatively just shy of the border with Canada.
The reconstruction and widening of I-35 that started in 2012 is the second largest infrastructure project in the history of the state for TxDOT, the state's Department of Transportation. The first ? Building I-35 in the first place, which started in the '50s as part of Eisenhower's Interstate System. It will be nice, and much safer when it is finally done.
Use the Zoom In, Zoom Out buttons on the map to view greater detail or a wider view, and use your mouse to move around. "Ain't Isn't wrong" technology grand ?
If you are a top to bottom solver, or happened to hit one of those three clues early, you may have looked to 71A to figure out what the clue should be. Average didn't immediately come to mind for Garden-variety. At least it didn't for me. Horticulture came to mind. Outdoor plants versus indoor plants.
Also, Brian and Jeff didn't exactly make solving the reveal at 71A easy. Grid spanners hiding the theme answers, no circles to help you find them, and perhaps not-so-easy perps crossing the reveal.
Adam Savage I knew.
Super star ? A famous person ? Idol ? No, it was noVa. So a literal super star.
Bartleby left me clueless, and I had no idea that he or she was a scrivenEr.
Angle and athlete prefix tRi came easily enough.
Noir weapon could have been rod, but this time it was gAt.
Then we get to: Spanish soccer association that means "the league": La LiGa. Did you know this ?
Then an easy E in gavEl.
Thus, AVERAGE. So "Below average" as the clue for 22, 47 and 72 across.
I have to admit that after solving the mini-theme test and then completing the grid, I almost forgot to look for the hidden words in the spanners. Mean, Median and Mode explained.
Across:
1. 35th pres.: JFK. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
4. Smaller-than-life depiction: ICON.
8. Larger-than-life creations: COLOSSI.
15. Spleen: IRE.
16. Hilo shindig: LUAU.
17. Put into play: ENACTED.
21. Construction __: SITE.
23. "Frontline" network: PBS. A favorite PBS program. Thought provoking.
24. What a pursuer seeks to narrow: THE GAP.
28. Evergreen shrubs: ERICAs. Oops. Make that three words that had to be corrected. Had yuccas. Bzzt ! The Genus Erica You may know it as heath or heather.
31. Meat on a stick: KEBAB. Key in a K (skip a cell), Key in a B (skip a cell), Key in a B and then check perps.
33. English "L'chaim!": TO LIFE. Hebrew translated to English. A toast.
36. Pack animal: ASS.
39. "Gimme the skinny!": TELL IT. TELL me went in. It wasn't until I got the second grid spanner that I saw that it should be IT.
Cue up Aaron Neville. He wants to know if she's just playing with his emotions in this 1966 song:
42. Stiff: RIGID.
46. Northern Iraqis: KURDS.
48. Virtual-city denizen: SIM. A simulated person.
49. __ column: SPINAL.
51. Cabbage in a French café?: EUROs. Usually, slang in the clue would require slang in the answer, but it is Friday.
Google Translate tells me the French word for the vegetable cabbage is chou, and sounds something like shoe.
Chou looks like a Chinese word. It sounds something like cho, rhyming with show. Chou seems to mean draw, or pump, or take out, or pick out, or shrink, or quilt, or flagellate. Must be about the tone.
Many Asian languages (exempli gratia, Chinese) are tonal, so in addition to having vowels and consonants, tones can change the meaning of words. I read that some Chinese dialects can have as many as 12 tones.
I also read that in some other languages (e.g. Japanese, Hebrew, Norwegian, et al.) that pitch accent can change the meanings of words by stressing different syllables.
Where was I ? Cue up Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands:
53. Long trip: VOYAGE.
56. Old tankard metal: PEWTER.
59. Suffix for but-: ANE. Butane. "Man, that's cold !"
5. Numberless type of ball: CUE. My first thought was gum.
6. Pole in a lock: OAR.
7. Indifferent: NUMB. Apathetic.
8. Chest material: CEDAR.
9. Like some wonders: ONE HIT. nh
10. LeBron's team, on scoreboards: LAL. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
11. World Series mo.: OCT. ober.
12. Corner quartet, perhaps: STOP SIGNS. The town we moved to when I was eleven had no 4-way stop signs. There was only one traffic light, with a constant flashing yellow in one direction, and a flashing red in the other. Two churches, a hardware store, a pharmacy, a one pump gas station, a bar, a post office and our high school. Cue up John Mellencamp.
