Thursday, March 26th 2020 Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: Peanuts and Crackerjack - it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ballgame!

17A. *Mechanical plaything: WIND-UP TOY. I remember the disappointment as a kid when you overwound the toy and it never worked properly afterwards.

25A. *Dark as can be: PITCH-BLACK. Something along these lines. It's funny, if you Google "pitch-black" you'll find a few of these pictures:

35A. *Duke led one: SWING BAND. Duke Ellington. I was led astray by the school in North Carolina with my thinking at first, then I saw the connection. Let's Take the "A" Train

52A. *Nursery rhyme arachnophobe: MISS MUFFET. She was fond of cottage cheese, evidently, but not such a big fan of the spiders.

61A. Ump's call, often based on a sequence found in the answers to starred clues: STRIKE ONE!

Fun theme from Jeffrey today. The stats put this puzzle firmly in the "Monday" category, but the cluing is tricky in some places hence the Thursday time-slot. Let's take a quick tour.

Across:

1. Puts at ease: CALMS

6. Pinot alternative: CAB. Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon are perhaps the best known, but there are quite a few other pinots and cabs.

9. Something about a painting?: FRAME

14. Ryan of "Paper Moon": O'NEAL

15. Brouhaha: ADO

16. Paint choice: LATEX

19. __-garde: AVANT

20. Ambulance gp.: EMS. Emergency Medical Services.

21. Quick inhalation: GASP

22. Horseshoe-shaped letter: OMEGA

23. Pennant __: RACE. Quite a lot of baseball references today. C.C. will be happy.

28. Patronizes, in a way: STAYS AT

30. "Insecure" actress/writer Issa __: RAE. Thank you, crosses.

31. Enero, por ejemplo: MES

32. Foil alternative: EPÉE. The first of three answers with "É" today.

33. Rock's __ Supply: AIR. They still tour (at least when touring is something you can do). Here's their best-known hit.

34. Campus suffix: EDU

40. Keeps in the email loop: CC'S

43. Comprehend: SEE

44. Litter's littlest: RUNT

47. Chef's dish words: À LA

48. Med. country: ISR.

49. Web page banners: HEADERS

55. Barter: SWAP

56. Cause friction: CHAFE

57. Be up against: ABUT

59. Diner slice: PIE

60. Scoville unit food: CHILI. I've been on the hunt recently for dried smoked ghost peppers, I finally found them on Amazon. A ghost pepper clocks in at over a million Scoville heat units. A jalapeño is around 4,000. I like spicy food!

63. Muscle beach bro: HE-MAN

64. Bedazzle: AWE

65. When left turns are rarely allowed: ON RED. A guy ran a red light last Friday and totalled Jill's car. She wasn't badly hurt, thank God, "just" a couple of broken ribs, bruising, burns from the airbags and shock. The car came off badly, but thank heavens for German engineering.

66. Off-mic comment: ASIDE

67. Furry foot: PAW

68. Fills up: SATES

Down:

1. Hides in fear: COWERS

2. Do some work at Pixar: ANIMATE

3. Protective camera piece: LENS CAP

4. Sore: MAD

5. Whack over the wall: SLUG. More baseball. Jeffrey must be a fan.

6. Keep a Persian company, perhaps: CAT-SIT

7. Take in, as a Persian: ADOPT. I laugh when I hear people say that they "rescued" a cat or a dog. I tell them they just got a free pet from the shelter.

8. Huck Finn, for one: BOY

9. Served blazing: FLAMBÉ

10. "Bolero" composer: RAVEL

11. In the ballpark?: AT A GAME. It really is baseball season today. It must be something to do with the fact that there's no sports going on at the moment.

12. Intimidated: MENACED

13. Interoffice no.: EXT.

18. Bear whose bed was too hard: PAPA

22. Maureen of "Rio Grande": O'HARA

24. Focuses on, as the catcher for signals: EYES

26. Bed with sliding sides: CRIB

27. Sunflower St. school: K.S.U. Kansas State U, home of the Wildcats.

29. Patch, perhaps: SEW

33. Ticket price determinant, at times: AGE

36. A single Time?: ISSUE

37. Soft ball: NERF

38. New Deal agcy.: N.R.A. National Recovery Administration. I had to look that up, I'm not sure I knew what it stood for.

39. Outfit: DUDS

40. Engine part: CAM

41. Trite expressions: CLICHÉS

42. Bento box selection: SASHIMI. Food!

45. Jazz festival site: NEWPORT. Where Bob Dylan went electric and caused all kinds of wailing and teeth-gnashing among the folk-nerds.

46. One learning the ropes: TRAINEE

48. "Nothing's wrong": I'M FINE

49. Bar mitzvah language: HEBREW

50. Notions case: ETUI. Thank you, Crosswords Past.

51. Races round the bases: SPEEDS. Play ball! Again!

53. Caesar __: SALAD. Food! Caesar Cardini is credited with inventing this dish in 1924 in Tijuana, Mexico. If you make it at home, don't use those store-bought croutons, make your own. Tear the bread from a french loaf or similar into chunks, give them a light coating of olive oil and maybe some garlic powder and roast them in the oven.

54. Mufti's proclamation: FATWA

58. 17 of Laila Ali's wins, for short: TKO'S. I love Laila Ali. She's a great cook too, she won celebrity "Chopped" and she's back on the show again right now. 24 fights, 24 wins, 21 by TKO's or knockouts. She doesn't look any the worse for wear either!

60. "__-ching!": CHA

61. Weaken: SAP

62. "Bambi" doe: ENA

And I think that about wraps it up for me today. Keep well!

Steve

Thursday, March 19th 2020 Morton J. Mendelson

Theme Whodunnit - the theme entries tell a short story.

17A. The con entered the bank under an __, ...: ASSUMED IDENTITY

27A. ... told the banker a __, ...: FABRICATED STORY

44A. ... opened an account with a __, ...: COUNTERFEIT BILL

56A. ... and cashed a check with a __: FORGED SIGNATURE

Hands up, straight off the bat, I'll confess, I'm not a fan of the narrative puzzle. This is cleverly done, four 15's across the grid is no small feat to pull off, but ... these kind of themes just don't work for me.

For crossword aficionados, Merle Reagle once ran two consecutive Sunday puzzles under the title "Kindergarten Crime Spree" and I was yawning by the end of the first one, let alone the second. Maybe that's what set me against the gimmick? I still, just my 2¢, we can agree to disagree. I'll take my Mr. Grumpy hat off now.

However, there were a couple of clues I'm still baffled by, maybe you can help me out. The first is 10D. "CV" is an abbreviation for "Curriculum Vitae", or "resumé" here in the US. The clue/answer makes no sense. "Vita" is not short for CV, and forms no part of the original phrase. I think there's just basic misunderstanding here, maybe? I don't want to spout all Latin genitive at you, but this is all wrong.

