Chairman Moe here, with a puzzle that triskaidekaphobians might also fear. Yes, Cornerites, it is Friday the 13th. Why not?! The year 2020 has thrown just about everything else at us! And while I had no "fears" completing the puzzle (or writing the blog), the combination of the number 13 and Friday scares the bejeezus out of many. Perhaps it got worse after this film debuted:
This may be Tina's first puzzle for the LA Times, and I'm pretty sure that she was not planning on this being the publish date, as there is nothing overt in it about "Friday the 13th".
In doing some research about her I found, from Inkubatorcrosswords.com, that Tina Lippman got interested in making crosswords about a year ago. She's originally from New England, but currently lives in southern Indiana with her husband, teenage daughter, and cat. She's a librarian by training, and has worked as a college financial aid officer and a composer of grammar questions for the SAT.
Let's see how she "tied" these altogether!
19-across. London apartment for a snake?: MOCCASIN FLAT. A MOCCASIN refers to a snake of the viper family or to a soft-sided shoe that features either a hard or soft sole. It was historically known as the footwear of Native Americans, but hunters, traders, and European settlers wore them, too.
A FLAT is both the British term for an apartment, or can refer to a woman's shoe with no heel
29-across. One who watches Grand Canyon pack animals?: MULE SPECTATOR. A MULE is both a pack animal and a style of shoe that has no back or constraint around the foot's heel; akin to a clog
And in the "now I have learned something new" category, a SPECTATOR is not just a person who views an event, but also, according to Wikipedia, a shoe! The spectator shoe, also known as co-respondent shoe, is a style of low-heeled, oxford, semi-brogue or full brogue constructed from two contrasting colours, typically having the toe and heel cap and sometimes the lace panels in a darker colour than the main body of the shoe. I guess this qualifies:
37-across. Spy at a centuries-old school?: OXFORD SNEAKER. Very clever combo here! The University of OXFORD (in Oxford, Oxfordshire England) dates back to the year 1096, making it one of the oldest English-speaking universities in the World. An OXFORD shoe is characterised by having shoelace aglets attached under the vamp. Looks similar to a SPECTATOR, no?
SNEAKER, in this clue, refers both to a person who stealthily approaches another or a type of athletic shoe. Who didn't crave a pair of these to wear during gym class?
Which slides right into the reveal: 52-across. What inspired three long puzzle answers: PAIRS OF SHOES. Six pairs of shoes in today's puzzle, which is probably the right amount for most guys but just the tip of the iceberg for most women ... remember this collection?
Across:
1. Bond's watch since 1995: OMEGA. Omega's brand experienced a resurgence in the James Bond 007 films; the character had previously worn a Rolex Submariner but switched to the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M with GoldenEye (1995) and has stayed with the latter ever since until swapping it for the Omega Planet
6. Schools from Ky. and In. are in it, surprisingly: ACC. Atlantic Coast Conference. The University of Louisville (KY) and The University Notre Dame (South Bend, IN) are not situated in a state that borders the Atlantic Ocean. Nor Pitt, although PA counts as a Mid-Atlantic state. All of the other schools (Syracuse, Boston College, Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami) reside in a state that has a shoreline on the Atlantic
9. They may be split: HAIRS. In the not-so-literal meaning, to split HAIRS is to quibble over things that are pretty trivial. But for many women, split HAIR ENDS can be problematic
14. Like gumbo: CAJUN. CSO to Hahtoolah, Big Easy, and SwampCat, who may or may not be CAJUN, but who reside in Louisiana. IIRC, the word "Cajun" was a colloquialism for the word ACADIAN, depicting the 17th C French settlers who emigrated to what are now the Eastern Provinces of Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI). The Cajun's of Louisiana also spoke primarily French, but were also influenced by Spanish and West African languages
15. "No one knows": WHO CAN SAY. I now know this: the song embedded below (called "WHO CAN SAY") is one of the more beautiful ones ever written/sung
17. Setting for much of "Aquaman": OCEAN. The character "Aquaman" first appeared in a comic book back in the early 1940's. The character and comics are part of DC Comics as opposed to Marvel. The eponymous movie debuted in 2018. In an earlier blog I offered a picture of the lead actor. It was panned pretty much like the movie, which scored a paltry 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's the trailer:
18. Wiry-coated terriers: AIREDALES. One of the largest of the terrier breeds, the AIREDALE is so-named due to its originating from the valley (dale) of the River Aire, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Wikipedia has more if you are so inclined. Cute dog. I recently had this one helping me out on my blog
21. Fangorn Forest dweller: ENT. OK, I may be the only Cornerite who has NEVER ... as in NEVER EVER ... watched any of TLOTR movies. So of course, Fangorn Forest was totally foreign to this blogger, but I figured it had to do with LOTR. So, I googled Fangorn Forest and found this clip. Maybe I will have to "catch up" now that I am retired ...
