Monday February 21, 2022 Timothy Schenck

Theme: BODY DOUBLE (63. 1984 De Palma film, and a hint to five puzzle answers)

17. How a boat may rock: SIDE TO SIDE.

21. How boxers square off: TOE TO TOE.

27. How Fred and Ginger sometimes danced: CHEEK TO CHEEK.

48. How BFFs converse: HEART TO HEART.

55. How people may agreeably see: EYE TO EYE

Boomer here. 

Well the Rams fought the Bengals TOE to TOE last week, however it seems that Minnesota won also when the Rams offensive coordinator was hired as the Vikings head coach.  Kevin O' Connell was announced as the new coach of the Purple. He presented himself very well in a speech in front of several retired players and a guy named Bud Grant.

Across:

1. Skin growth: WART.  Oh I hate these.  They are a mess to get rid of. 

5. Learns via word of mouth: HEARS.  What?

10. Riot spray: MACE.  This will take your breath away!

14. Camera or eye part: IRIS.

15. Bates __: "Psycho" setting: MOTEL.  Alfred Hitchcock used to come up with really spine-tingling movies!!

16. Muslim holy man: IMAM.

19. Busting agent: NARC.  The only drugs I take are prescribed by a doctor.  But I see guys standing in the sidewalk of Lake Street that might as well have a "Drugs for Sale" sign on their shirt.

20. Ziti or rigatoni: PASTA.  All are yummy.  I really like "Angel Hair".

23. Generous slice: SLAB.  I could use a SLAB of cheese but I am not sure if my health allows.

26. Macho: VIRILE.  Not me anymore,  Maybe I ate too much cheese.

32. "The guy over there": HIM.

33. Stadium attendance counter: STILE.  It's amazing for the new football stadiums.  The Super Bowl packed SoFi in Los Angeles.  Vikings have a huge indoor facility.  Green Bay is still playing in the cold. 

34. Sports show rundown: RECAP.  About 40 of these in the day after the big bowl.

38. Not fer: AGIN.

40. Assumed name: ALIAS.  Smith and Jones?

42. Lotus position discipline: YOGA.  Not a Yankee Catcher.

43. Pulsate: THROB.

45. Furnish with a fund: ENDOW.

47. Fond du __, Wisconsin: LAC. A great Wisconsin suburb a few miles north of Milwaukee and near Lake Michigan.

51. Division in a church: SCHISM.

54. Black gemstone: ONYX.  Who would have thought a black rock could be a gem.

58. Use elbow grease on: SCOUR.

62. Take __ the waist: alter: IN AT.  I just tighten my belt.  I could get fat again.

66. "__ Talkin'": Bee Gees #1 hit: JIVE.

67. Birch relative: ALDER.  Sometimes used in furniture.

68. Cosecant's reciprocal: SINE.

69. Cake decorator: ICER.  There's a job I would not mind having.  Or could it be a hockey player?

70. Video chat choice: SKYPE.

71. Abbr. at the end of a list: ET AL.  A good place for 71-Across. 

Down:

1. Thin trail of smoke: WISP.  Sorry, I do not see anyone smoking anywhere near the VA hospital.  It is just not allowed.

2. Mozart's "Il mio tesoro," e.g.: ARIA.

3. Frees (of): RIDS.

4. Scary African fly: TSETSE.  A real ugly bug.  Do NOT let it bite you!!

5. Managed care gp.: HMO.  Health Maintenance Organization.  Not the best plan.

6. Camera named for a Greek goddess: EOS.

7. Going __: bickering: AT IT.  My favorite was Billy Martin with any umpire.

8. Second effort: REDO.  Okay, They are going to REDO my chemo in two weeks.  I hope it works.

9. Place to hide a metaphorical ace: SLEEVE.  I will put a golf ball up my sleeve if I ever get a Hole in One !

10. Beethoven's Ninth is written in one: MINOR KEY.

11. Stradivari's tutor: AMATI.  Italian violin masters.

12. Christmas song: CAROL.  I like "Silver Bells".

13. Roast host: EMCEE.  They don't seem to have Roasts any longer.  But the Game Show Channel has a lot of EMCEEs.

18. Conversations: TALKS.  You can talk all you wanna but it's different than it was.  "No IT Ain't" but you gotta know the territory.

22. Bleacher feature: TIER.  There weren't bleachers but how about that SoFi Stadium!

24. "__ boy!": ATTA.

