Thursday, December 12th 2019 Joe Deeney

Theme: A Call to Arms Rams Mars

20A. Mars: FOURTH PLANET. The "Mars" part of Gustav Holst's "Planet Suite" is a cracking piece of music, and probably inspired more "Star Wars" and "Star Trek"-type themes than any other. Lots 'o notes in the score shown below:

33A. Mars: CHOCOLATE BAR. In the great Anglo-American confusion stakes, the Mars Bar and the Milky Way provide yet another example. The UK Mars Bar and Milky Way are similar to the US Milky Way and Three Musketeers respectively, while the US Mars Bar is similar to a Snickers bar, which until recently was called a Marathon bar in the UK. Clear? There'll be a quiz at the end.

41A. Mars: POP STAR BRUNO. I like Bruno Mars. This track from British producer and songwriter Mark Ronson  is actually credited "Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars", but of course everyone thinks of it as a Bruno Mars song. It's hella catchy though! The video was filmed on 20th Century Fox's "New York Street" set in LA, you can see the lighting mounts on top of the buildings in a couple of the shots.

53A. Mars: SON OF JUPITER. God of War, too.

Fun theme from Joe today. There seemed to be quite a few proper names in the fill, but if the crosses are solid for names unknown I've got no problem with that. SPARTACUS and EXORCISMS in the downs are excellently done, crossing no fewer than three theme entries each.

Four entries not seen before in the LA Times, including RUTHIE which surprised me.

Let's see what else there is to muse on:

Across:

1. Baseball Hall of Famer Speaker: TRIS. Note the capitalized "S" in "Speaker" that tells us we're looking for a name. Tris Speaker, of whom I had never heard until today. Tricky start at 1A, but the crosses were solid.

5. Big name in interstellar communication: UHURA Lt. Uhuru, communications officer and translator on the starship "Enterprise" in Star Trek. Nice clue to this useful crossword name.

10. Window part: SASH. Tried "PANE". Was wrong.

14. Rope fiber: HEMP

15. Weighs an empty container on, as a deli scale: TARES. I got there in the end, but I'd not heard the word used before. I wanted something on the "zeroes out" line like your kitchen scales. The crosses let me to the "oh!" moment.

16. Oberlin's state: OHIO. A town best known for its liberal arts and music college.

17. "Frozen" sister: ELSA. I must get around to watching "Frozen" one day, then I might not having to keep guessing at the frequent references to the characters; two in today's puzzle.

18. Early 2010s Mideast anti-government movement: ARAB SPRING

22. American Red Cross founder: BARTON. Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton, American Civil War nurse and ... patent clerk? What is it with patent clerks - Einstein was one too.

23. Silently understood: TACIT

27. Creative nuggets: IDEAS

28. "Me too": AS AM I

32. "Te __": Rihanna song: AMO

36. Giants manager before Bochy: ALOU. Felipe of the Alou clan. He's still associated with the club in a "Special Assistant" capacity.

39. "Two Women" Oscar winner: LOREN

40. Valentine letters: XOXO

44. Number one woman?: EVE

45. Plan B lead-in: IF NOT

46. CBS news anchor Barnett: ERROL

50. It's in your jeans: DENIM. Hmm, I get the wordplay with the clue, but denim isn't really "in" your jeans, more "is" your jeans. Bar the zipper, buttons, optional rivets - and currently hipster slashes.

52. Gap: LACUNA. Often a gap in a text or manuscript.

58. Yellow mollusk that became the U.C. Santa Cruz mascot: BANANA SLUG. "Best nickname in College Basketball" according to ESPN.

61. Booted, say: SHOD

62. __ rug: AREA

63. Oozy stuff: SLIME. You can buy Banana Slug merchandise with "I've Been Slimed" on it.

64. "Hands off!": MINE!

65. __ chic: GEEK. A fashion trend, or a now-defunct manufacturer of high-end gaming tables.

66. Big name in baseball cards: TOPPS

67. Fortuneteller: SEER

Down:

1. DOJ division since 1908: THE FBI. Bit odd this one, with "The" tacked on the front, no? I think the clue would be better written as "A DOJ division ... " to include the article.

2. Browser's circular arrow function: RELOAD

3. "No doubt about it!": I'M SURE!

4. Gladiator played by Kirk Douglas: SPARTACUS

5. Jazz aficionado?: UTAHN. Basketball team from Salt Lake City. I like the word, it's got a nice unusual letter progression.

6. Angelic strings: HARP

7. Risk territory between Ukraine and Siberia: URAL

8. First name in country: REBA

9. Org.: ASSN.

10. Ish: SORTA

11. Big tuna: AHI. I've got some in my freezer right now waiting to be sushi'd for Christmas Day family pot-luck.

12. Do wrong: SIN

13. Refuse to share: HOG

19. __ four: small cake: PETIT

21. Peter of reggae: TOSH

24. Mexican resort, for short: CABO

25. Big-screen format: IMAX

26. Capa attacker: TORO. Bullfighting, the bull attacking the matador's cape. Also the best cut of tuna for sushi - the fatty part of the belly.

28. Some kind of a nut: ACORN

29. Kevin who played Hercules on TV: SORBO. Thank you, crosses.

30. On one's toes: ALERT

31. Premier League rival of Arsenal, familiarly: MAN. U. England soccer. I won't go on a bore-fest here, but Manchester United and Arsenal are not really rivals, they compete in the same league, that's all. The real rivalry for Arsenal is with Tottenham Hotspur, their North London neighbors. Man. U's true rivals are the other mancunians Manchester City and fellow Merseysiders Liverpool.

I don't know when you cross over from competitor to rival - it's the same here, especially in college sports. Take the PAC 12 - Oregon/Oregon State, Cal/Stanford, USC/UCLA are all rivalries, but none of the schools would consider fellow-confererence member Utah a rival.

34. "Frozen" snowman: OLAF

35. Ways of dealing with inner demons?: EXORCISMS. Is the red cartoon fellow on your shoulder with a trident whispering temptations in your ear an outer demon?

36. Made like: APED

37. Word with bird or nest: LOVE

38. Go first: OPEN

42. Pumbaa's "The Lion King" pal: TIMON. Where would we be without Disney crossword clues? Athens, that's where.

43. __ tide: NEAP

47. Foster of folk music: RUTHIE. Thank you, crosses. I should buy Crosses a drink today for all the help.

48. Impossible NFL score: ONE ONE. Any other score "non-one" score is theoretically possible in football, although in some cases highly unlikely. I did see a scoreboard reading "2-4" a few years ago where a college game was well into the second quarter and the only points registered at that stage in the game were three safeties.

49. Pantry: LARDER. There's an oh-so-subtle difference between the two - a larder originally was cooler than a pantry and used to store meat, milk and other foodstuffs likely to spoil faster. The pantry was where you kept your dry goods, spices and what-not. Nowadays synonymous, and perfectly OK.

51. "Wicked Game" singer Chris: ISAAK. I always want to call him ISAAC until a cross clunks me (cluncs me?) on the top of the head and tells me not to be so silly.

52. Olympic racers: LUGES. Want to slide at 80 miles an hour downhill, feet-first lying on a tray? No, me either. The doubles event is even crazier.

54. Condé __: NAST

55. Nobel ceremony city: OSLO

56. Lose one's cool: FLIP

57. Leap: JUMP

58. Carry-on unit: BAG

59. "__ you serious?": ARE

60. Used to be called: NÉE

Well, I've run out of stuff to talk about, so I'd better stick a fork in this one and call it done.

Steve

Thursday, December 5th 2019 Mark McClain

Theme: Dog Show

17A. *Line never spoken by James Cagney: YOU DIRTY RAT! Well, "you dirty yellow-bellied rat" comes close. c.f. "Play it again, Sam".

23A. *Rock pile at a prehistoric gravesite: BURIAL CAIRN. There are some fine cairns, none prehistoric, in my neighborhood at the tree near the top of Mount Lee, better known as the "Hollywood Sign" hill. I hope there aren't bodies buried underneath. We used to picnic and play on Stonehenge before everyone got serious about the stones. Not cairns, I know, but happy memories of climbing a sarsen stone or two.