The second is 57D. "Apt answer for this puzzle location". What? "... clue location" I could understand, but "puzzle location"? I think wires crossed again. But, there are more important things in the world to worry about at the moment, so I'll park my irk and let's see what was enjoyable:

Across:

1. Jazzes (up): PEPS

5. "Let's open a window": I'M HOT

10. Musical riff: VAMP

14. Louver part: SLAT

15. Whistle blower: COACH. Nice clue, sometimes you don't see the obvious.

16. Retailer whose logo colors are the same as on its founder's national flag: IKEA

20. Sly critic: SNIPER. Someone who snipes.

21. Became frothy: FOAMED

22. Fertility clinic supply: OVA

24. Prefix with content: MAL

25. Not agin: FER

26. Amazon snake: BOA

31. Catching a break: IN LUCK

32. Iditarod runner: HUSKY

33. "High School Musical" extra: TEEN

34. Crouched behind a boulder: HID

35. This and that, say: PAIR. This had me thinking for a while. Nice clue for a simple word.

39. Jack of "The Great Dictator": OAKIE

42. Colorado's "Steel City": PUEBLO. The first steel mill was built to supply rail lines for the new Denver - Rio Grande railroad. It's still going strong. I didn't immediately associate Colorado with steel mills.

48. One in a tchr.'s key: ANS. The answer key for teachers. You'd think they'd know the answers without having to cheat :)

49. Canadian whisky: RYE. Odd clue, there's nothing to say that Canadian whisky has to be rye. It must be fermented, distilled and aged in Canada, but you can make it from pretty much whatever grain you like. Here's a collection of single malts. Cheers!

50. Old call letters?: MCI. The name stood for Microwave Communications Inc. Worldcom bought them in 1998.

51. "The Hollow Men" poet's monogram: TSE. Thomas Stearns Eliot on his driver's license. It's not the most cheery of poems:

Sightless, unless

The eyes reappear

As the perpetual star

Multifoliate rose

Of death's twilight kingdom

The hope only

Of empty men.

52. Giggle: TEE HEE

54. It merged with CBS in 2019: VIACOM. Viacom need to make up their minds. CBS was spun off from the original Viacom in 2005. Now they're all smiles and back together again.

60. JFK part: Abbr.: INIT. This had me puzzled for a while. JFK is three initials, therefore an abbreviation of part of it.

61. Languid: INERT

62. Pic to click: ICON

63. Koppel and others: TEDS. Koppel best known as the "Nightline" anchor on ABC.

64. "Long time __!": NO SEE!

65. Like racehorses: SHOD

Down:

1. TV ad promoting water conservation, e.g.: PSA

2. Golfer Ernie from South Africa: ELS

3. Good enough: PASSABLE

4. Bowl over: STUN

5. Swell treatment?: ICE PACK

6. Classic Ford: MODEL A. It replaced the Model T, which seems a little peculiar.

7. Word with net or ball: HAIR

8. Anxious med. condition: O.C.D. Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

9. American agents, familiarly: THE FEDS

10. CV, briefly: VITA. See my comment in the intro on this.

11. With hands on hips: AKIMBO

12. Night streaker: METEOR

13. Bright spot in the workweek: PAY DAY. In my first job after school we were paid in cash on a Thursday. We were given a half-hour to pick up the pay packet from the pay window. There was a little corner of the envelope you tore off and counted the contents before you stepped away.

18. Copycat: MIMIC

19. Language of Oslo, in Oslo: NORSK

22. Make the most __: OF IT

23. Barn topper: VANE. The antique ones go for quite a lot of money.

25. Clash of clans: FEUD

28. Sentence that should be two or more sentences: RUN-ON

29. Crook: THIEF

30. Laid-back sort: TYPE B. Do type-b people drive Model A Fords?

34. New employee: HIRE

36. Over the top: A BIT MUCH

37. Societal woes: ILLS

38. What a hat may symbolize: ROLE. A little puzzlement at first, but "wearing my sales hat" for example.

40. Trapped, after "up": A TREE

41. Entered: KEYED IN

42. Salsa option: PICANTE

43. New York college town: UTICA

44. Tantrum: CATFIT. Never heard of it. I'd like to tell you if it is one word or two, but Google didn't help a whole lot. I did find an article about cat seizures, which is not what I expected, and I found some workout programs.

45. Pre-shoot-out score, perhaps: ONE-ONE

46. Cyberhandle: USER-ID. My first thought was "AVATAR", but that's your pictorial persona.

47. Political fugitive: ÉMIGRÉ

53. Driver's lic. stats: HGTS

54. Competes: VIES

55. Blues singer Redding: OTIS. Who can't resist a couple of minutes to listen again to this?

57. __-cone: SNO

58. Hundred Acre Wood denizen: ROO. Here's one of the original illustrations of Kanga and Roo. Don't talk to me about the Disney cartoonification of the books and their commercialization beyond.

59. Apt answer for this puzzle location: END. Another bit of clue bafflement, as I mentioned at the top.

Which brings me to the grid! Stay safe and make smart choices. Shelter-in-place is a smart choice, whether or not mandated in your specific area.

Steve

Thursday March 12th 2020 Michael Paleos

Theme Happy Days - if you remember the date. Unhappy days if you forget!

17A. First anniversary gift for a zookeeper?: PAPER TIGER. 

38A. 10th anniversary gift for a musician?: TIN HORN. There's a bar near me called the Tinhorn Flats in Burbank, used often for location shoots for commercials. It's got those great saloon doors that swing back when you push through them.

57A. 50th anniversary gift for a fast-food worker?: GOLD NUGGET

11D. 15th anniversary gift for a golfer?: CRYSTAL BALL

25D. 25th anniversary gift for a chef?: SILVER SPOON

Cool theme from Michael today. Plus, if you thought that you'd never seen GOLD NUGGET in a crossword before, you very likely haven't. None of the major puzzles have used it before. Yay! Something new!

Let's go roaming through the gloaming and see what we turn up:

Across:

1. Soft end of the Mohs scale: TALC. Diamond is at the other end.

5. Old Toyota models: ECHOS

10. Order to go: SCAT. Get outta here! Fun clue.

14. Squiggly lines in the funnies, maybe: ODOR

15. Hot day refuge: SHADE

16. "Him __?": love triangle ultimatum:  OR ME

19. Like eyes "you can't hide," in an Eagles song: LYIN'

20. Ring loudly: PEAL. I've been in a bell-tower while the bells were being rung, and they're quite muffled. It's outside that you get full volume. I'm sure that you know a true cockney has to be born within the sound of Bow Bells - the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside in the City of London. A full peal of eight bells must have at least 5,000 changes, that's a lot of bell-ringing.

21. It can spice things up: TABASCO. Avery Island, where the sauce is produced, it very pretty. I was making a dish at the weekend which called for Louisiana Hot Sauce. I've got about 20 types of hot sauce, but did I have Louisiana? Then the penny dropped - Doh! Tabasco!

23. Prescription specs: DOSES. Another fun clue - "specs" as in specifications.

26. 2000 Gere title role: DR. T.