13. Balkan native: SERB. ian.
14. Altar words: I DOs.
19. Welsh national emblem: LEEK. Wait, what ? Why ? Let's check with Wales Online
20. Cheer for a banderillero: OLE. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de banderillear.
25. Have one's chance to speak: GET A SAY.
26. Genesis victim: ABEL. For some inexplicable reason, I keyed in Cain rather than ABEL, but fixed that two words later when I got to KEBAB.
27. Conceals, in a way: PALMS. Sleight of hand.
29. Stylist's braid: CORN ROW. Versus a farmer's rows of corn.
30. Others, in Latin: ALII. As in Et (and) al. (others). "... the phrase in Latin could be written three different ways, depending on whether the other things one referred to were masculine (et alii), feminine (et aliae), or neuter (et alia)." - Merriam-Webster
32. French flag couleur: BLEU.
34. Island nation whose flag has a Union Jack on it: FIJI.
44. License fig.: I.D. NO.. I remitted the fees to have my driver's license renewed for another 4 years via the online portal for the Secretary of State. Didn't expect to get it back for awhile, but it came back within a few weeks. Real ID can wait.
45. Swiss river: AARE.
50. Spanish soccer association that means "the league": LA LIGA. Am familiar with some of the teams like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, but not familiar enough to know the association name.
52. Command to Fido: STAY.
54. Bench mallet: GAVEL. The piece of wood struck by the gavel is known as a sounding block.
55. Christmas __: EVE.
57. Conspicuous display: ECLAT.
58. Hold sway: REIGN.
59. Savage of "MythBusters": ADAM. This program fist aired in 2003 and immediately captured my interest. Myths weren't always busted. Sometimes they held true.
60. Super star: NOVA.
62. Roadie's haul: AMPs.
64. Stain: SPOT.
66. Prefix with angle or athlete: TRI.
67. Noir weapon: GAT.
68. Fair-hiring initials: EOE.
69. Co. that bought Netscape in 1999: AOL.
70. Food service trade org.: NRA. The annual National Restaurant Association was scheduled for May 16th to May 19th at McCormick Place in Chicago but North America's largest convention center has been turned into a medical facility.
57. Hilariously react to a butt-baring prankster?: HOWL AT THE MOONER.
Remove the ER from the nouns to get the base phrases of these funnily redefined theme entries. The first one was the hardest for me to parse. Just took a bit of staring to see it. It was also the one that cracked me up the most.
This looks to be another debut for the LA Times crossword venue. Lemonade sent me an email saying that today's constructor and Jeff Chen collaborated on a pair of NYT puzzles in 2014. So six years later, it seems Dick has once again decided to dip his toe into crossword construction.
Across:
1. Stat cousin: ASAP.
5. Acronym often seen with a plus sign: LGBTQ. I forgot the Q part, and the intersecting "NBA Div." clue had me stumped.
10. 1886 debut at Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta: COKE. The first year's sales averaged nine glasses a day @ five cents each.
14. Unflappable: COOL. For a moment, I thought Molly Brown was unflappable. Then remembered the correct adjective.
15. Stop on the Métro?: ARRET. Métro tells you it is French. The question mark alerts you that something is afoot.
Arrêt does mean stop. But a station on the Métro is formally known as a station de métro. Who woulda thunk it ?
Informally, the answer could mean stop... In the right context, arrêt would probably be understood to mean train station stop. But be careful, because a bus stop is known as an "arret de bus" so...
This convoluted explanation brought to you by me after reading an explanation on Trip Advisor. I defer to Kazie and those who are well-versed in travelling the Métro.
16. Anderson of "WKRP in Cincinnati": LONI. - The St. Paul, Minnesota born bosomy blonde bombshell probably kept the sitcom afloat and probably set aflame the hearts of the teenage boy viewing audience.