40A. *Like Juárez, vis-à-vis El Paso: ACROSS THE BORDER

50A. *Far-fetched, as a story: COCK AND BULL. There are arguments aplenty about the origin of this phrase, most involving two inns on the coaching route from the Midlands to London. However, it's difficult to argue that these lines from John Day's 1608 play Law Trickes were not the first usage - "What a tale of a cock and a bull he told my father".

Which brings us to the, quite frankly, inexplicable reveal:

64A. "__, Batman!": Robin's cry upon spotting the ends of the answers to starred clues?: HOLY TERRIER

So ... we've got four dog breeds which happen to be terriers - fair enough, so far. Now how to tie them together? How about an entry which has TERRIER in it, and has nothing to do with anything else in the puzzle, neither was the phrase ever used in the comic books, nor the TV shows nor the movie series?

I'm completely baffled by this one. I can't see a play on words with "HOLY", there's nothing to tie "YOU DIRTY", "BURIAL", "ACROSS THE" and "COCK AND" to each other. It's totally random. Honestly, this is "*Far-fetched, as a crossword theme" as you can get.

Maybe "YOU DIRTY RAT" was meant to clue us into the reveal was a line never spoken? Or was it all just COCK AND BULL?

There is plenty else to like though, I just wish Mark and/or Rich had been able to come up with a better reveal, or even go with no reveal at all and just find a substitute for that awful 64A.

That being said, let's see what else we've got, and please, if I'm missing the blindingly obvious, let me know via the comments.

Across:

1. Distillery mixture: MASH. Tried BRAN. Was wrong. Always good to get off on the wrong foot.

5. The Flyers' Gritty, e.g.: MASCOT. He's got about as much to do with Philadelphia and hockey as "HOLY TERRIERS!" Maybe this is the theme?

11. Poke fun at: RIB

14. __-inflammatory: ANTI

15. Corrida figure: EL TORO. Denizens of Southern California will remember the "El Toro Y" traffic warnings, a junction between the 5 and the 405 which every day caused alarums and excursions at rush hour.

16. Important card: ACE

19. Cutting remark: DIG

20. 4,300-mile range: ANDES

21. Novelist Waugh: ALEC. A very talented family. His brother Evelyn wrote two of my favorite novels, "Brideshead Revisted" and "Scoop!".

22. "In __ of gifts ... ": LIEU

26. Protect with a levee: EMBANK

30. Canon SLR: EOS. That's one high-end camera. I have a Canon Rebel, mostly to take pictures of my N-scale model railway - you just can't get the depth of field with the iPhone, although in some (bad modelling!) cases that's not such a bad thing!

31. Gorilla expert Fossey: DIAN

32. A pop: EACH

36. Sail (through): COAST

43. MGM part: METRO. Movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, with Sam Goldwyn's name in eye-catching italics. The consummate self-promoter that he was, as Sam Goldfish, formed "Goldwyn" as a co-partnership with Edgar and Archie Selwyn. The name was to be either "Selfish" or "Goldwyn", so not hard to figure out which was the preferred choice. Immediately after the partnership was formed, Sam legally ditched his last name, and replaced it with "Goldwyn". The rest, as they say, is history.

44. Cork's place: EIRE

45. Racing legend Earnhardt: DALE

46. Brouhaha: ADO

48. Held to account: LIABLE

56. Car rental giant: AVIS

57. "Royal" seaside bird: TERN. Here's a turn for the better:

58. Spare: EXTRA

63. GQ or EW: MAG. A magazine. "EW" is "Entertainment Weekly", and though "GQ" purports to be "Gentlemen's Quarterly", it's published monthly. I'm not sure the full name has been used since the mid 60's. and certainly not since 1970.

66. Lyft driver's ballpark fig.: E.T.A.

67. Café option: AU LAIT. Coffee with hot milk added. I'm not sure what would happen if you ordered coffee with cold milk in France, the entire world is quiet on the subject. Here's the hot version:

68. Real estate ad number: AREA

69. Anthem contraction: O'ER

70. "Hard to Stop" air conditioners: TRANES

71. Use one's outside voice: YELL

Down:

1. "The Good Place" Emmy nominee Rudolph: MAYA, Minnie Riperton's ("Loving You") daughter. Who knew? No me, I just looked her up.

2. In a trice: ANON. I'd rather go with "soon" than "in a trice". If I want something "anon", it's "soon" - not right now, but not next February, more when it's convenient for the giver. If I want something "in a trice", it's more demanding "now", "ASAP" or "STAT". Funny how the "now" words are very recent.

3. Poker choice: STUD. A variant of the gambling game. Most of what you see today is Texas Hold 'Em.

4. Keep out of sight: HIDE

5. Debussy's "La __": MER. An orchestral piece. It takes a little while to get going, so you can listen to it "anon". Actually, it's been playing for 15 minutes while i work my way down this blog, and it's never really ever got started. Not on my favorites list to this point.

6. Chancel feature: ALTAR

7. Tablet accessories: STYLI. They still exist, mostly in the electronic form to draw on your iPad or other "small, portable, electronic devices" as the airlines like to call them.

8. Chick with Grammys: COREA

9. Soothsayer: ORACLE

10. Little one: TOT

11. Circle lines: RADII. Bones, too.

12. Less approachable: ICIER

13. Started: BEGUN

18. Library ID: ISBN. What happened to the good old Dewey Decimal System? Do librarians still use it?

22. Hall of Fame Dodger manager Tommy: LA SORDA

24. Luau strings: UKES

25. Estée contemporary: COCO. Lauder. Chanel.

26. Mild cheese: EDAM. I tried BRIE first, all the time grumbling that it's not always mild. Then I was wrong, so I ungrumbled. (Degrumbled?)

27. Nursery rhyme trio: MICE. Not PIGS then. A lot of backspacing/wite-out today.

28. Frequent prank caller to Moe's Tavern: BART

29. Arctic garb: ANORAKS

33. Snacked, say: ATE

34. McBride of "Hawaii Five-0": CHI

35. Sailor's pronoun: HER. "Thar she blows!" and sundry other stuff.

37. Very little: A DAB

38. Market: SELL

39. Walnut or pecan: TREE

41. Bar mixer: SODA. Not on my bar. Tonic, please!

42. Round signal: BELL This is quite nice - the end of a round in a boxing contest, but alarm bells tend to be round too.

47. Like a band in a bus: ON TOUR. Jackson Browne's paean to his tour team, recorded across the street from where I used to live - at the BBC's Maida Vale studios. I often used to pop in on my way back from work to see what was going on, sadly I missed this session in the (very tiny) auditorium.

49. "The Sopranos" actor Robert: ILER

50. Brief appearance: CAMEO

51. Egg-shaped: OVATE. Darn, I confidently put OVOID and then backed off, letter by letter.

52. Cuban export: CIGAR

53. Street of mystery: DELLA

54. "Trumbo" Oscar nominee Cranston: BRYAN. More famous for "Breaking Bad", a title I have tried on numerous occasions to make into a crossword theme. Never got there!

55. Set free: UNTIE

59. CT scan component: X-RAY

60. Run out of gas: TIRE. People tire, cars stop. I had a Jaguar XJS which had a gas gauge that never worked (quelle surprise!) and I had to estimate when I needed to fill up based on the mileage since the last time I topped up the tank. Sure enough, I ran dry on the 134 freeway in Toluca Lake - directly on an overpass above a gas station. A quick scoot down the embankment, a gallon in a plastic can and I was on my way in about five minutes flat.

61. Traditional dance: REEL

62. Mostly depleted sea: ARAL

64. Party accessory: HAT

65. UFO passengers, supposedly: ET'S

A sad day for grammarians everywhere, the Apostrophe Protection Society has this week disbanded, saying that "ignorance and laziness have won".

D'oh! May the greengrocers' plural live forever.

Steve

Oh, sorry, here'res' the grid. I like posting grid's.

Thursday, November 28th 2019 Joseph Ashear

Theme: Black Thursday - discounts come early this year to the crossword:

20A. 2015 Marvel feature, after budget cuts: FANTASTIC THREE. I'm sure STAN Lee would have fought to preserve the four, in spite of the cuts.