28. Gere, for one: ACTOR. Shifting into second "Gere".

29. Super Mario Galaxy consoles: WIIS. I did a little digging on this one, and a lot of the "gaming community" say the the plural is Wii, just like fish or sheep.

30. Japanese ice cream flavor: GREEN TEA. Tea grown in the shade has the best flavor, such as matcha or gyokuro.

32. "It's __ good": ALL

33. Livid: IRED

34. Lots and lots: OODLES

37. Race in place: REV

40. Wire-concealing garment, perhaps: BRA. Professional male soccer players in the major leagues now wear what looks like a sports bra - it "conceals" a tracking device so that sports scientists can analyze the movement, speed and distance traveled on the pitch during a game.

41. Least encumbered: FREEST

43. Musical work: OPUS

44. "A lie that makes us realize truth," per Picasso: ART. Pablo had a bit of a mean streak. This is another of his: "I'm a joker who understands his epoch and has extracted all he possibly could from the stupidity, greed and vanity of his contemporaries". Ouch!

45. Adds insult to injury: RUBS IT IN

47. Hair gel squirt: GLOB

48. Bow ties, e.g.: PASTA

50. The Spartans of the NCAA: M.S.U. Michigan State.Their mascot, a Spartan, is creatively named "Sparty". They really went out on a limb with that one.

51. "Well, I'll be!": GOLLY

52. Totally jazzed: AMPED UP

54. Like many 45 records: MONO.

56. Jordanian queen dowager: NOOR

62. Stop discussing: DROP

63. Hail: GREET

64. Passion: LOVE

65. __ pool: GENE

66. __ pool: STENO. Fun cluing today. A close-proximity clecho.

67. Biblical spot: EDEN

Down:

1. Cover: TOP

2. Nicole's "Cold Mountain" role: ADA. Thank you, crosses

3. Hack: LOP

4. Brunch choice: CRÊPES. Food! Strictly speaking, crêpes are sweet and galettes are savory (unless you come from a certain part of Brittany, but let's not get into that, it causes a lot of argument!).

5. "¿Cómo __?": ESTA

6. Kids: CHILDREN

7. "Macbeth" role: HAG

8. "Swan Lake" princess: ODETTE

9. Blood fluids: SERA

10. Comforted: SOLACED

12. Palermo pal: AMICO

13. Barbershop part: TENOR

18. In medias __: RES. A narrative device where you open a story in the middle of it, then go back and fill in the bits as you go. Shakespeare was fond of its usage, such as in Hamlet.

22. Relay sticks: BATONS

23. Middle-earth figure: DWARF. Might be small, but definitely not to be messed with.

24. Gulf ship: OILER

27. Fiery candies: RED HOTS

30. South side?: GRITS. Another cracking clue.

31. Like a shutout: NO-RUN

33. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat this": IT'S BAD

35. Screen legend Flynn: ERROL

36. Failed to act: SAT BY

39. Long-outlawed smoking establishment: OPIUM DEN

42. Greek Muse of music: EUTERPE. I didn't know this, but the crosses were solid.

46. Oil, for many: IMPORT. Via your 24D

47. Look-up aid: GOOGLE

48. Herbal Essences maker, for short: P. AND G. Proctor and Gamble. "I supervised the exam and then hit the casino. I proctored and gambled" Pa-da-ching! I'll be here all week.

49. 64-Across, at La Scala: AMORE

51. Serengeti herbivore: GNU

53. Fleece-lined footwear brand: UGGS. These things were all the rage not too long ago. They even convinced Tom Brady to wear a pair.

55. Not duped by: ONTO

58. Two-time Emmy-winning actress __ Grant: LEE

59. OMG part: GOD

60. 67-Across outcast: EVE. Quite a bit of cross-reference and clue play today.

61. Number of Canadian provinces: TEN. I tried to recall them, I missed British Columbia and Alberta, but invented Victoria, so I was roughly on the right track, and thought Newfoundland and Labrador were seperate. So I had ten, just not the right ten.

With that little geography challenge out of the way, here's the grid!

Steve

Thursday, March 5th 2020 Kurt Krauss

Theme Trouble Ahead - a none-too sunny outlook in the forecast:

34A. Song first sung by Ethel Waters at Harlem's Cotton Club ... and a hint to four other long answers: STORMY WEATHER. Too good a music link to pass up.

17A. They're ominous: DARK CLOUDS

28A. They're luminous: LIGHTNING BOLTS. One of the most colorful light shows I saw was a lighting storm in the Amazon basin flying above it at 35,000 feet. It wasn't just flashes of white, it was like the Northern Lights gone crazy.

42A. They're clamorous: THUNDER SHOWERS. Paired with the lightning bolts. Quite spectacular unless you're caught out in the open.

59. They're ruinous: HAILSTONES. The largest recorded hailstone in the U.S. was nearly as big as a volleyball and fell on July 23, 2010, in Vivian, South Dakota. It was 8 inches in diameter and weighed almost 2 pounds. That's one hailstone you don't want to get hit by.

Hailstones were certainly ruinous to this car:

Neatly done by Kurt with the adjectival cluing. A fun, quality puzzle, so no more to say other than to meander through the fill and see what splashes over the rocks:

Across:

1. __ Plaines: Chicago suburb: DES. Just north of O'Hare airport, and proud home of Ray Kroc's first franchised McDonald's restaurant. The town is named for the river, whose name, in turn, comes from 18th century French, referencing the plane tree which is similar in appearance to the American sycamore.

4. J. Edgar Hoover Building org.: THE F.B.I.

10. Catch: TRAP

14. Suffix with hero: -INE

15. Sea between Greece and Turkey: AEGEAN. A wonderful region for sailing, the Mediterranean has a very small tidal range and rarely gets rough at the Eastern end. I spent a few vacations chartering a sailboat; in the region only rarely did we encounter "stormy weather" where the crew were "feeding the fishes"! More complicated was knowing when to fly a Greek or Turkish flag approaching a secluded island mooring. Get it right, you eat a great meal at at the only restaurant on the island. Get it wrong ...

16. Dutch South African: BOER

19. Decent-sized lot: ACRE

20. "No more, thanks": I'M GOOD

21. End of many long weekends: Abbr.: MON.

23. Ad __ committee: HOC

24. Many a "Twilight" character: TEEN

25. Gulf State native: OMANI. A crossword staple, but I sent myself down the wrong alley by getting fixated on U.S. states on the Gulf Coast.

27. That, in Oaxaca: ESA

32. Word in a January song: AULD. lang syne. Incidentially before it was dubbed "The Athens of the North", Edinburgh was (and still is) somewhat affectionately known as "Auld Reekie".

33. Wood strip: SLAT

40. Flat-bottomed boat: SCOW. It could be PUNT, so I wait and see.

41. "Sesame Street" pal of Zoe: ELMO

49. "Jingle Bells" contraction: O'ER. You have to get to the fourth verse tae find it, but it's there.