20. Rental at Aspen: SKI BOOTS. Boot rentals make sense unless you are an avid skier or a ski bum.
21. All agog: IN AWE.
22. Mme. counterpart: SRA. The abbreviations for Madame and Senora, respectively. Wlile we are at it, let's also review that Mademoiselle would be Mlle., and Senorita would be Srta.
23. Samsung : Bixby :: Apple : __: SIRI. Virtual assistants. High tech.
33. Sleep disturbance: APNEA. That's not what wakes me up at night.
34. Roxette and Eurythmics: DUOs.
35. "The Puzzle Palace" org.: NSA. I read the preview.
36. D-Day invasion city: ST LO.
37. Draining target?: SWAMP. Didn't they try that in the Everglades ?
39. Pressure: HEAT.
40. Adherent's suffix: ITE.
41. High-tech read: EMAG. I guess high tech because they are online, or because you read them on a high tech device. Technology ? Yes. High tech ?
42. "The Power of Now" author Eckhart __: TOLLE. A quick search tells me he is a spiritual teacher and best selling author. His 1997 book cited in the clue, " ... is intended to be a guide for day-to-day living and stresses the importance of living in the present moment and transcending thoughts of the past or future."
47. __ & Chandon Champagne: MOET.
48. Popular U.S. street name: ELM. There was a nightmare there.
49. Cheese shape: WHEEL. 200 and 220 pound wheels ? They are huge. But not this Wisconsin Baby Swiss:
52. Transmission problem: SLIPPAGE. I had this problem in my Grand Prix, way back when they were large cars. To save money, GM decided to put the small Turbo Hydramatic 200 transmission that was developed for the smaller Chevy Vega and Chevy Nova in all their larger cars. One day it wouldn't move in reverse gear. I called a transmission shop and they told me to contact the Better Business Bureau. GM paid for the replacement of a rebuilt 350 transmission.
60. "Get it?" response: I SEE.
61. Mazda MX-5, familiarly: MIATA. Anonymous PVX tells us: he has one, loves it, and isn't ready to replace it anytime soon.
62. Fly in the ointment: SNAG.
63. Drink garnish: ZEST. The store was out of Ivory, Dove and Dial bar soaps. So I bought Zest. The scent is too much for DW at night. She had to shut the bathroom door. Wait. I take that back. It was Irish Spring, not Zest.
65. Besmirches: TARS. Tars as slang for tarnishes.
Down:
1. Musical pair, commonly: ACTs.
2. Drench: SOAK.
3. World Golf Hall of Famer Isao: AOKI. His first and last names are very crossword friendly.
4. Working-class Roman: PLEB.
5. Capital of Pakistan's Punjab province: LAHORE. Nailed it !
6. Activist Thunberg and actress Scacchi: GRETAs. Only knew of the former but it was enough to fill in the blanks.
7. Support group?: BRAs. My wife did not think using her brassières as face masks was too smart. However, if you search YouTube, you'll find various videos of people using thongs and jock straps.
8. Saigon New Year: TET.
9. NBA div.: QTR. I had (blank) T R, and was stumped. Knew it wasn't CTR, and had to recite the alphabet until I got all the way to Q. Then it dawned. An NBA basketball game is divided into four 12 minute quarters.
10. Place with outpatients: CLINIC.
11. The last Mrs. Chaplin: OONA.
12. Was forewarned: KNEW.
13. Cork's home: EIRE.
18. Puccini heroine: TOSCA.
19. Winds, in a South American city name: AIRES. Buenos.
23. Film on water: SCUM.
24. Restaurant in the same corporate group as Applebee's: IHOP. The corporate group is Dine Brands Global. However, they may not be together much longer. On April 2nd, Reuters reported that activist investment firm JCP Partners filed a proposal urging shareholders to vote FOR having Dine Brands spin off IHOP. JCP argues that Applebee's has been a drag on corporate earnings. Shareholders will decide on May 12th. It may have been fortuitous that this puzzle and clue was published before then.
25. Water holder: BASIN.
26. Decide one will: OPT TO.
27. Vacant, in a way: UNLET.
28. Opposite of paleo-: NEO.
29. Saw: ADAGE.
30. Prepared to talk to a tot, perhaps: KNELT.
31. Virtual transaction: E-SALE.
32. Zagat, for one: RATER. Over the years since 1979, the Zagat Guides have reported on and rated restaurants, hotels, nightlife, shopping, zoos, music, movies, theaters, golf courses, and airlines. Probably not as trusted as it once was. I used the Michelin Guides in Europe.