29A. 1995 romantic comedy, after budget cuts: EIGHT MONTHS

39A. 2018 heist thriller, after budget cuts: OCEAN'S SEVEN. I think I'd have looked for an alternative to this theme entry, if possible. There are already four "genuine" numbered titles in the "Ocean's" film series (in release order, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen and Eight) so that this one doesn't seem at all incongruous or unlikely.

50A. 1957 courtroom drama, after budget cuts: ELEVEN ANGRY MEN

Well, hot on the heels of Joseph's debut that had a lot of us scratching our heads a couple of weeks ago, here's a second Thursday offering. This one was a nice Thanksgiving-morning solve, nothing too challenging and giving us all plenty of time to pay attention to the turkey in the oven!

On to the fill:

Across:

1. Headache feature: THROB

6. Report of a blowup?: BANG

10. More, in Madrid: MAS

13. Peter of Herman's Hermits: NOONE. Unlike the head-throb at 1A, Mr. Noone was something of a heart-throb. He could also clap like a champ.

14. Winds in a pit: OBOES

16. In the past: AGO

17. Away from the coast: TO SEA

18. "Counting Sheep" company: SERTA

19. Celestial sphere: ORB

23. Wee bits: IOTAS

24. Less stuffy: AIRIER

25. Historical capital of Bohemia: PRAGUE. Not Praha?

28. Federal IDs: S.S.N.'S

32. "The Shawshank Redemption" actor Robbins: TIM

35. Coagulate: CLOT

36. Arthur with Emmys: BEA

37. The Velvet Underground singer: NICO. A big grumble here, Nico was not a member of the band; she sang vocals on three tracks (at the behest of producer Andy Warhol) on the album named, tellingly, "The Velvet Underground and Nico". Lou Reed was the Velvet Underground's vocalist and 'twill ever be so.

38. Beer barrel: KEG

43. Rap fan: B-BOY. A breakdancer, or a "break boy". Apparently b-boys didn't like to be called breakdancers.

44. On the job: AT WORK

45. Lucille Ball's son: DESI JR. I'm not sure I knew there was a Desi Jr. but it didn't take long to figure out.

48. Beverage aisle array: SODAS. Not in my beverage aisle, unless you're talking about soda water or tonic.

54. Went for the worm: BIT

55. Avocado or plum: COLOR. 1970's bathroom fixtures. It was quite a selling point to be able to list a house with an "avocado suite" in the bathroom.

56. Bit of climbing gear: PITON

58. Submachine gun in action films: UZI

59. Léopard relative: TIGRÉ

60. Radii neighbors: ULNAE

61. Shade at the beach: TAN

62. They're worked with pull-ups and pull-downs: LATS

63. Lynx and Mercury: TEAMS. Minnesota and Phoenix, respectively, of the Women's NBA.

Down:

1. Wile E. Coyote supply: TNT.

2. Reindeer foot: HOOF

3. Parks of Alabama: ROSA

4. __ only: special performance alert: ONE NIGHT. Today's theme would have this as "No nights only".

5. Triumph over: BEAT OUT

6. __ nova: BOSSA. Tempted by SUPER, waited.

7. Helps in a heist: ABETS

8. Sushi seaweed: NORI. I'm eating some right now, great to snack on, you don't need to wrap anything in it, although my Auntie Miho's Spam Musubi rocks. I'll be eating some at Christmas.

9. Use an ATM: GET CASH. When I first went to Hong Kong, I stopped off to get cash at the HKSB ATM near my hotel in Kowloon and topped short - the keypad is upside down. It never really crossed my mind that I remembered my PIN from the pattern on the keys, not the numbers. I had to turn my head 180 degrees to get it right. You don't want to get your ATM card swallowed by a machine at midnight, wherever you are.

10. One of New Zealand's official languages: MAORI

11. Match: AGREE

12. Not lit: SOBER

15. Lustrous fabrics: SATINS

21. "Up and __!": AT 'EM. Not AWAY then! I got that wrong at first.

22. Appt. book blocks: HRS.

25. Two dry gallons: PECK. Ask Peter Piper. That's a lot of peppers to pick.

26. Irk: RILE

27. All aflutter: AGOG

28. Spider-Man co-creator Lee: STAN. With Artist-Writer Steve Ditko. Stan passed just a year ago, he had a remarkable career and legacy in the comic book world. If you come across the original comic book in great condition, you're looking at around $18,000.

30. Follow: OBEY

31. Cultural funding org.: N.E.A.

32. Pioneering DVR: TIVO

33. Pastry bag user: ICER. No, sorry. Why should a member of the Institute of Clinical and Economic Review need a pastry bag? Time to retire this fill.

34. Coltrane collaborator: MONK. John's jazz pianist chum Thelonious.

37. Phrase in cosmetic dentistry marketing: NEW SMILE

39. Take exception: OBJECT

40. Mazola product: CORN OIL

41. __ City: Baghdad suburb: SADR

42. Remain in place: STAY PUT

43. End of the rainbow mnemonic: BIV. Another fill for the dustbin. Really? Take three random letters and call them a word. Terrible. Take any three of ROYGBIV to suit your needs and off you go.

45. Run for the first time: DEBUT

46. Dushku of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": ELIZA. Thank you, crosses. Fortunately I didn't need to even look at this one, it was already filled in for me.

47. Take hold gradually: SET IN

48. Inelegant laugh: SNORT

49. Shrek and Fiona: OGRES

51. Fish tank growth: ALGA

52. One of Italy's trio of active volcanoes: ETNA

53. Linguist Chomsky: NOAM

57. Mario Bros. console: N.E.S. All Together Now "Nintendo Entertainment System".

Well, swiftly to the conclusion and a Happy Thanksgiving to all. Here's the grid, and I'll see you at the leftovers.

Steve

Thursday, November 21st, 2019 Brian E. Paquin

Theme: Brian's Brains provide six theme entries today, across and down, in each case the second word is an anagram of the first:

20A. Upscale boutique: POSH SHOP. Here's one, Saks on Fifth Avenue in New York.

33A. Old money that looks new: CRISP SCRIP. Scrip was money issued as wages that could only be spent in the company store. Surprisingly, the practice still partially continues - WalMart in Mexico was sued for paying part of their employee's wages with WalMart vouchers, and Amazon makes some bonus payments in Swagbucks.

40A. Small craft on the deep sea: OCEAN CANOE. I'd call this the least obvious anagram of the six today.

51A. Quarrel of yore: PAST SPAT

11D. Fear of poisonous snakes: ADDER DREAD. I was reading just this morning about trypophobia, the fear of clusters of holes and cracks.If you are not a sufferer, Google "lotus seed pods" to see a common trigger. If you are a trytophobic, you'll know what I'm talking about and you won't want to go looking.

28D. Outstanding prize money: SUPER PURSE

Brian has had a number of themeless Saturday puzzles published here in the LA Times, so a themed puzzle seems to represent something of a diversion for him. I rumbled the theme very quickly, I'd already filled the top-left corner, and SUNHATS, so POSH was already there. The first puzzles I began solving were the cryptic ones in the UK papers which are full of anagrams, so I tend to see them very quickly.

Let's see what the fill looks like.

Across:

1. Many big reds: CABS. I prefer a cab blend, I'm never particularly smitten with a single-varietal wine. One of the most well-regarded Napa "cabs", Screaming Eagle, is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Want a three-pack of the 2015 for the holidays? It'll set you back $10,000.

5. Namely: TO WIT

10. X-ray units: RADS

14. Honolulu happening: LUAU

15. Lacking significance: INANE

16. Music halls of old: ODEA

17. Directive on an env.: ATTN.

18. Play lightly, as a guitar: STRUM

19. Apt. part: BDRM.

22. Holden Caulfield's little sister: PHOEBE

24. Constellation near Scorpius: ARA. The more common (to me) naming of Scorpius is Scorpio, and that led me to believe that ARA was another word for Aries, another Zodiac constellation. It's not, it is "The Altar" in Latin.

25. Bookstore category: POETRY

26. Personal records: BESTS

29. Tire spec: PSI, properly Pound-force per Square Inch.

31. Divest (of): RID

32. Berkeley Breathed's cartoon penguin: OPUS.  Opus "retired" in 2008 and was one of my favorites in the Sunday funnies.