25. Water heater: BOILER.  Ours works well but it only heats water.  Never boils.

27. Chew the fat: CHAT.  I like Billy Martin with any umpire.

28. Tipsy from wine, say: HIGH.  HIGH apple pie in the SKY hopes.

29. Kuwaiti ruler: EMIR.

30. "Cry Macho" (2021) star Eastwood: CLINT.  I remember "Rawhide".

31. Set out for, as a destination: HEAD TO.  We "SET OUT FOR" a casino in Wisconsin last October.  For now I need to get my legs back in shape.

35. Pepsi, for one: COLA.  I like Diet Pepsi - especially the "No Caffeine" version now.

36. Food thickener: AGAR.

37. Agreement: PACT.

39. One of Nolan Ryan's seven: NO HITTER.  Nolan was a whiz.

41. "Any day now": SOON.

44. Kiss from Consuela: BESO.

46. "And your reason?": WHY SO.  WHY NOT?

49. One-celled pond dwellers: AMEBAS.

50. "The dog ate my homework" is a sad one: EXCUSE.  Nick Knack Paddy Whack, Give the dog a bone.

51. Conductor Ozawa: SEIJI.

52. Pessimist: CYNIC.  One thing I like about the VA - There are no cynics.  They pretty much tell it like it is with a little cream. 

53. Throw with effort: HEAVE.  Shot Put

56. Egg yellow: YOLK.  That's a YOLK on you !!

57. Drain swirl: EDDY.

59. Passing words?: OBIT.

60. Arm bone: ULNA.  Connected to the wrist bone.

61. Fishing rod attachment: REEL.  I sort of gave up fishing.  Spent a lot of time at North Star Lake in Northern Minnesota when I was a kid.

64. "You betcha": YEP.

65. Dr. of hip-hop: DRE.

Boomer

 

Thursday September 10th 2020 Timothy Schenck

Theme: Time for a drink!  As the theme reveal neatly explains:

37. Breaks found on rows 3, 5, 11 and 13 of this puzzle?: INTERMISSIONS.

Intermissions are lovely. You put in your drink order at the bar before the first act, and when the curtain drops for the break, off you trot and find your order ready and waiting for you. It's part of the magic of live theater. In the case of "The Woman in Black" in London's West End, I damn well needed it. I was scared to death. My daughter (I think she was 17 at the time) had to pat my hand to calm me down. I did notice she downed her Jack & Coke pretty quickly though.

So moving on, the grid at the bottom gives you a better picture of the theme entries, but the "intermission" breaks up the names of four Shakespeare plays (Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello) on the four rows of the puzzle which have only one black square. I'm visualizing the black square as the curtain coming down for the interval. Coming back from the interval, you might see this:

I looked to see if there was anything deeper to the theme, but I couldn't uncover a "meta". We have a prince, a king, a thane first and then a king and finally a general, but nothing I can see to link the title characters together.

Straightforward enough theme then, nothing to anger the crossword gods as far as I can see. It might be a little on the easy side for a Thursday, but there's no harm in a breeze through the puzzle every now and then. Let's take a tour:

Across:

1. Gets ready for vacation: PACKS.

6. Initialed, perhaps: OK'ED.

10. Turkish title of honor: AGHA.

14. Before-bed read: E-BOOK. Peculiar clue/answer, why an e-book in particular and why specifically before bed? 

15. After curfew: LATE. Before curfew: LATTÉ

16. Boy friends: BROS.

17. Entrée with a sweet glaze: CANDIED HAM.

19. Reply to "Shall we?": LETS!

20. __ Minor: ASIA.

21. Indian princess: RANI. Aghas and Ranis today. We are honored.

22. Grand, moneywise: GEE.

23. Making out: NECKING.

25. Do-it-yourself manual phrase: LEARN TO.

29. Baby blues, e.g.: PEEPERS. Jeepers, Creepers!

31. __ & Perrins steak sauce: LEA. Repeat after me. It's pronounced WUSTER. Guy Ferry (oh, I'm sorry "Fieri" as he now prefers to be known) revelling in his own ignorance annoys me just a little. It's not difficult. Moving on, rant over.

32. Make the grade?: PASS.

35. Country with the highest and lowest points in the W. Hemisphere: ARGentina. The high point is Cerro Aconcagua at 22,141ft and the low point is Laguna del Carbón which is 344 ft below sea level, making a height differential of 22,485 ft. Quite a climb from bottom to top.