50. Last Supper question: IS IT I?

51. "Ivy and __": kid-lit series by Annie Barrows: BEAN. Thank you, crosses.

53. Infamous Amin: IDI

54. More than unfriendly: ICY

55. Breed of sheep: MERINO. What do you call a sheep with quarterback skills? Dan Merino. Which inspired me to get out a Sharpie and a piece of paper, and with no cartooning skills, here I present my own Dan Merino:

Signed, limited edition copies are available! Time for a second career?

57. Astrological transition point: CUSP

62. Wasatch Mountains resort: ALTA. Thank you, crosses. Neither the resort nor the mountain region had hitherto blipped my radar.

63. "Twilight" vampire: EDWARD. I should watch more vampire and zombie shows, I'm clueless with this stuff. Crosses to the rescue again.

64. Suffix with Brooklyn: -ESE. The dropped "r" used to be considered posh - FDR's “The only thing we have to feah is feah itself”. Post WWII it became the language of Archie Bunker and Tony Soprano.

65. For fear that: LEST

66. Trounces: WHOMPS

67. Some NFL blockers: R.T.S. Right Tackles. If your quarterback is left-handed (like Steve Young) you're guarding his blind side, so you'd better be on your toes (as much as a 350lb tackle can be!).

Down:

1. Finished a job: DID IT

2. Dental layer: ENAMEL

3. Composer Rachmaninoff: SERGEI

4. Food truck fare: TACO. Food! The taco is probably LA's signature food item, in my humble opinion. The mariscos jalisco shrimp tacos from Raul Ortega's truck in Boyle Heights are the best in the city, and there's a lot to choose from!

5. Believed: HELD

6. Swelled head: EGO

7. Pot-au-__: French stew: FEU

8. Outlaw: BAD MAN. I ran through a few options here. BANISH was my first and I was rather proud of identifying a verb, rather than a noun. Then I was wrong. Pride comes before a fall, as they say.

9. Happy way to break out: IN SONG. Tra-laaaaaa!

10. Abbr. in an unfilled TV slot: T.B.A

11. New __, NY: home of Iona College: ROCHELLE

12. Ford's first minivan: AEROSTAR

13. Like some concrete: PRE-CAST

18. Big ape: KONG

22. Bird's beak: NIB. This is interesting - I knew NIB only in the fountain-pen sense, or as a small piece of black licorice.

25. Sole: ONLY

26. Corn Belt region: MIDWEST

29. Guffaw syllable: HAR

30. Rum __ Tugger: "Cats" role: TUM

The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat:

If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse.

If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat,

If you put him in a flat then he'd rather have a house.

If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat,

If you set him on a rat then he'd rather chase a mouse.

T.S.Eliot. "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats."

31. __Kosh B'gosh: OSH. Wis-KAAan- sin, while are on the subject of Brooklynese.

34. Bus kiosk posting: SCHEDULE

35. Ones seeing things: TOURISTS

36. Dominate: OWN

37. K-12, in education: EL-HI

38. Latin lover's word: AMO, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant. C.C. and I once offered a puzzle to an (unnamed) editor who turned it down - he didn't pronounce the words the same way that we did. (Or I did, to be fair).

39. Parking violation risk: TOW. Expensive. I once was with a friend on Hollywood Boulevard when he got his car towed from outside Musso and Frank in the late afternoon. He "swore he'd parked it right here" until I pointed out the sign right above the empty space that read "Two Hour Parking 10-4. Violators will be towed". It was 4:30. Oops.

40. Showing no emotion: STOICAL

43. 502, in old Rome: DII

44. Steer clear of: ESCHEW. I always thought it was "enschew". Crosswords corrected me.

45. Saudi Arabian capital: RIYADH

46. Iberian river to the Mediterranean: EBRO

47. Carl with nine Emmys: REINER

48. Most sensible: SANEST

52. Snoops (around): NOSES

55. Car sticker no.: MSRP

56. Postings at an airline gate, for short: ETD'S

58. Vanna's partner: PAT. All together now: Wheel! Of! Fortune!

60. __ Jima: IWO

61. Quick flight: LAM. Of course I confidently filled in "HOP" and was proved wrong. Too impulsive! Nice clue.

Fun puzzle, thank you Kurt, the grid is here and I'm off, sated and happy with a great puzzle.

Steve

Thursday, February 27th 2020 Debra Hamel

Theme: Compass Pinots - I mean pitons - no, wait, piston? Anagrams of the primary compass points modify a well-known directional phrase; and hinted at by the circled N, E, S, W at the center of the puzzle.

17A. Authentic piece of a holy relic?: TRUE THORN. True North. The magnetic inclination (the difference between True North and Magnetic North) changes over time and also depends on where you are on the globe, but if you were standing at the North Pole and pulled out a compass, it would point you towards Ellesmere Island in northern Canada, more than 300 miles away.

58A. Biblical pronouns read by James Earl Jones?: DEEP THOUS. Deep South.

11D. Place reserved for one reconciling a dispute?: MIDDLE SEAT. Middle East. Funnily, the middle seat occupant on the airplane sometimes is the cause of a dispute over the armrest.

28D. Unwelcome leftovers?: THE OLD STEW. The Old West. Depends how old. Some stews get better left for a couple of days to let the flavors develop. Obviously, there's a tipping point :)

Right then, let's dig into this one. The anagrams don't seem forced in the four theme entries which is great, Debra did have a clever observation that there are anagrams to be had; and the circled letters highlighted in the grid do give you a nudge towards finding the compass points. A great way to solve an anagram is to write the letters in a circle; perhaps that was a subtle hint too, I'm not sure if this was Debra's intention. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I liked it.

Now, let's get to a couple of niggles - I'm thinking that if you're going to use "THE old west" you should also have "THE deep south" and "THE Middle East". These don't really stand on their own, unlike "True North" which doesn't need the definite article. I like consistency and to me this falls a little short. Also, if you're going to use "?" in the clue as the device to hint at the theme entries, you absolutely shouldn't have a clue like 20A. Your mileage may vary, naturally.

Moving right along ...

Across:

1. Ottoman bigwigs: AGAS

5. Wildly: AMOK. Amok is a funny word, you only ever see it paired with "run". I suppose "walking amok" doesn't have the same ring to it.

9. Peaks: ACMES

14. At hand: NIGH

15. Animated explorer: DORA

16. Patterned fabric: TOILE

19. Comedian Izzard: EDDIE. One of my favorite stand-up comics, I've linked to him before. How Britain built its Empire (TV-MA for language).

20. Sound investments?: STEREOS. See intro comment.

21. Like some deliveries: SAME-DAY

23. Indy guide: PACE CAR. Nice clue - "Lonely Planet" would be my first guess, despite having way too many letters. Since 2002, Chevrolet has had the exclusive rights to provide the pace car at the Indianapolis 500, they've all been Corvettes or Camaros, unsuprisingly. I wouldn't want to pace a field of IndyCars in a Chevy Spark.