37. Bark: YIP

38. Handle: SEE TO. Handling a problem, seeing to it.

39. Purpose: END

43. Big fishhook: GAFF

44. Way to go: Abbr.: RTE.

45. He broke Lou's record for consecutive games played: CAL. The Oriole's shortstop Ripken Jr. broke Gehrig's record shortly after I moved here to the US. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about at the time; I know it sounds odd, but I'd never heard of him.

46. Accolades: KUDOS

47. Valedictorian's time to shine: SPEECH

49. Purpose: AIM

50. Liquids: FLUIDS

56. Work to get: EARN

57. In an aloof way: ICILY

59. Twice tri-: HEXA- As an old-school computer programmer, I used to be able to do hexadecimal (base 16) math in my head. Binary too. Then Hewlett-Packard threw octal into the mix and I got myself a calculator.

60. Exec's helper: ASST.

61. "Try someone else": NOT ME

62. Vienna-based oil gp.: O.P.E.C. Why Vienna? A lovely spot, but what's it got to do with exporting Petroleum?

63. "Luke Cage" actor Rossi: THEO. Thank you, crosses.

64. It helps raise dough: YEAST

65. Bridge position: EAST

Down:

1. Applaud: CLAP

2. Mercury or Saturn, but not Mars: AUTO

3. Cricket clubs: BATS

4. Summery headwear: SUNHATS

5. Campbell-Martin of TV's "Dr. Ken": TISHA

6. Aboard: ONTO

7. Lumber defect: WARP

8. Shiba __: Japanese dog: INU. The dogs can produce the "Shiba scream" when provoked or unhappy, or "a very similar sound" when very happy. Sounds confusing as heck.

9. Pace: TEMPO

10. Stiffly awkward: ROBOTIC

12. Churchill Downs event: DERBY

13. Unchanged: SAME

21. Some discount recipients: Abbr.: SRS. 

23. For madam: HERS

25. NBA great "__ Pete" Maravich: PISTOL. His college stats were mightily more impressive than his NBA record, good though it was.

26. Limerick lad: BOYO. The Irish use it as an affectionate term for a boy; the Welsh use it differently between adults, jocularly between friends, but it can be a pejorative if an older adult is addressed as "boyo". It's almost always derogatory if a non-Welsh person (especially an Englishman!) uses it to address a Welshman.

27. Herculean: EPIC

29. Say the Word: PREACH

30. School near Albany: SIENA

33. Trig function: Abbr.: CSC. Avoid the temptation to fill COS if you've only got the first "C" in place.

34. "The Raven" writer: POE

35. Facts and figures: INFO. "DATA" was an alternative, but one cross and the dilemma goes away.

36. Some emailed files: PDFS

41. Diminished slowly: ATE INTO

42. Shortage: NEED

43. Private eye: GUMSHOE

46. DIY purchase: KIT

47. Seriously reduce: SLASH

48. Forensic drama set in the Big Apple: CSI NY

49. To date: AS YET

50. Significant achievement: FEAT

51. Pocket bread: PITA

52. Donation to the poor: ALMS. Interesting noun, it's both the singular and plural form, and I've never seen it used with an article. You give "alms", you don't give "the alms".

53. Rap's Salt-N-__: PEPA

54. Hacking tools: AXES

55. Peacemaker's asset: TACT

58. Olympic runner Sebastian: COE. Now Lord Coe, Seb had a long-standing middle-distance battle with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram for supremacy in the 800m and 1500m events.

I think that's about it from me. If you're wondering what to bring for Thanksgiving, a case of the Screaming Eagle would go down very nicely, thank you.

Steve

Thursday, November 14th 2019 Joseph Ashear

Theme: Countdown

Be careful what you wish for! Last week I said I'd like to leave the circles out of  the puzzle and let us go theme-hunting on our own, this week was a Snark-hunting exercise of the highest order!

"'But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,

   If your Snark be a Boojum! For then

You will softly and suddenly vanish away,

   And never be met with again!'"

I was bothered when I'd completed the puzzle - I saw that the theme entries were clued with a similar structure, they were all game-related, but ... what was I missing? The theme entries ran north-south and not the customary west-east, and with no real need to do so - no above/below clues, no up/down, what was I missing? I went anagram-hunting, I looked at the placement of the theme entries, I read the entries upwards and downwards - what was it? What was I missing?

Then the penny dropped, and my blog title gives an additional clue.

I think this is Joseph's debut across all the major publications, so congratulations on that. Two first-timers in a row for LAT Thursdays, here's to many more if they bring puzzles of this quality.

Let's go look at the theme entries and the fill, and if you missed the hidden unifier, I'll "reveal" at the bottom.

6D ... in a board game: CLUE WEAPONS. "Clue" murders tend towards the gruesome blunt-force trauma end of the scale. You can be shot or stabbed, but then you get wrenched, candlesticked, lead piped or - blessfully - hanged. It's all very messy. Give me murdered by anyone, in the Library (reading a book) with the revolver. I'm not keen on being beaten to death with a wrench in the hall by the cook. It just seems very - unseemly.

10D. ... in a ball game: BOWLING PINS. Boomer gets this in a heartbeat. He's not doing so well right now, a Corner shout-out to him. We're rooting for you.

24D. ... on a game mat: TWISTER DOTS. Big dots. Can you name the colors?

25D. ... on a game card: BINGO SPACES. We played Bingo in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. What a fun game! We won $160 too, so nothing not to like! I've lost that in two minutes playing Craps on the Strip. Live and learn.

Still theme-challenged? Mull it over awhile while (!) we go and look at the fill.

Across:

1. Co. with brown trucks: U.P.S. My brother is a UPS driver in the UK, he'd be getting ready for the busy Christmas period but sadly is laid up post-surgery at home this year. Get well, Bruv!

4. Fearsome Tolkien beasts: ORCS

8. Run off at the mouth: BABBLE. Testing the waters with an unruly mob who can't keep quiet? Dabbling with a babbling rabble.

14. New Deal prog.: N.R.A.

15. Guthrie genre: FOLK

16. Unprincipled: AMORAL

17. Rapper __-Z: JAY

18. Fireplace outlet: FLUE

19. Accompany: GO WITH

20. Yellowfin tuna: AHI

21. Great quantity: SLEW

22. Highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history: PELOSI. A name in the news, a couple of these topical entries today.

23. McConaughey of "True Detective": MATTHEW

25. Nickname for Israel's Netanyahu: BIBI. New to me, thank you, crosses.

26. Sported: WORE

27. Beach in a 1964 hit song: IPANEMA. We chatted about Ipanema Beach a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure I'd get in the water there though. I've seen the outfalls.

31. Start of a Poitier film title: TO SIR, With Love. Sidney teaching at an inner-city comprehensive school in east London.

34. Author/aviator __ Morrow Lindbergh: ANNE

36. Film crew member: GRIP

37. V-formation flier: GOOSE

38. '90s game disc: POG

39. Pipe up: OPINE

40. __ the finish: IN AT

41. Snapchat's ghost, e.g.: LOGO. And here's a very famous logo ....

42. Shoes with swooshes: NIKES. There's currently an investigation by the "International Athletics something-or-other We're Here for your Benefit and our Fat Salaries Committee Federation" aimed at banning certain Nike shoes because they're "too good". Simple solution - everyone runs barefoot. There, I just saved us all millions. You're welcome.

43. Color from a bottle: FAKE TAN

45. British WWII gun: STEN. According to the people tasked with firing the weapon, more dangerous to the user than the intended target, they had a habit of blowing up. I hauled around a Bren gun as an army reservist for a while, then I got my sniper's badge and they gave me a much lighter deliverer of doom, which thankfully I never had to actually use in anger. On the range, it was pretty accurate - I think my best was an 8" grouping of six rounds at 300 yards. The range was in a rural setting in Cornwall with sheep grazing the adjacent fields. We were informed in no uncertain terms that picking off an unsuspecting future leg of lamb would NOT BE TOLERATED!

47. Magician Weasley and anchorman Burgundy: RONS. Hmmm, I think Ron Weasley might turn you into a toad or a Ford Anglia if you described him as a "magician". Harry Potter's chum is a wizard, there's a significant difference, I'd say.

48. Have: POSSESS

52. Like some wedding photos: CANDID. With the advent of camera phones, there are now many more candid photos than "official" ones.

