Tuesday, April 15, 2025 Victor Schmitt

The company you keep ...  The circles "repeat" an abbreviation for legal business.

15-Across. With some exceptions: IN CERTAIN CASES.  INC. is short for Incorporated.

27-Across. Place to pick up tickets at a theater, perhaps: WILL CALL COUNTER.  LLC is short for a Limited Liability Company.  A Limited Liability Company is a business structure that protects its owners from personal liability. The company combines the tax benefits of a partnership with the liability protection of a corporation.

41-Across. Thin Mint or Trefoil: GIRL SCOUT COOKIE.  CO is short for Company.

And the unifier:

55-Across. Goal of store loyalty programs, and what can be found in 15-, 27-, and 41-Across: REPEAT BUSINESS.

Here's the Grid so you can see the Repeated Businesses:

Across:

1. Spanish "more": MAS.  Today's Spanish Lesson.

4. Table salt, to a chemist: NaCl.  Table salt is an ionic compound composed of sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) ions.

8. NBA great O'Neal, to fans: SHAQ.  Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (b. Mar. 6, 1972) played basketball for LSU before going professional.  There is a statue of him on the LSU campus.

12. "__ my words ... ": MARK.

13. French fashion monthly: ELLE.

14. __ Xtra: Dr Pepper rival: PIBB.

18. Queasiness: NAUSEA.

19. High degrees: NTHs.

20. GP's gp.: AMA.  A General Practitioner might be a member of the American Medical Association.

21. Mint-garnished rum cocktail: MOJITO.  Yummers!  This traditional Cuban cocktail is made of The cocktail white rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water, and mint.

24. Will Ferrell holiday film: ELF.  Not a fan of Will Ferrell (né John William Ferrell; b. July 16, 1967).

31. Speaker output: AUDIO.

32. Impulse: URGE.

33. Tofu base: SOYBEAN.

36. Ancestry.com service: DNA TEST.

39. With 51-Down, soothing plant: ALOE.  //  And 51-Down. See 39-Across: VERA.

40. Boxing matches: BOUTS.

48. Fine and dandy: A-OK.

49. Gretel's brother: HANSEL.

50. Online addresses: Abbr.: IPs.  As in an Internet Protocol address.

51. Workshop clamp: VISE.

52. Pouch spun by a spider: EGG SAC.

60. At all: EVER.

61. Country road: LANE.

62. Son of Hera and Zeus: ARES.  It's all Greek to me.

63. TV warrior princess played by Lucy Lawless: XENA.  It's been over 25 years since Lucy Lawless (née Lucille Frances Ryan; b. Mar. 29, 1968) portrayed Xena: Warrior Princess. Lucy Lawless is from Auckland, New Zealand, which is also the country where Xena was filmed.

64. Southernmost Great Lake: ERIE.  Whenever I see Erie in the puzzle, I think of our old friend Abejo.

65. Tied the knot: WED.

Down:

1. Car with a clutch: MANUAL.

2. Circle segments: ARCS.

3. __-Ball: arcade game: SKEE.

4. Pickleball barrier: NET.

5. Pie __ mode: À LA.  Today's French lesson.

6. Medical center: CLINIC.

7. Gave for a while: LENT TO.

8. Mani-pedi spots: SPAs.

9. Casual hellos: HIs!

10. Fiver: ABE.  I never heard the term Abe as referring to a $5 bill, but it makes sense.

11. TD pass throwers, perhaps: QBs.  Think football.

12. Florida metropolitan area with an Art Deco District: MIAMI.  The Art Deco Historic District in Miami Beach is a known for its well-preserved Art Deco architecture, featuring pastel-colored buildings, geometric shapes, and intricate design details, making it a living museum of the 1930s. 

16. Holiday Inn competitor: RAMADA.

17. French pet name that also means "cabbage": CHOU.  Today's French lesson.  Children in France are sometimes called Mon petit chou, or Ma petite chou, which is a term of endearment.  It literally translates, however, to my little cabbage.