22. Movie costume for Keaton or Kilmer: BATSUIT. Great clue! Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer both played the DC Comics hero, Batman, in the movies. Bruce Wayne first created the "costume" to invoke fear in the criminals he pursued, as well as to hide his identity. And yes, BATSUIT is one word!
23. Clothing line: HEM. HEMlines in women's clothing (dresses and skirts) went crazy throughout time, beginning as low as the ankles and rising to mid-thigh with the late '60's introduction of the mini-skirt. It can also refer to the length of a man's trousers and position of the cuff
26. Lexicon with 600,000+ wds.: OED. One of the more familiar crossword abbr's
27. Unwell: AILING. Not sure that this word is used a whole lot nowadays ... can refer to both sickness or injury
33. Oversupply: GLUT. Noun synonyms include: surfeit, excess, and plethora. Verb synonyms include: binge, gourmandize, and overindulge. Root for the word glutton, but not gluten
35. A.L. East player: RAY. The Tampa Bay RAYS (erstwhile, DEVIL RAYS) came oh so close to winning the World Series in 2020, but fell to the LA Dodgers in 6 games. Player: RAY; Team: RAYS. And of course, a CSO to Tinbeni and Wilbur Charles, though their favorite teams are the NY Yankees and Boston RedSox, respectively
36. Pitch: TOSS. As in horseshoes, or this popular game.This brief video will help you improve your TOSS
42. Think otherwise: DIFFER. This past election showed me, at least, that we don't necessarily DIFFER nearly as much as we think we do
43. Subject for Dr. Ruth: SEX. Dr. Ruth Westheimer has quite the biography.She and my Mom are the same age, and about the same height
44. Kourtney, to Kim: SIS. At the end of Season 17 of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians", these two acted anything like SISters; or maybe they did
45. Brit's grilled sandwich: TOASTIE. I guess since his dialect sounds "British" we can concur that this indeed is how to make a "TOASTIE"
49. __-la-la: TRA. More crossword-ese
54. "Potluck Dinner Party" co-host: SNOOP DOGG. The other co-host is
Martha Stewart. A TV show on VH1. Never saw it, but the first thing that came
to MY mind was whether or not Martha showed SNOOP how to properly bake
brownies!