55. Hook or Cook: Abbr.: CAPT. 

56. Quid pro __: QUO. "In the news" phrase at the moment. I'm not sure why, it just rings a bell.

57. Maryland state bird, e.g.: ORIOLE

58. Dos cubed: OCHO

59. Lines at a checkout counter?: UPC, The bar code that you scan when you (increasingly) self-check your stuff.

60. Money maker: MINTER

61. Not nice at all: MEAN

62. Bother a great deal: IRK

63. Great times: BLASTS

64. Uruguay's Punta del __: ESTE. Home of the sculpture "La Mano".

65. __ de deux: PAS. A ballet term when two dancers perform identical steps together. What's the plural? The same as the singular. I'd have gone for "pas des deuxes" and lost all my money on "Jeopardy".

Down:

1. Clear, as a printer: UNJAM.

2. Czech Republic capital, to Czechs: PRAHA. "The City of  a Hundred Spires". The much lesser-known name is the westernized "Prague". I'm not sure how many people have heard of Prague, though. The famous Athletic Club Sparta Praha play that well-known sport "Fotbal".

3. "Don't beat around the bush!": SAY IT! OK, I'll say it - "PRAHA"? Really? Worst fill of the day.

4. A bit out in the ocean: OFFSHORE

5. Painter's tool: ROLLER

7. Present in a biased way: SKEW

8. Reed instrument: BAGPIPE. Singular/plural conundrum for me. I always use the plural "a set of bagpipes" or "she plays the bagpipes". One bagpipe? "Bagpipe music". While we're on the subject, can I plead with any bagpipe band not to play "Scotland the Brave" on St. Patrick's Day? It's really annoying

9. Pond protozoan: AMOEBA. I'll give you this as I prefer it to "AMEBA", but really the OE is a dipthong, so one letter, not two.

11. Gusto: BRIO

12. Back muscles, briefly: LATS

13. K-12 appropriate: EL-HI

28. Actor Estrada: ERIK

29. "Dibs!": MINE!

30. Long-limbed beasts: APES

31. "So ready for the weekend!": TGIF!

32. Chaplin named for her grandmother: OONA

33. Relax in the hot tub: SOAK

35. Yuletide libation: NOG. Why do we (not me) only drink egg nog at Christmas? It's a pretty horrible idea in the first place, but to reserve it for an ostensibly happy period is clearly strange.

39. 14 British pounds: ONE STONE. No, 14 pounds in any country is a British stone. Unlike the fact that 16 oz is usually an imperial pint, except in Britain, where you get 20 oz to your pint. You've got to admire those pint-swilling Brits. And then they sell petrol in litres, the temperatures are now in centigrade, the weight measures are in grams, but the distances are still in miles. Someone needs to have a quiet word regarding "standardization" with that lot over there. And drive on the right, while you're about it. Honestly, some people.

41. Big name in advice: LANDERS

44. __ training: TOILET. Another jolly British word.

46. Tails partner: TOP HAT, along with a white tie.

49. Furnish with gear: EQUIP

50. Sporty Toyota until 2002: SUPRA

51. Laundry day casualties: SOCKS. I've got a singleton on my dresser right now. What is it with socks?

52. Rooster topper: COMB

53. Seed covering: ARIL

54. Jazz singer Simone: NINA. It's a little late for a music link, but no matter. Here's one of my favorites. Too good to waste.

55. Show up: COME

And now we come to the denouement.

So what is it with the theme? When bloggers quote the theme entries, the tradition is to add the "A" or "D" to the number to identify whether we're talking about the across or the down entry, as I did at the top of the page. Let's see what happens if we take the first theme entry, identify it by the number only and eliminate the ellipses:

"6 in a board game". Six Clue Weapons.

and the next:

"10 in a ball game". Ten Bowling Pins ...

... and so we go. The number of the theme entry in the grid describes the solution. There are 24 dots on a Twister mat, 25 spaces on a bingo card. Very neat!

The reason the theme entries are in the downs is because you can't cram them in the acrosses - you'd be four of them into the puzzle before you even got halfway-down the grid, and facing an impossible constructing task.

So here's the grid, hats off to Joseph, and I'll be on my way.

Steve

Thursday, November 7th 2019 Sean Biggins

Theme: Divided we stand - united we fall? The reveal tell us what to look for:

59A. Politically diverse ballot ... and an apt description of each set of puzzle circles: SPLIT TICKET

The tickets that we find within the circled squares are, in order, SEASON, LIFT, GOLDEN, PARKING and MEAL, all split across two entries, just as the reveal tells us. As the "ticket" entries are each on a single line and separated by only one black square, I don't think it would be impossible to find them without the help of the circles, in fact I think I'd prefer if the circles weren't there and we were left to our own treasure-hunt devices.

No matter, the puzzle was a nice smooth solve. This seems to be the LA Times debut for Sean. He first blipped the cruciberb radar in the NYT back in January of this year, so congratulations on this first appearance in the LAT.

Without more ado, let's see what else we've got to talk about:

Across:

1. Astrological Ram: ARIES

6. Cleans out badly?: ROBS

10. __-pitch softball: SLO

13. Dry up: PARCH

14. Old photo hue: SEPIA. Not just old photographs. Sepia toning is used to give monochrome photographs a warmer tone, and also to increase their shelf-life in archives - the metallic silver in the print is converted to much-more-stable silver sulphide. Sodium sulphide was traditionally used, which has the unfortunate property of smelling like rotten eggs. You have to feel sympathy for the dark-room technician.

15. Equivocate: HEM. I'd call this a partial equivocation, can you hem without hawing, or haw without hemming? We should be told.

16. International waters: THE HIGH SEAS. I like this phrase. It really is an official designation in maritime law, being the open ocean not part of the territorial waters of any nation. When I was a kid it always conjured up pictures of decks awash with stormy waters, scurvied deckhands lashing down unruly sails and piratical ne'er-do-wells scavenging for treasure ships. Quite poetical, but the legal definition ignores all this.

18. Scrabble vowel value: ONE

19. Focus of a modern crisis: OPIOIDS. I tried OPIATES first, but then relatively quickly corrected myself.

20. Branch bit: TWIG

21. "The Persistence of Memory" artist: DALI. I think most of us call this work "The Melting Clocks". It can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dali described the clocks as "the camembert of time". I love the description. If you've ever watched a mature camembert slowly spread across the cheese board, you'll know exactly what he meant.

24. Teleflora rival: FTD. These folk popped up a couple of weeks ago.

25. Ice Capades setting: ARENA. My friend Richard Dwyer "Mr. Debonair" skated with the Ice Follies and the Ice Capades. He made his debut in 1950 when he was 14 and still skates today!

26. Word with string or sing: ALONG

28. Washington post: SENATOR. Nice clue.

31. Ulaanbaatar native: MONGOL. One of my high school friends quit her fledgling career in the Foreign Office when they tried to post her to Mongolia. She wasn't thrilled with the prospect, Paris, Milan or New York would have been more her style.

33. One concerned with bites: DENTIST

35. South of France?: SUD. I used to buy the newspaper "Sud Ouest" when I was on vacation in the south of France to improve my vocabulary. I learned a lot of sports-related words!

36. Trifling amount: SOU. More French. Originally any small coin of low denomination.

38. Former NBA exec Jackson: STU

39. "Dumbo" (2019) director Burton: TIM. This movie got terrible reviews, I don't think I'll be checking it out any time soon (ever!).

41. Off-leash play area: DOG PARK. There's a lot here in LA. One of my friends met his future wife at one when their dogs became acquainted.

44. Like many courtside interviews: IN-GAME

46. Pine detritus: NEEDLES

48. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS

49. "Mad About You" daughter: MABEL

51. __ Zion Church: AME. WAG'ed this one, almost a personal natick with the crossing of KEATING, I didn't know either.

53. Actor Alan: ALDA

54. Runs: AIRS. TV shows.

55. Audit: SIT IN ON

58. Holstein sound: MOO. The holstein friesian dairy cow has the distinctive black-and-white coloring.

63. New Haven alum: ELI

64. L.L.Bean headquarters locale: MAINE

65. River in some Renoir paintings: SEINE

66. "Voices Carry" pop group __ Tuesday: TIL. Who? I YouTubed this, and of course I knew the song, I just didn't know the name of the group, the singer nor the title. Very '80's. Here's the link if you're interested.