25. She walked into Rick's gin joint: ILSA. "Play it, Sam".

26. Disastrous: FATAL Yep. Pretty much covers it.

29. Comedian Garofalo: JANEANE. Thank you, crosses.

31. Folk legend Phil: OCHS

32. __ Jose: SAN. Do you know the way?

33. Connects with: TIES TO

36. Arles article: UNE. It seems a shame to consign Arles to a crossword clue. I lived there for a few weeks, and who doesn't appreciate a nice Roman adqueduct?

37. __ West Records: Nashville label: NEW. Thank you, crosses.

38. Rosy-fingered goddess who rises in the east: EOS, Thank you, crosswords.

39. AirPod spot: EAR. Pops up again.

40. Get back in business: RE-OPEN

42. Product prefix that evokes winter: SNO-

43. Die down: WANE

44. Herbie, in Disney films: LOVE BUG

46. Outset: GET-GO

47. They don't last: FADS

49. Part of Curaçao: CEDILLA. The diacritical mark under the "C". The spendidly-named map-maker Heironymus Cock named it "Quraçao" on his 1562 map of the region, but that variant didn't catch on, so Curaçao it is.

51. Rather: INSTEAD

53. Apparel brand with a spinnaker logo: NAUTICA

57. Mesh: FIT IN

60. Red-pencil: EMEND. I had the first "E" already in place, so I wasn't tempted by AMEND.

61. December 24 and 31: EVES

62. "At Last" singer James: ETTA. A lovely song.

63. Georgia team, in sports headlines: DAWGS. Bulldogs, to give them their formal name.

64. Take a chance: DARE

65. Hoarse laugh: RASP

Down:

1. Tiny colonists: ANTS

2. Structural engineering piece: GIRT. Thank you, crosses. Want to know your studs and joists from your girts? Here you go ..

3. Chills and fever: AGUE

4. Tibetan leaders: SHERPAS. Not the Dalai Lamas then. I'm not sure I'd call a sherpa a leader, but I guess they are in the mountain guiding sense.

5. Specially formed: AD HOC

6. Saskatchewan city with a 34-foot animal statue named Mac at its tourist info center: MOOSE JAW. Here's Mac, with his "cute" Lego model which looks to be about eight feet tall!

7. NHL great Bobby: ORR

8. Dodge City native: KANSAN

9. "Up and __!": AT 'EM! Funny, I talked about this last week - we had "Up and About" then.

10. Cough medicine ingredient: CODEINE

12. Inventor Howe: ELIAS. He invented and patented the lockstitch sewing machine, and was involved in a protracted lawsuit for five years with Isaac Singer, who was producing and selling machines which violated Howe's patents. Howe won, and made a lot of money over the years with royalties from Singer. He was granted a patent in 1851 for an "automatic, continuous clothing closure", the zipper as we know it today. He didn't exploit the invention, possibly because he was making money from the sewing machine royalties.

13. "Peace out": SEE YA!

18. Marsh duck: TEAL. They can't walk straight, but they can fly in a corkscrew motion at speeds in excess of 50 mph. That's some achievement! The English expression "drunk as a duck" refers to the teal's characteristic waddle on land.

22. Schoolyard retort: ARE TOO!

24. U.S. neighbor to the north: CAN.

26. One of two in Hank Aaron's uniform number: FOUR. There's a mint-condition "Hammerin' Hank" 1954 rookie card on eBay at the moment going for $37,500 if you're interested!

27. Proactiv+ target: ACNE

30. First words in an alphabet book: A IS ... for ...

32. Largest of New York's Finger Lakes: SENECA. I don't know any of the Finger Lakes off the top of my head, but I had enough letters from the crosses to fill this in without a thought.

34. Tart taste: TANG

35. Mega Stuf cookie: OREO

37. Great Basin st.: NEV. National Park in eastern Nevada close to the Utah border.

38. One may be civil: ENGINEER. I used to go to football matches back in England with a friend who was a civil engineer. His language was anything but civil when his team was losing (which was often!)

41. Message board item: POSTING

42. South, in Avignon: SUD

43. Local news segment: WEATHER

45. Settled in for the night, with "down": BEDDED

46. Surfeit: GLUT

47. Fluted on the march: FIFED. I fell for the "PIPED" trap at first, but didn't take long to correct it.

48. Jungian inner self: ANIMA. I think I knew this, but the crosses filled it in for me.

50. Momentary error: LAPSE

52. Fades to black: ENDS

54. Bit: IOTA

55. Stops shooting: CUTS. I like that movie and TV directors still have megaphones; I saw a lot in use when I worked on the lot at Warner Bros.



56. "Stat!": ASAP!

59. Gabor of "Green Acres": EVA. Her sister, Magda, was briefly married to George Sanders, who had been previously married to the third sister, Zsa Zsa. Keepin' it in the family!

I think that about covers it for today. Here's the grid, with the circled "compass rose" in the center.

Steve

Thursday, February 20th 2020 Bruce Haight

Theme Wildlife Safari - as the reveal across the center tells us what to look for:

36A. Tot's plaything ... and a feature of 17-, 25-, 48- and 59-Across: STUFFED ANIMAL

We're looking for an animal "stuffed" into the theme entries, to wit:

17A. Tackled the job: HAD A GO AT IT. Goat. Personally, I'd clue this as "Tried to tackle the job". If you have a go at something, you try it, it's moot whether the attempt was successful or not. Minor quibble.

25A. Range for a manhunt: SEARCH AREA. Hare. There was a great "hare hunt" in Britain in the late 70's. Author and artist Kit Williams created a jeweled, golden hare and buried it, and then published a picture book, "Masquerade" , which he said contained all the clues necessary to find the piece. It caused quite a stir and sparked a huge treasure hunt. which lasted quite some time before the jewelry was found. As time went on and the hare still hadn't been located, a canny West End theatre producer adapted the book into a stage play starring Roger Rees. People flocked to the performances hoping to gain extra clues or insight into the secret location. They didn't, but the producer made a lot of money (and yes, some of it was mine!).

48A. Intercepting, as at the pass: HEADING OFF. Dingo.

59A. Ready to start the day: UP AND ABOUT. I wanted "Up and at 'em" right until it didn't fit, and there was no stuffed animal. Cue rethink.

Straightforward enough theme from Bruce, I call this kind of theme a bonus - you don't need the theme to solve the puzzle, and, really, it's just a nice after-party treasure hunt to find the prizes. I do like when the circles don't make an appearance when not needed (unlike these kind of theme puzzles where the "treasure" skips up and down between rows).

And so let's continue the journey:

Across:

1. Play with strings: STRUM

6. Blubber: FLAB. Possibly the result of eating too much ....

10. __ buco: OSSO. Food! The classic recipe calls for veal shanks which are not to some people's taste. I make a version with beef shank, the all-important marrow is there.

16. Place to talk shop?: MALL. Fun clue.

19. Passionate: AVID

20. Second sequel's number: III. Unless you're a Star Wars fan, in which case I believe the second sequel was the fifth in the trilogy, of course none of that makes sense.