57. Some combustion engines: HEMI'S. The Chrysler engines, known by the
trademark HEMI, a series of I6 and V8 gasoline engines built by Chrysler with
hemispherical combustion chambers. Three different types of Hemi
engines have been built by Chrysler for automobiles: the first (known as the
Chrysler FirePower engine) from 1951 to 1958, the second from 1964 to 1971,
and the third beginning in 2003. wikipedia.org
58. Five-time NCAA Division I ice hockey champs: MINNESOTA. CSO to
Boomer and C.C. who reside in the State of 10,000 lakes. The
University of MINNESOTA "Golden Gophers" hockey team scored three of those
NCAA Div I titles under
this famous coach, who also happened to coach the winning squad of US Amateurs in the 1980
Olympics in Lake Placid
59. Skybox setting: ARENA. As in a sports arena, where the choice seats
can be situated at the top or upper tiers. Many skyboxes have amenities like
drinks and food. One of my favorite SKYBOX settings is not in an arena, per
se, although I suppose this qualifies as an outdoor one. If the COVID virus is
gone after next year, perhaps in 2022 I can be a visitor at this sporting
event:
60. Bridges seen on TV: LLOYD. Actor LLOYD Bridges (b. 1/15/1913, d. 3/10/1998) had his first TV acting role on the show Sea Hunt in the late 1950's. His role was Mike Nelson, and as a former Navy Frogman, became as a civilian, a free-lance diver. Here is an interesting recap on Wikipedia. In his later years, LLOYD became maybe more familiar as this character in a well-known movie with many sequels; Steve MacCroskey:
61. Work for eds.: MSS. New to me. MSS, or Mss. is the abbr. for hand-written manuscripts. And here I always equated it as the code for this upstate NY airport!
62. Unpleasantly loud: NOISY. Adj. Oh the things you can find on the internet ...
Down:
1. Noel beginning: O COME. O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL. You gotta listen to this; Pentatonix
2. Georgia home of the Tubman Museum: MACON. Kind of a WAG when I solved the puzzle; so much to learn and read about Harriet Ross Tubman, born c. March 1822 - died March 10, 1913. While Wiki mentions nothing about the Museum in MACON named for her, the actual museum is slightly less than 40 years old. Tubman helped many slaves escape to freedom via the "Underground Railroad".
3. Disc drive button: EJECT. just in case you have forgotten how to EJECT a DVD from your computer>
4. Avocado dip, for short: GUAC. Short for GUACamole. Now, in the "how weird can Chairman Moe take us on THIS one" ... of course, I found yet another lesser known fact about GUACamole. Ok, if you've now read the link, and had a laugh or not, just a quick public service announcement to all of you men out there; young or old: Get a checkup! Testicular and Prostate Cancer detection is no laughing matter. And this is from one who's survived one of these for 16 years and counting ...
5. Lee who lived "in a kingdom by the sea": ANNABEL. From the poem by Edgar Allan Poe:
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee
6. Anticipate: AWAIT. I'm sure that this family was not expecting this during the Holidays ... in keeping with Friday the 13th, why not another horror-filled trailer?? NOOO! Enough C Moe!!
7. Biceps exercises, familiarly: CHINS. The words "CHINS" is fine; I take exception to the clue. CHIN UPS - not sure that I've ever used or heard a "familiar" term for them. And I am sure that using a clue to describe THIS image would probably not have made the cut ...
8. Greek vacation spot: CORFU. I wonder if any Greeks vacation here? When I googled CORFU to get an image, the shape of the island resembles Italy, don't you think?
9. Jumped in with enthusiasm: HAD AT IT. OK! I HAVE HAD IT! Enough of the forced fill!! I'm HARD AT IT doing this blog, and any attempt to find the expression "HAD AT IT" on Google FELL ON DEAF EARS (to borrow an earlier in the week entry). But, I'll give the constructor and/or the editor(s) an A for effort ... I guess if it's the only seven letters that filled this spot, then so be it
10. Nursing school subj.: ANAT. Moe-ku #1:
Vet School Students whose
Focus is cows and sheep, read
"Graze ANATomy"
11. 8-Down, e.g.: Abbr.: ISL.
did you know there were this many definitions for the letters ISL?
12. "The Photograph" actress Issa: RAE. On Tuesday we had RAE Dawn
Chong; as well as five other combos of the letters A, E, and R
13. Part of GPS: Abbr.: SYS. Global Positioning
SYStem
16. Pertaining to the abdominal cavity: CELIAC. The word "CELIAC"
appears more frequently in crossword puzzles, perhaps due to recent increased
awareness to GLUTen intolerance. But
do you know the difference between the two?
