Theme GUARDS! GUARDS! As we shall soon see, each theme entry is a [more or less] in-the -language two-word phrase that contains two quite different kinds of GUARDS. In all cases, each theme word can be followed by the word GUARD to yield a different in-the-language phrase. 17 A. Eastern seaboard, facetiously : RIGHT COAST. I can't recall hearing it addressed as such, but it makes sense if you look at a map. But why facetiously? RIGHT GUARD is a lineman position on an American football team, and the deodorant brand he might chose after a shower. The COAST GUARD is a branch of the U.S. military that protects life, property and territory along the country's shore lines. 25 A. Unlikely to run : COLOR SAFE. These colors don't run. Hence the term. Also a palette of 256 colors that is consistent on any computer monitor. A COLOR GUARD is a uniformed group who present or parade an institutional or national flag on formal occasions. To SAFE GUARD is to take active measures to protect against some undesirable event. 46 A. Secret overseas cash stash site : SWISS BANK. I think the Cayman Islands and Cyprus give them some competition these days. The SWISS GUARD is a small force stationed in the Vatican, responsible for the safety of the Pope. They are famous for their colorful uniforms.
58 A. What Aladdin craved and Jasmine wanted to escape, in the Disney film : PALACE LIFE. Aladdin is a street urchin who longs for wealth and luxury. Jasmine has it all and finds it profoundly unsatisfying. So - a match made in heaven, right? The PALACE GUARD is responsible for keeping the PALACE and its occupants safe from street urchins and other miscreants. A LIFE GUARD is a certified swimmer and CPR expert whose job is to keep us from drowning at the beach or pool.
And, at last, the unifier. 37 A. Increase security twofold ... and what 17-, 25-, 46- and 58-Across literally do : DOUBLE THE GUARDS. Twice as many guards should keep out twice as many urchins. And this is the apt description for the other theme entries, each having two kinds of GUARDS.
Hi Gang, JazzBumpa on duty to GUARD your way through today's puzzling adventure. Robin Stears has given us a good one with four clever theme entries and a grid-spanning unifier.
Across
1. Back (out) : OPT. Well, you can OTP out before you ever OPT in, but OK.
4. Go by : ELAPSE. As time.
10. Peak in Thessaly : OSSA. Greek mountain
14. Can. neighbor : USA. Here we are.
15. City on the Liffey : DUBLIN. It flows through the center of town.
I've seen Dublin twice, Thrace thrice; made repeated trips To WallaWalla.
16. Performs like Kanye : RAPS.
19. Frantically : AMOK. On a rampage.
20. Out in the open : OVERT. With no attempt to conceal.
21. Open in the garden : BLOOM. Look at all them BLOOMIN' flars.
22. Narrow opening : SLIT. Or cut.
28. Insinuate : HINT AT, To suggest indirectly or unpleasantly about something bad. I could in-sin -you-ate about Mrs. Sprat's gluttony.
31. Kitchen gadgets brand : OXO.
32. Sneak attack : AMBUSH. Not OVERT, at least not at first.
33. Dryly amusing : WRY. As humor.
34. "More info later": Abbr. : TBA. To Be Announced.
41. Radical '60s gp. : SDS. Students for a Democratic Society.
42. Besides : TOO. Also.
43. Scramble, as a secret message : ENCODE. Convert into a decipherable form.
45. Write, as music : NOTATE. The act of writing out the score, not the act of composition.
52. Japanese noodle : UDON.
53. Leg bone : TIBIA.
54. Midwestern city associated with steaks : OMAHA.
57. Additionally : ELSE. Or alternatively
63. Abbr. on a city limits sign : ELEVation.
64. What's for dinner : ENTREE. The main course.
65. Speed (up) : REV. Hit the accelerator.
66. Piece of glass : PANE. In the industry, this was commonly called a "light," or even worse, a "lite." Drove me nuts.
67. Radical in aspirin and vinegar : ACETYL. This refers to a portion of a molecule that is common to vinegar [acetic acid] where the rest of the molecule is an -OH group; and to aspirin [acetylsalicylic acid] where it combines with a pendant -OH group on a larger molecule [salicylic acid] to form an ester. In this form, it much less aggressive than uncombined salicylic acid, which is too harsh on the digestive system to be taken internally. Externally, salicylic acid is used to remove warts and treat other skin conditions. 68. Spot on a peacock's tail : EYE.
2. Trident-shaped letter : PSI(uppercase Ψ, lowercase ψ; Greek: ψι psi) is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet.
3. "You're it!" game : TAG. Touch me if you can.
4. 1999 Ron Howard satire : ED TV.
5. Journalist Clare Boothe __ : LUCE. U.S. Ambassador to Italy [1953-60,] congressional representative from Connecticut [1943-47,] author, journalist and playwright. Her husband Henry published Time, Look, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated magazines.
9. MD treating canals : ENT. Ear, Nose and Throat specialist.
10. Postgrad tests : ORALS. Question and answer ordeals.
11. South Pacific island nation : SAMOA. My friend married a Polynesian woman. Every time he kissed her, he wanted SAMOA.
12. "Blazing Saddles," for one : SPOOF. An exaggerated, humorous imitation or parody.
13. "Shoot!" : ASK ME.
18. Après-ski amenities : HOT TUBS.
21. Dude : BRO. Buddy, pal - you know - moron.
22. Herring prized for its roe : SHAD. I'll try anything [within reason] once, and that was enough. This is on the short list of things I will never eat again.