21. Sacred chests: ARKS

22. Thrash: WHOMP. Fun word.

23. Winter coat?: SNOW

28. Arizona landforms: MESAS 

30. TourBook-issuing org.: AAA

31. Designer monogram: YSL. Yves St. Laurent. He has one of those names which you can't imagine being attached to anything other than his profession. Do you see your tax guy or your mechanic being called Yves St. Laurent?

32. "Hasta la vista": SEE YA! 

33. Comic strip frames: PANELS

40. Forklift load: PALLET

41. Stuffy-sounding: NASAL

43. Many AARP mems.: SRS. Seniors. I started getting AARP membership invitations when I turned 50. There didn't seem to be a lot of upside to membership, I got the same discounts with AAA or just turning up. It was when I started getting mailers from Forest Lawn Cemeteries that I started feeling a little old. I got over that.

46. Issa of "The Hate U Give": RAE. Thank you, crosses.

47. Dire: GRAVE

53. Christmas poem opener: 'TWAS

54. "Hasta la vista": ADIOS! This is a Corner-coined "clecho" - same clue, echoed for a different entry.

55. "The Daily Show" host: NOAH. Trevor. He took over from Jon Stewart after being a writer on the show.

57. Nos. on driver's licenses: HTS. Heights. At least they aren't prone to change as much as WTS.

58. Sharp turns: ZAGS. Can you zag before you zig? Or zag and zag again? We should be told.

62. Succulent plant genus: ALOE

63. Gumption: GRIT

64. __ toast: MELBA. How do you know you've made it as an opera singer? You have toasted bread named for you. It seems a stretch, but Dame Nellie Melba should be proud. (Her real name was Helen Porter Mitchell, but "Mitchell Toast" didn't catch on in the Melbourne diners).

65. Sew a patch on, perhaps: MEND

66. Possessive pronoun: HERS

67. Roundup critter: STEER. Rawhide!

Down:

1. Deep rifts: SCHISMS. Mostly religious, I think.

2. New recruits: TRAINEES

3. Hobbyist's contraption: RADIO SET. Did anyone build their own short-wave radio set and transmit to the great beyond? The Internet has mostly replaced the thrill of hearing a Russian sea captain reply from his spy boat trawler

4. Sch. founded by Jefferson: U.VA.

5. Prefix with bytes or bucks: MEGA. A megabyte of storage used to cost megabucks. Those days are long gone.

6. Oddball: FLAKE

7. Tons o': LOTSA'

8. "The Rookie" actress Larter: ALI. Again, crosses, I thank you.

9. Club alternative: BLT. More Food! If you've ever had a BLT with a slice of bread in the middle, you've got a crossover club/BLT - the middle slice of bread is what defines a club - which makes a Big Mac a club sandwich.

10. Home of Minor League Baseball's Storm Chasers: OMAHA. What a great name. The minor league teams in all sports have the best names. Who wouldn't root for the Alberquerque Isotopes, the Hartford Yard Goats or the Brighampton Binghampton Rumble Ponies? And if the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimps ever made it to the big leagues and the World Series, I know where my $5 bet is going.

11. Cooking show adjective: SAVORY

12. Covers with goop: SLIMES

13. Bud from way back: OLD PAL. Slap on the back, old mate, old pal, old buddy. Wait, what's with the "old"?

18. "Grey's Anatomy" settings, for short: O.R'S. First instinct was E.R's, then ah! Surgery!

22. 33-Down's purview: WHALING. Cross-reference clue, but not far to look for the second part.

24. Path to the top: WAY UP

26. Charged: RAN AT

27. Normandy city: CAEN

29. Trips where big cats are spotted: SAFARIS. Here we are mid-Bruce safari. How apt.

33. Ship owner who described Ahab as "ungodly, god-like": PELEG. I remember him by "Peg Leg" and forget the "G". Has anyone actually read Moby Dick? I'm currently working my way though "The Gormenghast Trilogy" which I abandoned some many years ago. I'm not sure I'm going to get through it this time.

34. Stand buy: ADE

35. "Good thinking!": SMART

37. Custard dessert: FLAN

38. Considering everything: AS A WHOLE

39. Conduit created by volcanic activity: LAVA TUBE. Is this a thing? I guess vulcanologists would say so. Yellowstone National Park is one enormous caldera, so when that lava tube goes rogue, hello Idaho!

42. Cigarette ad claim: LESS TAR. Amazing to think that you could still post ads claiming your cigarettes were "cleaner", although we don't seemed to have learned a whole lot if the vaping ads and businesses are anything to go by.

43. Superhero acronym involving Hercules, Zeus, Achilles and three others: SHAZAM. No clue. Researching "Shazam superhero" I find a lot of names that don't add up to an acronym. So I'll thank the crosses, and move on, wondering why "Oggo" didn't make it into the mix.

44. Killian's, originally: RED ALE

45. Former Southeast Asian capital: SAIGON. Now Ho Chi Minh City. Do the residents still call it "Saigon"? I wonder. On my bucket list for the food!

49. Gave a shot, say: DOSED

50. Studio sign: ON AIR

51. Formatting menu list: FONTS

52. It's not hot long: FAD

56. Ones acting badly: HAMS

59. "So gross!": UGH!

60. Ante-: PRE- This was a little tricky, the clue seems to want you to find a word which would fit after "Ante-" - bellum, diluvian, one of those - but when you look closely you see you need to find a prefix, and lo, there is "Pre-". Great cluing for what might be brushed off as throwaway fill. I love these little gems.

61. Exacta or trifecta: BET. I famously bet a trifecta at Santa Anita on the wrong race - my friend and I arrived a little later than planned and we'd unknowingly missed the first race. I confidently consulted the daily racing form, wagered a two-dollar trifecta on the (already run) first race and my numbers 3-1-6 came up in what was actually race two. I didn't recognize the horse's names on the way round, but I was wasn't complaining when I cashed in the ticket.

And that is the secret to sports betting! Bet the wrong race!

Thanks to Bruce for an entertaining zoological journey. Here's the grid and I'm off to get some much-needed beauty sleep! (I need sleep, but beauty would be a bonus!)

Steve

Thursday, February 6th 2020 Robert Wemischner

Theme Back to Front - each theme entry reverses direction.

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

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

42A. Down Under withdrawal?: OUTBACK BACKOUT

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

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

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

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

Across:

1. Diamond problem: FLAW

5. Plush carpet: SHAG

9. Test versions: BETAS

14. Feminist poet Adrienne: RICH

the thing I came for:

the wreck and not the story of the wreck

the thing itself and not the myth

the drowned face always staring

toward the sun

the evidence of damage

worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty

the ribs of the disaster

curving their assertion

among the tentative haunters.