18. Casual denial: NAW.

22. Lena of "Chocolat": OLIN.  This Swedish actress used to make frequent appearances in the crossword puzzles.  Chocolat is a 2000 film, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Joanne Harris.  The film is about a young women who appears in a French village and opens a small chocolate shop.  Soon, she and her chocolate influence the lives of the townspeople of this repressed French community.  Lena Olin (née Lena Maria Jonna Olin; b. Mar. 22, 1955) was one of those impacted by the chocolate.

23. Former "Idol" judge, to fans: J.LO.

24. Raison d'__: ÊTRE.  More of today's French lesson.  This phrase translates to the "reason for being." 

25. Trio on a stool: LEGS.

26. Guitar ridge: FRET.

28. Tag: LABEL.

29. Billiards stick: CUE.

30. Bananas: NUT-SO.

33. Epic story: SAGA.  The Welsh author Ken Follett (b. June 5, 1949), is known for writing sagas.  He wrote Pillars of the Earth, which follows several families in medieval England.

34. Mixed bag: OLIO.

35. Big name in peppermint patties: YORK.

36. Pour affection (on): DOTE.

37. Cell centers: NUCLEI.

38. From __ Z: A TO.  We saw this phrase recently.

40. Help wait tables: BUS.  Did you ever wonder where the term To Bus Tables originated?  Bus in this sense is a shortened form of Omnibus.  Originally, the term was Omnibus Boy, the person who did many jobs in a restaurant, then it was shortened to Bus boy, and from there the word Bus became a verb.

42. Branch of Islam: SHIA.

43. Stronghold with a keep: CASTLE.  What exactly is a Castle Keep?

44. Sign of weak cellular service: ONE BAR.

45. Smooched: KISSED.

46. "Skip me": I PASS.

47. Keyboard key that exits full-screen mode: ESC.

53. Nibble (at): GNAW.

54. "Sommersby" actor Richard: GERE.  Sommersby was a 1993 film about a man who returned home after fighting in the Civil War.  He seemed very different and this aroused suspicion in his wife and others, but  his tobacco-growing scheme became profitable for the whole town, so everyone was happy. Then he was accused of the murder of a man killed many years before.  Richard Gere (né Richard Tiffany Gere; b. Aug. 31, 1949) portrayed Jack Sommersby.  Jody Foster portrayed his wife.

55. Harrison of "My Fair Lady": REX.  Sir Rex Harrison (né Reginald Carey Harrison; Mar. 5, 1908 ~ June 2, 1990) portrayed Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.

56. New Year's __: EVE.

57. Calligrapher's tool: PEN.

58. Aussie's college: UNI.  Hello to our friend Kazie.  I hope she is doing well.  She used to make reference to her day at Uni.

59. "Catch my drift?": SEE.

We're all in Good Company here.  I hope this puzzle distracted you from the pain of paying your taxes today.

Many thanks to Tony who filled in for me last week.

חתולה

Chag Samech and Happy Easter!

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 ~ Janice Luttrell

Maître d'

Today, let's start with the the reveal:

56. Restaurant or theater staffers who work with patrons, or where the starts of 20-, 28-, 36-, and 48-Across can be found?: FRONT OF HOUSE.
The front of house, in restaurant parlance, are the customer-facing staff -- the host, servers, and bartenders. However, in this puzzle, the FRONT of the themers are also things on the FRONT of your HOUSE. Cute, eh?

20. One who is easily awakened: LIGHT SLEEPER. Think: your FRONT porch LIGHT.

28. Alley oops?: GUTTER BALL. Um, OK sure, many houses have GUTTERs.
//and Boomer will appriciate this being called an Alley :-)

36. Aerobic session with a small platform: STEP CLASS. Your FRONT STEPs.

48. Price-slashing event with early hours: DOOR BUSTER. But you get the picture by now...

For folks slow on the uptake ;-)

Across:
1. Wears a long face: POUTS. I know you've heard this one: A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, "Why the long face?"