67. Unaccompanied: STAG

68. Lauder of cosmetics: ESTÉE

Down:

1. Fitting: APT

2. Root word?: RAH. Another nice clue. Rah! Go Team!

3. Hot temper: IRE

4. Bouncing off the walls: ECHOING

5. Castaway's salvation: SHIP. Do you remember the screensaver that was all the rage in the early 90's? Johnny Castaway was never rescued.

6. Lived: RESIDED

7. Slanted page: OP-ED

8. Slant: BIAS

9. KLM rival: SAS. Scandinavian Airline System to give it its full name. Easier to remember than Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, that's for sure.

10. Locker room feature: SHOWER STALL

11. Red Square honoree: LENIN

12. Luxury watch: OMEGA

14. They're poured at bars: SHOTS

17. Many an animated Twitter pic: GIF

20. Picard's counselor: TROI. Two characters in the "Star Trek" franchise. I'd heard of Picard, not Troi, I'm not a Trekkie. Thank you, crosses.

21. Stops up: DAMS

22. Vocally: ALOUD

23. Marinated beef dish: LONDON BROIL Like our friend the English Horn last week, London Broil doesn't come from the other side of the pond.

25. Harmonize: ATTUNE

27. Grammy category: GOSPEL

29. Game console letters: N.E.S. Altogether now - Nintendo Entertainment System.

30. Member of the opposition: ANTI

32. Attachment to a car or a boat?: LOAD. Or a bus, or a coach, or a plane, or a train, or a wagon, or ... you get the idea.

34. Shy: TIMID

37. Result of Googling: URL

40. Natural table: MESA

42. Heist units: GEES. Not my favorite, this one. I'd write it as "G's", but I guess it suits the purpose here.

43. "How to Get Away With Murder" lawyer Annalise: KEATING. I learn she's a fictional character on a show that I'd never heard of. Tough cross for me with AME as I mentioned earlier.

45. Quick looks: GLANCES

47. Clobber, biblically: SMITE. Also British slang for clothing, so biblical clobber might be "Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". Except this isn't a British crossword, and it doesn't fit. OK, moving right along ...

49. "Glengarry Glen Ross" playwright: MAMET. My daughter handled the publicity for the 2017 London revival featuring Christan Slater. Did I get tickets comp'ed? Not a chance, it was a sell-out.

50. Garlicky spread: AÏOLI. There's a subtle difference between this and garlic mayonnaise. Aïoli uses olive oil. If you try making mayo with olive oil using a blender you'll get a nasty bitter taste, the blender breaks the olive oil down into its sour-tasting components. I've done it. Ergo, you can't make traditional aïoli using a blender.

52. Tonsillitis-treating doc: E.N.T.

55. Row: SPAT

56. Parts of hips: ILIA

57. 65-Across feeder: OISE

59. Texting format, briefly: SMS. Simple Messaging System, remember?

60. Set for assembly: KIT

61. Dallas-to-Memphis dir.: E.N.E.

62. Simple top: TEE

And here's a simple tail - the grid!

Steve

Thursday, October 31st 2019 David Alfred Bywaters

Theme: Tricky Treats - Five punny theme entries in keeping with tonight's scare-fest:

18A. Halloween feeling in a warren?: RABBIT FEARS. Rabbit ears. I thought these antennae had gone the way of the dodo, but recently people who are jettisoning cable TV are using digital antennae to pick up the local free-to-air stations.

24A. Halloween feeling near a water supply?: WELL DREAD. Well-read loses its hyphen for the theme entry.

39A. Halloween feeling in the office?: CLERICAL TERRORS. Clerks make clerical errors. Fire-and-brimstone-preaching priests are clerical terrors with their Sunday sermons.

54A. Halloween feeling in the yard?: LAWN SCARE. The lawns around here are scary, my neighborhood goes all-in at Hallowe'en. They're generally pretty cared-for too, so that's a two-fer for me today.

62A. Halloween feeling in the loo?: FLUSH FRIGHT. Flush right, otherwise known as right-justified, in typographic alignment terms (in case you were wondering as I was!)

Fright-night theme from David today, and he didn't scare us too badly with terrible puns (an occupational hazard as a crossword constructor!) I thought this was fun, once I tumbled to the theme it was entertaining finding the others. A quick solve for me for a Thursday, and not a lot to make me POUT. Let's find and go seek ....

Across:

1. Spot for a salt scrub: SPA ... where you will doubtless be exposed to the aroma of ...

4. Aromatic evergreen: BALSAM

10. Wind with nearly a three-octave range: OBOE. I know pretty much nothing about orchestral woodwind instruments, but it's the only four-letter one, so not a tough fill no matter how you clue it. Its cousin is the English Horn, which isn't English, and isn't a horn. Makes sense, right?

14. Fresh from the oven: HOT

15. Collection of hives: APIARY. A honey farm, if you will.

16. Sullen look: POUT

17. Track: RUT

20. Buffalo lake: ERIE

22. Like the vb. "go": IRR. Irregular. It seems like most verbs in the English language are irregular.

23. Belly laugh syllable: HAR. I don't think I belly laugh. I chuckle mostly, and I have cried laughing which mostly involves snorting when you can draw breath. I'm not sure how you spell a chuckle or a snort-laugh.

27. Valleys: DALES

31. "Take Care" Grammy winner: DRAKE.  A very melodic rapper is Drake. Here's the "Take Care" video, featuring Rihanna, from 2012. 300 million+ views on YouTube.

32. "We've waited long enough": IT'S TIME

34. Bebe's "Frasier" role: LILITH. Speaking of Grammy winners, what happened to the Lilith Fair?

38. Overlook: OMIT

44. Enjoy privileged status: RATE

45. Poise: APLOMB

46. It may get the ball rolling: INCLINE. Or the car, which is a lot less fun.

48. Trio in "To be, or not to be": IAMBS. This "Hamlet" snippet is an example of iambic trimeter, three iambs forming the line.

53. "Borstal Boy" author Brendan: BEHAN. This might be a little obscure for some; A youth member of the IRA, Behan was jailed at 16 after being arrested in possession of explosives while on a solo mission to bomb Liverpool docks. The "Borstals" were part of the system of youth detention centers in the UK. I re-read the book a few months ago after many years. The Borstal experience described seemed almost quaint compared to today.

58. Angel dust, initially: PCP. The street name for the hallucinogen phencyclidine. How do I know this? The movie "Trading Places" with Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. Honestly, officer.

60. "You wish, laddie!": NAE!

61. Put out: EMIT

67. Summer hrs. in Denver: MDT. There's a slow-burning move to abolish Daylight Savings time here in California. Prop Seven passed in 2018 to begin the process to allow law-makers to progress the initiative.

68. Stood: ROSE

69. Paparazzo's gear: CAMERA

70. Mature: AGE. The verb form.

71. Lumberjacks' tools: AXES. Ox, Oxen. Ax (or axe!) Axes. How the heck anyone learns English as a foreign language is beyond me.

72. Gave it more gas: SPED UP

73. Finch family creator: LEE. To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper.

Down:

1. Astute: SHREWD

2. Bartender, often: POURER

3. Fifth-century conqueror: ATTILA

4. Soap unit: BAR

5. Two (of): A PAIR

6. Cuba __: LIBRE. Rum, cola and a squeeze of lime. "Free Cuba" was the slogan of the Cuban independence movement in the Spanish-American war.

7. Brand of hummus and guacamole: SABRA. There's about a billion different flavors of hummus now. When I make it, I stick to the basics - garbanzo beans (dried, not canned), garlic, lemon juice and tahini, a pinch of cumin; I serve it drizzled with some olive oil and a sprinkling of ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend. I love hummus, when I make it it nets out at about 3 lbs a batch. Here's some that I made on Sunday. The green dab is zhoug, a middle-eastern blend of cilantro, chili and spices.

OK, let's get back to the crossword!

8. Actor Millen of "Orphan Black": ARI. Thank you, crosses.

9. Folk story: MYTH

10. Wheeler-dealer: OPERATOR

11. Feathery neckwear: BOA

12. CSNY's "__ House": OUR. Cute song written by Graham Nash while he was living with Joni Mitchell and later recorded by the band.