I didn't
20. "Smooth Operator" artist: SADE. Helen FolaSADE Abu, b. January 16,
1959. A 1980's classic
23. __-miss: HIT OR. Or in today's baseball world, it's more like home run or strike out
24. "The Killing" actress Mireille: ENOS. Perhaps it is because I sort of boycotted movies and many TV shows for nearly two decades, but this ENOS was not as familiar to me as this ENOS
25. Dave Martinez and Dave Roberts, for two: Abbr.: MGRS. Plural abbr. for Managers. Baseball may be the lone sport that doesn't call their on-field person-in-charge "coach". Baseball has coaches who assist the MGRS and other sports have assistant coaches who help the head coach. Martinez is the Manager of the 2019 World Series Champion Washington Nationals, while Roberts in the Manager of the 2020 World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers
26. Words with touch or sight: OUT OF. Something we are never OUT OF here at the "C Moe-tel":
28. Glove material: LATEX. There is something about that snapping sound, when the LATEX glove is donned, that most men fear
29. Mishandles: MUFFS. Nice to see a word other than "ERRS" to fit this clue
30. Most GRE takers: SRS. Graduate Recognition Examination. Generally taken by SRS (abbr for Seniors) in college for post-Bachelor Degree school admission
31. Bad assessment: PAN. Moe-ku #2:
Cap'n Hook's exam
Outcome, at urologist,
Was a Peter PAN
32. __ shadow: EYE.
33. Mercury and Mars: GODS. I had ORBS to start. Clever clue
34. Year in Nero's reign: LXII. 62. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; b. 15 December 37 d. 9 June 68 AD. His reign went from the year 54 until his death in 68. Lots of debauchery during his brief rule
38. Did a trainer's job: RE-TAPED
39. "These aren't the __ you're looking for": Obi-Wan: DROIDS. You gotta like spoofs!
40. "Not likely!": AS IF.
41. Kangaroo player: KEESHAN. I knew this one straight away, as Captain Kangaroo was a fixture of my youth. Lots about him at IMDb
46. Woolf's "__ of One's Own": A ROOM. A book dating back to the late 1920s. In it, Woolf describes in both figurative and literal terms why a woman writer need A ROOM of [sic} their own
47. Certain NCOs: S.SGTS. Short for Staff Sergeants. Army rank of E-6
48. Forum robes: TOGAS. I'm sure you were expecting something from Animal House ... TOGA, TOGA, TOGA ... but I opted for this TOGA tutorial. Might come in handy at your next TOGA party
49. "In the Bedroom" Oscar nominee: TOMEI. Marisa TOMEI, b. December 4,
1964 in Brooklyn, NY. Played the role of Aunt May in the Spider-Man movie
series, but looks much younger than the comic book character
50. Rider's controls: REINS. The steering wheel for a horse
51. Evaluate: ASSAY. As in precious metals, perhaps
52. Shot glass: PONY. A PONY glass is more properly the term to describe a shot glass (for measuring alcohol or serving a cordial/liqueur) that holds 1 oz. Typical bar glassware for measuring a "shot" holds about 1-1/2 oz. But I never measure ... as a Sommelier I can pour by feel!
53. 1993 chart topper for Mariah Carey: HERO.
54. Tee sizes, for short: SML. Small, Medium, and
Large. The plural "sizes" solved this one for me
55. Nada: NIL. Latin root word for "nothing". The word "nada" also has
Latin roots. Other foreign words for nothing? French: RIEN; German: NICHTS;
Chinese (simplified): 没有
56. Activist Yoko: ONO. The word crossword constructors use when ENE
(the directional) won't fit because they need "Os" instead!
Last video; promise! Click on this link, if you dare:
high heels
The Grid:
Notes from C.C.:
Happy Birthday to Big Easy (George)! Here he is with his wife Diane, Louisiana
Tennis Hall of Famer.