6. Designer Wang known for bridal gowns: VERA.

10. Tears roughly: RIPS.

14. Insider vocabulary: ARGOT. Argot: the jargon or slang of a particular group or class.

15. Lab flunky of cinema: IGOR. "It's Frankenschteen." "Your putting me on."

16. Quod __ demonstrandum: ERAT. Didn't we just have this Friday?

17. Chevy model that shares a name with an alpine lake: TAHOE.

18. Soft drink: SODA. Pop up east and "coke" down south.

19. Constellation in the southern sky also known as the Sails: VELA.

20. [See: Theme]

23. Pierce of "Mamma Mia!": BROSNAN.

26. Better than good: GREAT.

27. Container weight: TARE.

28. [See: Theme]

32. Piques, as an appetite: WHETS.

34. Billion suffix: AIRE.

35. Golf peg: TEE.

36. [See: Theme]

40. NYC summer hrs.: EDT. New York City is on Eastern Daylight Time in the summer.

43. Prefix meaning "both": AMBI. Ha! Cute. ///Think AMBIdextrous.

44. Dark-colored beer: STOUT. I used to brew my own beer. I made a Russian STOUT once. Once.

48. [See: Theme]

52. "Joy of Cooking" writer Rombauer: IRMA.

53. Ancient Greek region: IONIA.

54. Sack with letters: MAIL BAG.

56. [See: Theme]

60. __ of March: IDES. Et tu?

61. Landed on a perch: ALIT.

62. Reference book with maps: ATLAS.

66. "__ kleine Nachtmusik": EINE.
 

67. Lavish party: FETE.

68. Pioneering gaming company: ATARI.

69. Cincinnati MLB team: REDS.

70. Cheeky talk: SASS.

71. Space object with a tail: COMET.

Down:
1. Butter serving: PAT.

2. "You & I" singer Rita: ORA.

3. "Gross!": UGH.

4. Kits with wrenches and hammers: TOOL SETS.

5. Biergarten mug: STEIN.

6. Four-armed Hindu deity: VISHNU.

7. Four-award acronym: EGOT. Mel Brooks got 'em all. Right?

8. Fishing poles: RODS.

9. Central Asia's North __ Sea: ARAL.

10. Echo effect in a recording studio: REVERB. I know Splynter can do this.

11. "Let me stress ... ": I REPEAT.

12. Light-colored brew: PALE ALE.

13. Take by surprise: STARTLE. So, sorry folks, story follows, I was at a hacker meetup and someone dropped their water bottle. I was STARTLEd. I was told by a lady-hacker that folks that STARTLE easily are empathetic. Is that true?
///I think it's just Army training :-)

21. Practical joke: GAG.

22. Way out: EGRESS.

23. Brief "And another thing ... ": BTW.

24. Sidelines cheer: RAH.

25. Mine output: ORE.

29. Unspoken: TACIT.

30. Shop __ you drop: TIL.

31. Slice of history: ERA.

33. Take a __: try: STABAT.

37. Outback bird: EMU.

38. Airer of Ken Burns documentaries: PBS.

39. High heel: STILETTO.

40. One who bestows wisdom: EDIFIER.

41. Like a last, desperate effort: DO OR DIE.

42. Without success: TO NO END.

45. Poetic globe: ORB.

46. Actress Thurman: UMA.

47. Label: TAG.

49. Hoses off: RINSES.

50. Acts big, so to speak: EMOTES.

51. "Home to India" writer Santha Rama __: RAU.

55. Violinist Stern: ISAAC.

57. Clumsy boobs: OAFS.

58. Pet collar target: FLEA.

59. "Billboard" entries: HITS.

63. Go on the __: skip town: LAM.

64. "__ we good?": ARE.

65. Gain a lap: SIT.

The Grid:

The Grid

My breakdown:
WOs: TOOL boxe (oops), VESHrU
ESPs: BROSNAN (duh!), ISSAC (as clued), VELA (I bet HG knew that at first read!)
Fav: I can't not ignore IGOR

Sorry for the lack of Hahtoolah's comics today, but that's all I got folks. See you on the 18th! Tip your waitstaff.

Cheers, -T