13. Many "Guardians of the Galaxy" characters: E.T.'S. I have to confess I have no idea how to punctuate plurals of acronyms which include periods. That's my best shot above.

19. Latest things: FADS

21. Rockies bugler: ELK. I didn't know that elk bugled, a learning moment for me today. The elk mating call is termed a "bugle". Who knew? Not me.

25. Sandwich source: DELI

26. "Same here": DITTO

28. Vehicle with a partition: LIMO

29. Mideast potentate: EMIR

30. Slowly sinks from the sky: SETS. When I visited Malawi in Africa, which is very close to the equator, the sun seemed to set in about five minutes flat.

33. Those folks: THEM

35. Confident words: I CAN

36. Suit part sometimes grabbed: LAPEL. I think you have to grab them both at the same time, right?

37. Unhealthy: ILL

39. Nursery piece: CRIB

40. Narrow way: LANE. We visited the famous lane in Liverpool a couple of years ago. Every road in England is narrow, even the new ones. Driving is a heck of a lot of fun when you have to choose between sideswiping the oncoming tour bus or scraping the wall (or the pedestrians!)

41. Engrave: ETCH

42. Backslides: RELAPSES

43. Hitting stat: RBI'S. Runs Batted In, now a word in itself, not necessarily an abbreviation.

47. Advance slowly: INCH

49. Big club: ACE. Handy when playing 51D.

50. Koala, for example: MAMMAL

51. Game based on whist: BRIDGE

52. Living room piece: SETTEE. Originally, the settee, couch and sofa where quite distinct items of furniture, but nowadays they've all come to mean the same thing. It used to be an indication of social class back in the UK (less so today) which word you used.

55. Japanese art genre: ANIME

56. Carried on: WAGED

57. Big name in Indian politics: NEHRU. The first Prime Minister of India following independence from the British in 1947.

59. Some GIs: PFC'S

62. Monk's address: FRA. "Fra" is sometimes thought to be an abbreviation - it's not - it's derived from the Italian for "brother". The monk and painter of the early renaissance, Fra Angelico, translates as "the angelic brother". Like any Italian renaissance artist worth his salt, he painted on the walls of the Vatican. It must have been difficult to find elbow room in there.

63. Cured salmon: LOX

64. Employ: USE

65. 31-Across genre: RAP

66. Covert information source: TAP. With fewer and fewer landlines, the wire tap is going virtual, eavesdropping on cellphone conversations and hacking into IP networks.

And with that, I'm tapping out! Stay safe this Hallowe'en, and be careful if you're driving after dusk, the kids don't stop to think when they run across the road to the next "Trick or Treat" target house.

Steve

Thursday, October 24th 2019 Christoper Adams

Theme: Acronym Antics - the revealing acronym tells us what ties the theme entries together, to whit:

66A. Bottomless buffet acronym spelled out by the ends of 17-, 31-, 43- and 60-Across: A.Y.C.E.

So we go back and find:

17A. "Are we done here?": IS THAT ALL?

31A. "Tsk tsk": SHAME ON YOU

43A. "Might be able to help": I THINK I CAN

60A. "Not hungry, but not not hungry either": I COULD EAT

I'm super-conflicted about this puzzle - on the one hand, the fill was wonderful - modern cultural references, unusual but great words, fresh clues for old chestnuts - "A"'s all around. And then we get to the theme. I just thought it was a lot less than lackluster - the theme words were, well, the same as the theme words. The "ALL YOU CAN EAT" reveal has theme entries which end in the same word, with the same part of speech or definition. It was all just "meh". I'd have preferred the theme entries to end with those letters, not with that word. In fact, almost to point up the example, I COULD EAT has CAR SEAT directly above it. I'd call that out as bad anyway, but it served a purpose to make my point.

I've been binge-watching "The Great British Bake-Off" recently, so in the words of one of the judges who, while always critical, looks for the positive "Your flavors were great, but it looked terrible".

Let's trot smartly along and look at the sparkle:

Across:

1. Dermatology issue: CYST. ACNE went in, ACNE came out. What did I say about being too impulsive?

5. Sources of foreign aid?: AU PAIRS. Great clue. I fondly remember Jette, a Danish au pair I dated in London so many moons ago the moon was still young.

12. Learned: HEARD. "So I heard".

14. Sacagawea's people: SHOSHONE. Nailed it! Getting better at American history. Sure taken long enough!

16. Aquarium growth: ALGAE

19. Rio neighborhood of song: IPANEMA. I've been fortunate to visit Ipanema. I walked by the beach, and ate a snack of grilled chicken hearts with a mid-morning beer. It was the weekend, in my defense, but I do enjoy the Brazilian vibe.

21. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" writer David: SEDARIS. Great author, not to everyone's taste.

22. Takes turns?: SPINS. Spins around, turns around.

24. Coarse cloth: TWEED

25. When an early voyage may start: AT DAWN. On the morning tide.

28. Metal giant: ALCOA. Aluminum/Aluminium. Spell-check likes them both, to my delight.

33. Harsh cry: YAWP. Great fill. Could be many things, YELP disqualified because of 2D, but what a great word. This one made my Word of the Day list.

37. Light touch: PAT

38. Chocolate treat: BROWNIE. Are all brownies chocolate? A question I've never asked myself, I suppose they are.

40. Letter before sigma: RHO

41. __ song: SWAN

45. "... let's play two!" ballplayer Banks: ERNIE. The Cubs' legend was a journalist's dream for quotes, this one:

"It's a beautiful day for a baseball game, let's play two!" and this after he retired from playing a game he loved: "I've never worked a day in my life". What a great man. Banks was named to the CTA board in 1969 and said "For one thing, I want to make sure that the "E" always stops at Wrigley".

47. Set of chromosomes: GENOME

48. Avalanche: SPATE. I see a spate as a minor avalanche. From the same family though.

51. Din: NOISE

53. Traveling tot's spot: CAR SEAT

56. Sounded indignant: SNORTED. You can snort when you laugh, snort when you're indignant, or snort when you're an overpaid bond trader. We'll leave that one alone.

62. Of service: UTILE. I wish this word was "utilized" more often. It's so elegant.

63. A-ha hit that won six MTV Video Music Awards: TAKE ON ME

64. Assisted through difficulty, with "over": TIDED

65. Macy's logo feature: RED STAR. Also a Serbian soccer team with a great history. "Red Star Belgrade" in English, "FK Crvena zvezda" in their native tongue. Hard to see how to get one from the other.

Down:

1. Tazo choice: CHAI

2. App with many pans: YELP

3. "Star Wars," for one: SAGA

4. Classic Pontiac: TRANS-AM

5. Malay or Mongol: ASIAN

6. Stammering syllables: UHS. Hesitant syllables, yes, stammering? No. I stammered quite terribly as a child and a teen, I couldn't make a phone call until I was in my early 20's. I found my own answer, but watching "The King's Speech" was difficult.

7. Kettles and kitties: POTS. "Kitties" had me wondering, then - Oh! The ante in a poker game - pay into the kitty, or the pot.

8. Second African-American inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame: ASHE. Pop quiz - who was the first?*

9. "There was no other choice": I HAD TO. 

10. Disintegrate, as old wood: ROT AWAY. Fresh, nice fill.

11. Drum kit item: SNARE

13. Area that's hard to find while surfing?: DEEP WEB. You'll never find it while you're surfing. The parallel universe of the internet.

15. "A Jew Today" writer Wiesel: ELIE

18. Trip letters: LSD. Leave by Saturday Dinnertime? No, not quite.

20. Study on the side: MINOR IN. The verb, not the noun. I was a little stumped by this one. I got MINOR through crosses, then tried to see what would slot in the last two squares.

23. Pouring instruction: SAY WHEN. Don't ask me that.

25. Well of Souls threats in "Raiders of the Lost Ark": ASPS. Yay! Not a "Nile biter". Huzzah for Indiana Jones!

26. Soften: THAW

27. Info: DATA

29. Actress Anderson: LONI

30. Bringing up to speed: CUING IN. I think this is wrong. If I was bringing someone up to speed, I'd "clue them in". If I was marking their entrance, I'd "cue them in",

32. Formal "It wasn't me": NOT I

34. With the bow, in music: ARCO. Cheap gas in SoCal, that's how I remember this one.

35. "Pow!" relative: WHAM

36. Fried Dixie bread: PONE

39. Just makes: EKES OUT

42. Kimono sash ornament: NETSUKE. A lovely word. A storage purse which hung from the obi which evolved into a highly-decorative item. I know a Japanese lady who has a beautiful scrimshaw netsuke hard-carved around 150 years ago.