From "Diving into the Wreck" (1972)

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

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

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

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

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

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

24. "__ whiz!": GEE

32. Vague time period: WHILE

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

34. One may be decorated for the holidays: FIR

35. Sprightly: AIRY

36. Marmalade bits: RINDS

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

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

40. Aloha State bird: NENE

41. Plumlike fruit: SLOES

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

47. It's just over a foot: SHIN

55. Tropical porch: LANAI

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

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

58. Habituate: INURE

59. Retail outlet: MART

60. Mattress option: KING

61. Zaps: TASES

62. Neverland pirate: SMEE

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

Down:

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

2. Speech therapy target: LISP

3. Tries to look: ACTS

4. Plant leaf pest: WHITEFLY

5. Himalayan guide: SHERPA

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

7. Word of regret: ALAS, poor Yorick!

8. Excess: GLUT

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

10. Chewed the scenery: EMOTED

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

12. Surmounting: ATOP

13. "Pull up a chair": SIT

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

22. Seaweed-based thickeners: AGARS

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

26. Leading: FIRST

27. Brightest star in Cygnus: DENEB

28. Taken in: HAD

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

30. Steakhouse order: FILET

31. Picked dos: 'FROS

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

36. Postgame postmortem: RECAP

37. Skin pics: INK

38. Yukon gold rush region: KLONDIKE

40. Au pairs: NANNIES

41. Burlesque bit: SKIT

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

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

"Beware the Jabberwock and shun

The frumious bandersnatch".

44. Have great plans: ASPIRE

45. Pure: CHASTE

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

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

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

51. Disneyland transport: TRAM

52. Norse god: ODIN

53. Make (one's way): WEND

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

55. Put a match to: LIT

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

Steve

Thursday, January 30th 2020 Dan Margolis

Theme: That's that - the theme entries are clued literally with a description of each one:

20A. "That's fine": POWDERED SUGAR. Very fine indeed. The Brits call it icing sugar, also known as confectioner's sugar in these parts.

27A. "That's all folks": THE HUMAN RACE. This was my first theme solve which put on the right wavelength. I noticed the missing comma from the Looney Tunes hook line. Very nice cluing.

49A. "That's not the point": PENCIL ERASER. I seem to use all the eraser before I've used all of the pencil which probably says more about my inaccuracy than the design of the pencil. I've got stand-alone backups.

58A. "That's rich": CHOCOLATE CAKE. Chocolate and kale in the same puzzle - as I said last week why do I crave chocolate, and not kale?

So, a nice theme and .... and? The fill is pretty sluggish, there's not a lot to admire. A workmanlike puzzle, but too many obscure names for me and too many throwaway entries to get too much enthusiastic about. It's a shame because there were some great clues for an otherwise dull fill. Let's go explore!

Across:

1. Healthful berry: ACAI. It could be GOJI so wait for a cross to confirm.

5. Sommelier's concern: NOSE. Why don't we just say "this wine has a fine smell?" A sommelier's nose could also be an asset.

9. San Antonio cagers: SPURS

14. Bananas: LOCO. Crazy like a ... chicken? I like El Pollo Loco's grilled chicken.

15. "... the __ blackness of the floors": Poe: EBON

16. "The Fox and the Grapes" storyteller: AESOP

17. Dutch cheese: EDAM

18. Way to go: ROAD

19. Queen's milieu: DRAMA. Drama queen. This one made me smile.

23. Get going: HOP TO

25. "Knives Out" Golden Globe nominee de Armas: ANA. Thank you, crosses. I'm not familiar with the movie and checking her credits on IMDb, I've not seen any of the movies she's appeared in.

26. Lansing-to-Flint dir.: ENE

32. 1960s chess champ Mikhail: TAL. Crosses to the aid again. I'm sure chess enthusiasts will know all about this gentleman, but a little before my chess-conscious time.

33. Mustard family member: KALE

34. They're tapped: KEGS

37. Bundle: PILE

39. On the money: RIGHT

42. Kentucky coach with 876 victories: RUPP. I went with RUUP first for no good reason, which made SUREE look a little strange. Easily fixed. Legendary basketball, fifth on the all-time wins list.

44. Foolhardy: RASH

46. __ avis: RARA. "Rare bird". I learned this from crosswords past, thankfully, as it helped with the crossing proper names.

48. Mex. title: SRA. Señora (from Sonora!)

53. Withdrawal site: ATM

56. Carnival city: RIO

57. Words before "so sue me": I LIED

63. Polynesian language: MAORI

64. Sitar music: RAGA. Here's a raga mix of "Uptown Funk"; you just cannot watch it without smiling!

65. Yemen's Gulf of __: ADEN

68. Conclude with: END ON

69. Indicator: SIGN

70. Feet-first race: LUGE

71. Video chat choice: SKYPE

72. "What __ is new?": ELSE

73. MP3 player: IPOD. Do Apple even make these any more? It seems your phone does everything that an iPod did, with the added bonus of, well, being a phone.

Down:

1. Cream __: ALE

2. Fish that's salted and dried to make bacalao: COD. Originally from the Portuguese, where bacalhau is the name of the fish.The Norwegians have assimilated the dish into their national cuisine where it is now spelled "bakalau". There's more to a bit of dried fish than meets the eye. Here's balalau con tomate.

3. Like Pentatonix numbers: A CAPPELLA

4. Flying insect with prominent eyespots: IO MOTH. Not sure that I knew this. ACAI and LOCO helped me out though.

5. Bookish type: NERD

6. Wind up on stage?: OBOE. Nice clue!

7. Fly like an eagle: SOAR

8. Win over: ENDEAR

9. Hapless sort: SAD SACK

10. Ucayali River country: PERU. The main headstream of the Amazon river, it becomes the Amazon at the confluence with the Marañón.

11. Grammarian's concern: USAGE

12. Type type: ROMAN. Times New Roman, for example, which was commissioned by the London Times newspaper in 1931.

13. Just-in-case item: SPARE

21. "The Caine Mutiny" novelist: WOUK

22. Paternity identifier: DNA

23. Web address letters: HTTP

24. Atheist activist Madalyn: O'HAIR. A new name to me. I'm familiar with the golfer Sean O'Hair, not so much atheist activists.

28. Deface: MAR

29. "When We Were Kings" boxer: ALI. And Joe Frazier; the movie covers the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship fight from Zaire in 1974.

30. Pola of the silents: NEGRI. Another proper name requiring crossing rescue for me today.

31. Poetic contraction: E'ER

35. Dressed to the nines: GUSSIED UP

36. Wild period: SPREE

38. Uncommon sense: ESP. It looks like it has lost its "abbreviation" status.

40. Actor Holbrook: HAL. Another unknown proper name for me today, hence grateful for the "RARA" cross.

41. Amount past due?: TRE. "Uno, due, tre, quattro ...." Nice cluing again for a little word.

43. Ranch bud: PARD

45. Wonder Woman, for one: HEROINE

47. Plot-driving song, perhaps: ARIA. I assume arias drive the plot lines of operas?

50. Zilch: NIL

51. Rough around the edges: COARSE

52. High-pH compound: ALKALI

53. Summits: ACMES

54. "__ goodness": THANK

55. Temperamental: MOODY

59. Edit for size, as a photo: CROP

60. Follow: TAIL

61. Confident juggler's props: EGGS

62. Candy __: CANE

66. It may need a boost: EGO

67. Flanders who inspired the band Okilly Dokilly: NED of "The Simpsons" fame. There's a band from the UK called "Ned's Atomic Dustbin" who named themselves for a sketch from a BBC radio comedy show which aired in the 60's.