36. Like cranberry juice: TART.

41. Senate staffer: PAGE. I tried AIDE first. Was wrong, but easily rectified.

42. Attila follower: HUN. I like this one - HUN follows ATTILA in his generally-accepted name, and the Huns as a whole followed him. Neat!

43. Lymph __: NODE.

44. Switch ups?: ONS. Switch downs - Offs. Just to confuse the issue, the Brits, not content with spelling words with a redundant "U" and driving on the wrong side of the road have "Off" being up and "On" being down. I know.

45. Old dinero: PESETAS.

48. River under the Arlington Memorial Bridge: POTOMAC. Not difficult if you know that the Potomac is in D.C but a nice clue.

50. "Don't miss it!": BE THERE!

55. ER workers: RN'S.

56. Animal house: LAIR.

58. Rink jump: AXEL.

59. Unintended ink, maybe: BLOT. Not a tattoo when you've had too much to drink? Someone should tell Jimmy Buffett "... how it got there I haven't a clue".

61. Sanrio character with a red bow: HELLO KITTY. I have a picture of myself with a six-foot Hello Kitty costume character at one of the Licensing Expos in Las Vegas. I'll spare you.

63. Car with a bar: LIMO. I was thinking railroads and trying to think of an alternate name for the bar car when the penny dropped.

64. H.S. subject: BIOL.

65. Cajun pods: OKRAS. I'm not sure I'd use the "S" to pluralize this one. To me, "okra" is singular and plural.

66. Cookbook abbr.: TBSP. How many okra to a tablespoon?

67. Binary code digits: ONES. Binary. It's as easy as 01,10,11.

68. Bill Parcells' real first name: DUANE. Nice bit of trivia this, I had no idea. The Big Tuna adopted the name "Bill" because at high school he was always being mistaken for another student called Bill, and he didn't like his given name, so he went with the misnomer.

Down:

1. Pie choice: PECAN. Apple for me.

2. Humble: ABASE. Verb, not the noun.

3. Like megaphones: CONIC.

4. Company that coined a photographic "moment": KODAK. 

5. Compete in a biathlon: SKI. Then you shoot. The biathlon and the modern pentathlon are all based on what skills a soldier would need; in the biathlon's case an infantry soldier in winter, in the pentathlon's case a cavalry officer (although I'm not sure quite why a cavalry officer would need to swim unless his horse went on strike).

6. Time of one's life: OLD AGE. When does old age start? I remember when I was a kid that I was aghast when I worked out that by the year 2000 I'd be 41. I was convinced I'd never make it to be that old.

7. Actress Madeline: KAHN. Who? Thank you, crosses, always bailing me out with TV and film peeps.

8. Amazon and Etsy: E-TAILERS.

9. AOC, for one: DEM. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic reprentative for New York's 14th Congressional District.

10. More competent: ABLER.

11. Home of Thule Air Base, the U.S. Air Force's northernmost: GREENLAND. What happened to the plan to buy the country? That seemed to die a quick death.

12. In great demand: HOT.

13. Donkey: ASS.

18. Sea eagle: ERNE.

24. __ dixit: assertion without proof: IPSE. "That's just how it is".

26. Units of energy: ERGS. Derived from the Greek "ergon" meaning work, or task. In SI units it is equivalent to 1.000000×10⁻⁷ J; the Brits again make it complicated expressing it as equal to 7.375621×10⁻⁸ ft⋅lbf,  but at least now you all know. I'd go with the SI version if you're ever asked.

27. Laconic: TERSE.

28. Cheerios grain: OAT.

30. Revolutionary pamphleteer: PAINE. Thomas Paine. He was born in Thetford in England and came over here to cause trouble. Not the first Englishman to stir the pot.

32. John's instrument: PIANO. Sir Elton, master of tickling the ivories.

33. Light-wave units: ANGSTROMS. Expresses wavelength and interatomic distances. Equivalent to 10⁻⁸ cm. We're getting quite a lesson in exponents today.

34. Sault __ Marie: STE. Thank you, crosswords past.

36. "__ bad!": TOO.

38. Flightless bird: RHEA.

39. Intrude (on): MUSCLE IN.

40. Research ctr.: INSTitute.

41. Soda: POP. Are all sodas pop, and are all pop sodas? I'm not sure, I'll turn it over to the wordly-wise.

45. Some govt. leaders: PM'S. Prime Ministers, or should that be "Ministers, Prime"? It's not widely known, but the designation of Prime Minister is usually an honorific, and not an official title, the UK included.