44. Subject of Newton's first law: INERTIA

46. Nearly fell: REELED. You reel from a punch, but don't go down.

48. Poli __: SCI. I was wondering about this the other day - what is the curriculum for Political Science? It seems to me to be more of an art form. I need to read up on it.

49. Agreement: PACT

50. Like a cheering crowd: AROAR

52. JusSimple juicer maker: OSTER. I will remember this brand until the day I day. I think I told you before, I dropped an Oster blender jug and tried to cushion the impact on my tile kitchen floor with my bare foot. The result? The jug bounced off my foot, cracked a toe and shattered anyway when it hit the floor. I was picking up shards of glass for days.

54. Foofaraws: ADOS

55. Camping gear: TENT

57. Orderly: TIDY

58. Power co. output: ELEC. Least favorite fill of the day.

59. "__ Dinah": Frankie Avalon hit: DEDE

61. Doc's org.: A.M.A.

And so to close, to sleep, to dream. Here's the grid!

Steve

Thursday, October 17th 2019 Susan Gelfand

Theme: Times Four - four types of journalism you might find in your local newspaper:

20A. Article about life jackets?: SAFETY FEATURE. "In the unlikely event of a water landing ...." I love the euphemistic take on the ditching in the water thing, although "Sully" did a pretty good job on the Hudson.

31A. Article about a European language?: GREEK COLUMN. Your choice of three styles - Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. Here's the famous Parthenon Temple in Athens, with Doric columns to the fore.

The facade looked a lot better before Lord Elgin hacked the marble frieze off the front and took them back to England with him. The British Museum, where they are kept, are reluctant to give them back.

41A. Article about crosswords?: PUZZLE PIECE. Blog about crosswords? Right here.

55A. Article about a dessert?: ICE-CREAM SCOOP. I use a spoon, no need for a specialized tool. I don't eat a lot of ice cream, and I don't have to serve four scoops a minute like they do in my local gelato store.

Not a pun-itive puzzle from Susan; as I've said before I'm always a little nervous when I see the "?" clues, as the puns can be awful, but these didn't cause any toe-curls. The fill has a couple of clangers in there though, there's no denying that ENHALO and ACERS should forthwith be cast into the Slough of Despond, never to be seen again.

Across:

1. Quick blows: JABS

5. In need of a massage: ACHY

9. "Back to the Future" surname: MCFLY

14. Kitchen topper: OLEO. Do you top something with margarine in the kitchen? Maybe.

15. Repeatable toy vehicle sound: CHOO. Childish pâtisserie? Choo Pastry.

16. Pine or Rock: CHRIS. Nice clue. Do I know Chris Pine? I don't watch Star Trek reboots which apparently is what he's famous for.

17. Duo in the news: ITEM. Could have been one of the theme entries if you could come up with a word to prefix "ITEM".

18. Pushed the bell: RANG

19. Fountain pen precursor: QUILL

23. Whirl, so to speak: TRY. Giving it the old college whirl. Funny how some word substitutions just don't work.

24. Brewed beverages: ALES

25. Didn't let renege on: HELD TO

28. Chi follower: PSI. Second Greek reference today.

29. Bumbler: BEE. "Bumble", according to the Shorter Oxford English dictionary means "to hum, buzz, drone, or move ineptly or flounderingly." Sounds like me on a bad day.

30. Steal from: ROB

36. Serpent suffix: -INE. The first of three suffixes in the "across" section today, I think that's a little excessive. The Serpentine (pronounced "Serpen-tine") is a lake in London's Hyde park fed originally by two now-lost rivers, the Westbourne and the Tyburn. I swam 1,000 meters in there once competing in a biathlon. It was best to try to ignore the Canada goose-poop on the banks.

37. Latest thing: RAGE. Why "all the rage" and not just "the rage?" We should be told.

38. Monet medium: OIL. Money medium: OIL. Have you seen the gas prices?

39. CBS military series: NCIS. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

40. Texter's "Yikes!": OMG!

45. Solemn assurance: VOW

46. Word ending for enzymes: -ASE

47. Deli delicacy: LOX. Can you still get genuine lox (salted salmon) in a deli any more?

48. Surround, as with a glow: ENHALO. Begone.

50. Cherokee on the road: JEEP

52. Dude: BRO

58. Choral work: MOTET. Why did I knee-jerk OCTET? I should show restraint.

60. Small addition?: -ETTE

61. Honey haven: HIVE. Nice alliteration.

62. Ward off: AVERT

63. School near Windsor: ETON. Windsor couldn't be much closer to the school, pop down the High Street and walk across the bridge and you're there, two minutes, tops. Turn left for the Mango Lounge, a great Indian restaurant.

64. __-friendly: USER

65. Entourage: POSSE

66. "The Metaphysics of Morals" writer: KANT. He had enemies. "Immanuel? I just kan't stand that chap".

67. Cubs spring training city: MESA. If you say so - and so it is:

Down:

1. Support beam: JOIST

2. Destination for a wedding: ALTAR

3. Like many wrestlers: BEEFY

4. Unspecified amount: SOME. Let's enjoy a course in Advanced Mathematics with Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in "Blackadder".

5. Nail salon material: ACRYLIC

6. Irritate: CHAFE

7. Sharpens: HONES

8. Class with mats: YOGA

9. "12 Years a Slave" director Steve: MCQUEEN. No idea, but MC led me to the answer without any trouble.

10. Boor: CHURL. Nice thought-provoking moment - we've all (?) heard of being "churlish", but I'd not considered there was a noun form.

11. Panda Express staple: FRIED RICE. If you're going to fry rice, steam it and let it get cold before it hits the wok.

12. Short short?: LIL'

13. Designer monogram: YSL

21. Assignment: TASK

22. Classic 1954 horror film about giant ants: THEM. Produced by Warner Bros. using specially-trained giant ants on the Burbank studio backlot:

26. Vodka __: TONIC. And a squeeze of lime, please.

27. More than a bit heavy: OBESE

28. Middle of Tripoli?: PEE. The "P" in the middle.

29. One advocating buying: BULL. Wall Street market-speak. The bronze of the bull on Wall Street comes in for a lot of attention. Let's just say one part of the sculpture is shinier than the rest.

31. Trees of a kind, often: GROVE

32. San __, city near San Francisco: RAMON. Hands up (me!) for MATEO when I just had an A.

33. Meringue ingredients: EGG WHITES

34. Go slowly: OOZE

35. Claiborne of fashion: LIZ

39. Scuttle: NIX

41. Painter's set of colors: PALETTE

42. Biennial games org.: U.S.O.C. United States Olympic Committee, the next Summer games are in 2020, the next Winter games in 2022.

43. Mercury, for one: ELEMENT

44. Orchestra name reflecting its music: POPS. Boston.

49. Superb servers: ACERS. Oh, stop it.! I feel I'm being tickled to death by horrible crossword-ese.

50. Volkswagen sedan: JETTA

51. Big name in stationery: EATON. Friendly crossing with ETON, rather nicely done. The posh writing paper in England was Basildon Bond . I could always hear "I write on Bond, Basildon Bond".

52. Capital WNW of Cheyenne: BOISE

53. Wanders: ROVES

54. Stage performance with singing: OPERA. That's rather like saying a banquet is "a get-together with food".

56. Give a strong impression (of): REEK. Usually a bad impression. I wouldn't say that someone reeks of good manners.

57. Buddy: CHUM

58. Hiker's guide: MAP

59. Lacto-__ vegetarian: OVO. Milk and eggs are on the OK list, but no fish nor shellfish.

Well, that brings the ROVE around the crossword to a close for this week, so here's the grid:

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

1) No updates on Dennis yet. He should be out of the ICU today and move to the step-down unit.

2) Happy birthday to Wilbur Charles! What's the special plan today?