Now they are all being supplanted by crowd sourced reviews on apps such as Yelp. The Yelp ratings are ok, as long as you have a healthy skepticism of reviews that are too glowing or too negative. That's because crowd sourced restaurant and product reviews are frequent targets of astroturfing by sockpuppets.
37. Bob Hoskins' role in "Hook": SMEE. He played Smee in 1991's Hook, and in 2011's Neverland.
38. Small flaw: WART.
39. Sweetie: HON. Terms of endearment.
41. Name on a historic B-29: ENOLA. The "Enola Gay" was so named by pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets in honor of his mother.
42. Beat: TEMPO.
44. Western, e.g.: OMELET. Wait a minute. Last week they said it was a Denver omelet. IHOP has a Colorado Omelet.
45. Rub out: DELETE.
46. Turning point: CLIMAX. Years ago I thought the band Climax Blues Band was a later version of the band Climax. "Precious and Few" was released in 1971 and sung by Sonny Geraci, who five years earlier in 1966 had a hit with the band, The Outsiders. I'd link that song, but "Time Won't Let Me"
49. Phenom: WHIZ.
50. Cheat: HOSE.
51. Rams' fans?: EWES.
52. Herring known for its roe: SHAD.
53. Military installation: POST.
54. "Frozen" princess: ANNA. Voiced, in part, by Kristen Bell.
55. Reverse, say: GEAR. Have I ever mentioned about my Pontiac Grand Prix that wouldn't move when I shifted gears to R ?
56. Joule fractions: ERGS.
58. Texter's "I didn't need to know that": TMI. Too Much Information
The reveal: 24. Jackpot, e.g., and a hint to completing four puzzle answers: WINDFALL.
My immediate reaction to the reveal was "What ?" Windfall means unexpected good fortune. I got how the down answers fall. But what about the wind part ? Then the V8 can that was absent last Friday showed up. Each of the highlighted answers in red (above) or in yellow (below)... and they all fall. All winds, of a sort. Air seems to be the outlier.
Across:
9. Questlove's do: FRO. If you watch The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, then you would probably know of the musician that leads the house band.
12. "__ is human ... ": TO ERR.
but to really mess things up you need a computer. Did I link that .gif before ?
14. Asian gambling mecca: MACAU. We also see it spelled as Macao.
15. Pasture: LEA.
16. Greek goddesses of the seasons: HORAE. It's all ? to me. What is that word I'm missing ?
17. Anglicized name for Australia's Uluru: AYERS ROCK. Uluru is new to me, but the perps were very generous. Uluru is the traditional Aboriginal name. The local Anangu, the Pitjantjatjara people, call the landmark Uluṟu (Pitjantjatjara [ʊlʊɻʊ]). - Wikipedia
19. Game response that means no: GO FISH. The card game for children aged 4 to 10.
21. Like mockumentaries: SATIRIC. The Beatles 1964 feature film debut, A Hard Day's Night, was filmed in mockumentary style: it ostensibly documents a few typical (and highly fictionalized) days in the life of the band as they travel from Liverpool to London for a television appearance.
25. Disquiet: AGITA. I would normally first think of agita as indigestion, but it also means anxiety, apprehension, worry, nervousness, etc. So it can be both a physical and emotional condition. Disquiet is a synonym.
26. Messy roommate: SLOB. Oscar Madison ?
27. Oscar winner Kazan: ELIA.
28. Valentine's Day buys: VASES.
29. Parts: ROLES. For thespians (Hi, OMK !), the character(s) they play. In business, slang for areas of responsibility (i.e. the different hats one wears). In reality, no one has more roles to play than women.
31. Seeing right through: ON TO.
33. "Shame!": TSK.
34. Wannabe: POSEUR.
39. Free from: RID OF.
41. Get ready to play: SUIT UP. Typically as a sports metaphor.
45. Tests graded on a scale of 1 to 5: Abbr.: APs.
48. "Oh __!": insult reaction: SNAP. Not in my vernacular.