46. Govt. notes: T-BILLS.

47. Aviation prefix: AERO- You can have aeronautics, aerobatics and aeroplanes, but you can't have airnautics or airbatics, but you can have airplanes. Anyone care to tell us why?

51. Short verse: HAIKU.

52. More than needed: EXTRA.

53. Cure again, as leather: RE-TAN. I'm not sure if you can re-tan something, isn't it one and done, or worse, one and failed?

54. "Family Ties" mom: ELYSE. I never saw the show, but the solid crosses filled in the name for me.

57. Skin cream additive: ALOE. 

59. Club alternative: BLT. The classic sandwich.

60. Ad-__: LIB.

61. "Big Little Lies" network: HBO.

62. Decked in a ring: KO' D. 

[Cast Exeunt]

And so, here find ourselves at the end of the puzzle. Usually I'd just post the grid and be gone (begone with thee!) but today there's a little coda.

The sharp-eyed among you might have noticed that I skipped a couple of the solution entries, so here they are to finish things off:

49D. Good way to go out: ON TOP.

22D. Fun time: GAS.

As you might guess from that, this is my last blog at the Corner for the forseeable future (that's a cracking expression, isn't it - you can't tell what's going to happen in the next two minutes, so not exactly a lot of the future is foreseeable. A car crashed into my house once while I was sitting in this same chair, I certainly didn't foresee that happening, even two seconds before.)   

I'm not sure I'm going out "on top" but I am going out "on Thursday" but you get the idea. And it's been a gas. Or, in the great words of the Rolling Stones - a "gas gas gas".

That's a cue for my final musical link: you might have to "click to expand" or unmute if you want to hear it. There's an expression "dance like no-one's watching" - I love how Mick Jagger dances precisely because someone's watching. So do the same. For the sheer musicianship, theatricals, lyrics and dance I think this is my favorite video of all time. 

Thanks for all the education, comments, questions and clarifications over the years; it's been quite the experience. The blogging team here have been wonderful, and C.C. is an amazing mentor and inspiration.

Keep as well as you are able; and remember to be nice to each other. It's a short life, however long you live it. Or a long life, however short you live it. Don't hold back.

Now it's Theme Time - it's time for a drink!

Sláinte!

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

I'm very sad to tell you that today will be Steve's last write-up. He joined our team in 2012 and has faithfully guided us over 354 posts (thanks, TTP!). Steve blogged when he was traveling for work in India. He blogged when he was home in England for Christmas. No matter where he was, he's always here guiding us on Thursdays. Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication over the past 8 years, Steve. We'll miss your incomparable humor and wits  You're a クールな男!"

Thursday, March 28th 2019 Timothy Schenck

Theme:

10D. *Italian pistols: BERETTAS. (Beret) In the early James Bond novels, his pistol of choice was a Beretta 418, but a firearm expert and a fan of the books wrote to Ian Fleming criticizing his decision as the weapon had no real stopping power. Fleming replaced the firearm with a Walther PPK in Dr. No.

11D. *A skeptic's wont: TO QUESTION (Toque) I was impressed that Timothy found a way to use the proper name for the tall chef's hat, among other styles.

28D. *Quaker Oats cereal with a naval officer on the box: CAP'N CRUNCH (Cap)

38D. *The Sunshine Skyway Bridge spans it: TAMPA BAY (Tam). The bridge was involved in a tragic incident in 1980 when a freighter collided with it during a thunderstorm and brought down a large section.

38A. Partners of tails ... and what's found in the answers to starred clues: TOP HATS. See the picture of the royals below.

Happy Thursday, everyone, and I'm thinking a particularly happy Thursday for the constructor, as I believe this is his debut for the LA Times. The theme is simple, but nicely done. The theme entries are all in the downs so that the hat can sit "on top." as the reveal suggests.

[Edit: It's actually Tim's second LAT).

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Ancient gathering place: STOA

5. Warm place to chill: HOT TUB

11. "Waterfalls" pop trio: TLC. I know the song, I had no ideal that was the name of the group.

14. Medical breakthrough: CURE

15. Revolt: UPRISE

16. "That looks good!": OOH!