And with that, it's okilly dokilly, here's the grid!

Steve

Thursday January 23rd 2020 Bruce Haight

Theme: Cash Up - Five theme entries in the downs contain currencies running south-to-north:

3D. New Year's Day event in Pasadena: ROSE PARADE. Peso, or $ in most Latin counties (the Philippine Peso symbol is ₱.) There's what possibly is an urban legend that there is an upsurge in U-Haul rentals in the East and Midwest after the Rose Parade when the lovely Californian weather is usually on parade, along with the floats and people decide to move.

10D. Finish impressively: END WITH A BANG. Baht, or ฿.

21D. Lamb Chop puppeteer: SHARI LEWIS. Lira, or ₺. The Italian Lira is now defunct, having gone the way of the Euro, but Turkey still has theirs.

25D. It helps you go places: TRAVEL BUREAU. Ruble, or ₽. The symbol was officially adopted in 2013 following a public poll.

34D. Get support, in a way ... and what the puzzle circles do: RAISE MONEY. Yen, or ¥. I like how this is both the reveal and a theme entry in its own right.  Clever.

Another solid puzzle from Bruce, and again, we're looking at a 16x15 grid; I think this is the third Thursday in a row sporting that grid configuration. It's not impossible to place the two 12-letter theme entries in a 15x15 grid, but adding the extra row gives a little more elbow room and potentially a less scrappy fill. Bruce is just a "J" short of a pangram here, when I see Q, X and Z in a puzzle I start to look out for the J's, K's, V's and W's.

Let's take the grand tour:

Across:

1. Spunky: SCRAPPY

8. Longest-serving Japanese prime minister: ABE. Shinzō Abe, who is the current prime minister and has held the office since 2012.

11. Ave. crossers: STS.

14. Steel foundry input: IRON ORE

15. Traction-improving: NON-SLIP

17. "Try some!": TASTE IT! I need no further encouragement.

18. Lamaze class attendee: DAD-TO-BE

19. Expectant time: EVE.

20. One of the family: SIS

22. About 24% of the U.S. Congress: WOMEN

23. Stations: DEPOTS. Are these synonymous? To my mind, stations are for passengers and depots are for freight or stabling locomotives on the rail network.

26. Place for choppers: HELIPORT

29. Not quite right: AWRY

30. Oodles: A LOT

31. Broadway song that begins, "The most beautiful sound I ever heard": MARIA. From "West Side Story".

33. Brief encounter: BRUSH. Brush off, brush by and a brush with the law are all brief encounters of different types.

34. Flag thrower: REF. American Football. I can't think of another sport where a flag is thrown to indicate that an infringement has occurred.

37. Co-tsar with Peter I: IVAN V. Nice clue, I enjoyed the "co-star" play on words.

38. Saucepan cover: LID

39. Missile Command game company: ATARI

41. Place to stay: LODGE

42. Newcastle Brown __: ALE. A very famous beer in the UK. Like the Bass "Red Triangle" symbol, the iconic blue star logo, which was introduced in 1928, is instantly recognizable.

43. Starts bubbling, maybe: BOILS

44. Fleecy one: EWE

45. Loafs: LAZES

47. Strong suit: ASSET

48. Lost, as a big lead: BLEW

49. Way back when: ONCE

50. Rum drink: DAIQUIRI. I wasn't sure how to spell this, I had to let the crosses help me out.

54. Competition that includes snowboarding: X GAMES

57. Pianist Rubinstein: ARTUR

58. California's __ Gabriel Mountains: SAN. The backdrop to the Rose Parade. Pasadena is in the San Gabriel Valley.

60. Egg cells: OVA

61. Like the most busy busybody: NOSIEST

64. Mid-Michigan city: SAGINAW. I first learned this city from Simon and Garfunkel's song "America" from their Bookends album.

67. Uganda's capital: KAMPALA

68. Accessory for an Aquaman costume: TRIDENT

69. Before, in poems: ERE. 

Maid of Athens, ere we part,

Give, oh, give me back my heart!

Or, since that has left my breast,

Keep it now, and take the rest!

Hear my vow before I go,

Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ

Lord Byron - Maid of Athens

I'm not sure I understand the device of the last line in Greek - it translates as "My life, I love you!" but it doesn't rhyme with "go", neither in Greek nor English. Any scholarly folk have any idea what Byron was doing here?

70. Coffee hour sight: URN. It was a vase with feet last week.

71. "Sounds right to me": I'D SAY SO

Down:

1. Positioned: SITED

2. Really want: CRAVE. Why can't I crave kale? It's always fried chicken or truffles.

4. Tiny toiler: ANT

5. Name in eerie fiction: POE

6. Proper to a fault: PRISSY

7. Himalayan legend: YETI

8. "Furthermore ... ": AND

9. Fluffy wrap: BOA

11. Sportscast technique: SLO-MO

12. River near Vatican City: TIBER. Rome's river. The name of Trastevere, one of my favorite districts in Rome, comes from the latin Trans Tiberim, "beyond the Tiber".

13. Exhausted: SPENT

16. "Hold it!": STOP

24. Short, in a way: OWING

27. Gives the slip: ELUDES

28. Part of LAPD: LOS. Because none of the alternatives of Angeles, Police or Department would fit.

31. Pedometer unit: MILE. This is a little odd, I think. I wanted "step" at first, because that's what pedometers measure. A pedometer, strictly speaking, doesn't measure distance although it can provide an estimate based on an individual's stride length.

32. Swear: AVOW

33. Sport coat: BLAZER

35. Writer Gardner: ERLE

36. Rock that, oddly, loses to paper: FIST. I was trying to think of a type of rock at first, something along the TALC lines, then the penny dropped.

40. Puccini opera: TOSCA

46. Boxer Laila: ALI

49. Ventura County city: OXNARD

50. German word of gratitude: DANKE

51. Wildly cheering: AROAR. I've grown to like this word, I thought it was a little contrived when I first encountered it.

52. Knocker's words: IT'S ME!

53. Zinger: QUIP

55. Chris of "Captain America": EVANS. Thank you, crosses.

56. Handled: SAW TO

59. Wine made from Muscat grapes: ASTI

62. Camera type, for short: SLR. Single-Lens Reflex. When introduced, allowed the photographer to frame the picture looking through the lens of the camera, rather than a separate viewfinder lens.

63. You basked for it: TAN

65. USO show audience: GI'S

66. Wyo. neighbor: IDA.

That just about wraps it up for today!

Steve