50. Maine college town: ORONO. I believe that Hahtoolah mentioned that she went to the University of Maine in Orono. She graces this blog every Tuesday.
54. Thin opening: SLOT. I tried slit.
56. Winnipeg NHLers: JETs. The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division of the Western Conference
57. End of a toast: TO YOU.
58. This is one: CLUE. Self referential. Should have been easy for regular solvers.
59. Texter's "But ... ": OTOH. Randy Travis was awarded the 1986 Country Music Song of the Year for this song. Ah, play that steel guitar...
60. To such an extent (as): IN SO FAR.
62. Thin: NARROW.
64. Connecticut college town: FAIRFIELD. Fairfield College. New to me.
66. "My name is ... " site: ID TAG. Earl was too short. Then saw site. In the sitcom, Earl was always trying to atone for his behavior in years past.
68. LAX abbr.: ETD. Estimated Time of Delay.
69. Brainstorms: IDEAs.
70. Disney's "Moana" was translated into it: MAORI. The language of the indigenous people of New Zealand.
71. __ gratias: DEO. Thanks be to God.
72. Second opening?: NANO.
73. Flanders et al.: NEDs. "Hi-Diddily-Ho neighborino! What can I ding-dong-diddily-do for you?"
Down:
1. Utmost degree: NTH.
2. "Electric __": 1984 dance-pop song: BOOGALOO. Did not know. But learned that the Boogaloo was a street dance that originated in Oakland, CA in the 1960s. Then in the late '70s, a dance team developed the "Electric Boogaloo" dance style and called themselves by the same name. Then in 1984, the music duo of Ollie and Jerry released the song. Here's a 1980 clip from Soul Train showing the dance team doing Electric Boogaloo style of dancing. I could not find a video that featured them dancing to the 1984 song.
3. Sprays from cans: AEROSOLS.
5. __ trip: DAY.
6. Salchow support: ICE SKATE.
7. "Waitress" composer Bareilles: SARA. I may not understand the clues, but the perps and logic usually work out these answers.
9. User of 28-Across: FLORIST.
10. Speaks from memory: RECITEs.
11. Winery fixture: OAK CASK.
13. Outdoorsy retailer: REI. Recreational Equipment, Inc.
14. Island thanks: MAHALO. "Mahalo for your patience and aloha as we harness our resilience to get through this health crisis together." In this context, aloha means greetings, rather than the typical hello or goodbye.
18. Baltic capital: RIGA. A crossword regular.
20. "__ Walks in Beauty": Byron poem: SHE. Didn't know of the poem. Knew that Lord Byron was Ada Lovelace's father.
22. Car ad fig.: MSRP. The list price.
30. __ generis: SUI. Along the lines of unique. In a class by itself.
32. Western treaty gp.: OAS. Organization of American States. And a CSO to our regular reader who has beenexperimenting in the kitchen.
35. Hwys.: RDs.
37. Daft Punk, for one: DUO. Didn't know, but vaguely recalled a pop or a rap group. They were French electronic synthopop musicians in the 1990s.
40. Happening in film: ONSCREEN.
42. In close combat: TOE TO TOE.
43. Hard to work with: UNTOWARD. Some are advances.
44. Sumptuous: POSH. One Spice is Posh, AKA, Victoria Beckham.
45. Allergy medicine discontinued in the U.S.: ACTIFED. The druggies were making something out of it to get high.
46. Rotate inward while walking, as one's foot: PRONATE. Contrast with supinate.
47. Gets married: SAYS I DO. Too many blanks for weds.
49. Money symbolized by a stylized L: POUNDS. £
52. Crude dude: BOOR. First thought was a roughneck. An oilfield worker.
55. Afternoon __: TEA.
61. John/Rice musical: AIDA. Crosswords taught me that Aida usually has a Verdi clue. But in this case, it's Elton John and Tim Rice. Who knew ?
63. Edge: RIM. I use Edge shaving cream. The rim of the can often starts to rust before the cream is all gone. Maybe I should go back to that "no-eczema" brand that Joe Namath used to tout.