17. Dict. label: ABBR.

18. Not as nice: MEANER

19. Sine __ non: QUA. An "essential condition or necessary component" for you non-ancient Romans out there.

20. Impressive vocal quality: RESONANCE

22. Spew: ERUPT

24. Have a feeling: SENSE

25. Reason for a warm eye compress: STYE

26. Race town near Windsor Castle: ASCOT. Gentlemen are encouraged to dress formally for the annual Royal Ascot meet in June. Here's some royals being, well, royal at Royal Ascot. Prince Harry looks like he just got off a horse.

29. Information to process: DATA SET.         

32. "Sounds fair": DEAL

33. Berth place: MARINA

36. Greek cross: TAU

37. ChapStick target: LIP

39. Doctrine suffix: -ISM

40. The Stratford, in TV's "Newhart": INN. Here's the Waybury Inn in Vermont which was used in the show "acting" as the Stratford.

41. Pupil surrounder: AREOLA. Quiet at the back.

42. Frost lines?: POEM

43. Flatters: BECOMES

45. Masculine: MANLY

46. Cheats, with "off": RIPS

47. "__ always makes it better": Anne Burrell: BACON. I never heard her say it, but didn't take long to figure this one out.

50. Throat dangler: UVULA

52. Aboveboard: ALLOWABLE

56. Solder component: TIN along with lead, or silver and copper for lead-free solders, and commonly with a flux core.

57. Caviar source: BELUGA

59. Morsel on a shellfish platter: CLAW. Depends how big your crustacean is. The biggest lobster caught on record was a 44lb behemoth off Nova Scotia in 1977. Those claws are certainly not "morsels"!

60. Anti-apartheid org.: A.N.C. The African National Congress.

61. Landfall for Noah: ARARAT

62. Word before and after sweet: HOME

63. Part of a snarky laugh: HEH

64. Approvals: YESSES

65. Terminal info: E.T.A.S

Down:

1. Emotional trauma consequence: SCAR

2. Skin cream holder: TUBE

3. Poetic spheres: ORBS

4. Spray starch dispenser: AEROSOL

5. Likely to err, eventually?: HUMAN. You can be divine, and forgive though.

6. Hits theaters: OPENS

7. Vestige: TRACE

8. Spork prong: TINE

9. Finish, with "up": USE

12. __-garou: werewolf: LOUP. First mentioned in 60 B.C. by Roman author Petronius, so they've been around a while. Before the invention of firearms and silver bullets, they pretty much had the run of the place at full moon time. Apparently you can bludgeon one to death with a blunt silver object, but I'd prefer to keep my distance.
.
13. Facebook option: CHAT

21. Safety feature at a trapeze school: NET

23. Scandinavian rug: RYA. Thank you, crosswords past.

25. Seasonal visitor: SANTA

26. Stage surprise: AD LIB

27. River with 37 bridges in Paris: SEINE. I was going to tell you how many bridges cross the Seine in total, but when I went to Wikipedia I realized I'd be here all day counting them. Just know, there's a lot!

29. Retro phone part: DIAL

30. Conference room stand: EASEL. For the flip chart. Still a fixture in these days of whiteboards and flat-panel TVs.

31. Tot's ache source: TUMMY

33. Social customs: MORES

34. Imitates: APES

35. Letter before sigma: RHO

42. Grand style: PANACHE

44. Safflower __: OIL

45. Cut grass: MOW

47. Gets fuzzy: BLURS. Gets fuzzy, not Get Fuzzy:

48. Diet for some aquarium fish: ALGAE. The Siamese Algae Eater is described on one website as "easy to keep, and will eat anything put in the tank". I hope not, they'd eat all the plants, the other fish and the treasure chest if that was the case.

49. Paint layers: COATS

50. Arches National Park state: UTAH

51. Hollywood crosser: VINE. Here's the iconic Capitol Records tower seen from the intersection. There's a flashing light on the top of the mast which spells out "Hollywood" in Morse Code.

52. "Oh dear!": ALAS

53. Ink smudge: BLOT

54. Revered Tibetan: LAMA

55. Farm females: EWES

58. "Blood hath been shed __ now": Macbeth: ERE. On seeing Banquo's ghost.

"...The time has been

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

And there an end. But now they rise again

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns

And push us from our stools. This is more strange

Than such a murder is."

I don't have a lot of sympathy for Macbeth - he didn't just push Banquo off his stool, he pushed him off his mortal coil.

And with that thought, here's the grid!

Steve