23. Long rides? : LIMOS. Usually a stretched vehicle.
24. Preparing to flower : IN BUD.
26. Handed-down tales : LORE.
27. Gas in a tank : OXYGEN. For people with breathing difficulties.
29. Syst. with hand signals : American Sign Language.
30. What a treater picks up : THE TAB. At the tavern, not on Halloween.
33. "Says __?" : WHO. Expression of skepticism.
34. Touch-related : TACTUAL. A word you are unlikely to encounter ever again.
35. In __ daylight : BROAD. Narrow daylight is not so OVERT.
36. Supplement : ADD TO. Here, supplement is a verb, not a vitamine capsule.
38. Garment worn in HBO's "Rome" : TOGA. Or "Animal House."
39. 108-card game : UNO.
40. Not hidden : SEEN. OVERT.
44. Merit badge org. : Boy Scouts of America.
46. Expensive : STEEP. The price is high.
47. "My Ántonia" novelist Cather : WILLA. American [1873-1947,]
49. It won't hold water : SIEVE. If you try, you might strain yourself.
50. Nick of "Hotel Rwanda" : NOLTE. American actor [b 1941]
51. Chain with a Smart Sense store brand : K-MART. Rapidly shrinking chain.
55. __-deucey : ACEY. Card game
56. Scoundrel : HEEL. Cad.
58. Stew vegetable : PEA. Or porridge - hot or cold.
59. Mandela's org. : ANC. African National Congress. 60. 15-Across locale: Abbr. : IRE. The Auld Sod, the Emerald Isle.
61. 2000s "SNL" notable Tina : FEY. American actor, comedian, writer and producer [b 1970.] 62. Wrapping time : EVE. Not at our house. Christmas EVE is when we have our big clan gathering. The various sub-groups spend Christmas day with the other branches of their respective families.
That wraps up another Thursday EVE at the Corner. Hope y'all had a fine time. Cool Regards! JzB
THEME: IN OTHER WORDS Husker Gary here reporting from the site of a wonderful Wednesday puzzle authored by our lovely blogmistress! Not only has she given us a fun theme but has remarkably thrown in four, count 'em, four ten-letter down fills at a midweek level. Wow! C.C. has taken four familiar phrases and tweaked them slightly to give us a different meaning with no reveal necessary THEME ENTRIES 16. Inc. and LLC? : BUSINESS LETTERS - These are abbreviations you might find in a, uh, BUSINESS LETTER
22. Beaming and shining? : GLOWING WORDS - Not merely words that express a positive feeling but words that actually Beam and Shine
45. "Got it!" and "Roger that!"? : CATCH PHRASES - Familiar speech idioms or a acknowledgement that you understand what was said as in this hilarious scene:
53. "What are you in for?" and "I was framed"? : PRISON SENTENCES - Years to be served or this great dialogue from Jack McCoy
Now for some Beaming, Shining fill: Across 1. Ballet divisions : ACTS - In the second ACT of the Nutcracker, we get to see the wonderful Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy
5. Crank (up) : REV 8. Hunchbacked lab assistant : IGOR - Marty Feldman insisted on being called EYE GORE if Gene Wilder was insisting on being FRAHNK EN STEEN. 12. Un-fizzy : FLAT - Don't leave your Pepsi out with the lid off 13. PGA Tour golf course near Miami : DORAL 15. Fish in salade niçoise : TUNA - A salad 25. Styled after, on a menu : A LA Nice, France. Julia Child's version: 19. "No fighting!" : BE NICE - Not to be confused with NICE above 20. Self-worth : EGO 21. Gym unit : REP - No pain, no gain is nonsense. Listen to your body. 25. Jibe grammatically : AGREE - "C.C. is a fabulous constructor" or "C.C. are a fabulous constructor" Hmmm... 28. Come-__: enticements : ONS - Spectrum advertises $29.95/mo. for internet, phone and cable (for new subscribers and only for 12 months) 29. Covent Garden highlight : ARIA - Tonight at 7:30 pm, Covent Garden will be presenting Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) where one of the ARIAs is O zittre night, men limber Sohn (O Tremble Not My Dear Son). Yeah, I knew that. 30. Wolfish look : LEER 31. Pal of Pooh : ROO 32. Green shampoo : PRELL - Seinfeld, "I use the hard stuff - PRELL"
33. Ranking org. for court players : ATP - You've got to go down to #15 to get to an American man 34. Google operating system : ANDROID 36. "Never __ Me Go": Kazuo Ishiguro novel : LET 38. Blue Cross rival : AETNA 40. Dr. with Grammys : DRE - There's no way I could quote any of those lyrics 41. Managed __ : CARE 42. Donkey sound : BRAY 43. Tie the knot : WED - Fewer are
44. Socialite Perle : MESTA 48. Hassle : ADO 49. Tic-tac-toe win : OOO 50. "Green Eggs and Ham" opening : I AM SAM
57. Like the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card : RARE - Ever wonder what a $3M baseball card looks like? Collector C.C. would. 58. Eats by candlelight : DINES 59. Not in favor of : ANTI 60. Summit : APEX 61. Affirmative action : NOD - Be careful at an baseball card auction! 62. Drain slowly : SEEP Down 1. Langley, e.g.: Abbr. : AFB - Next door at the Langley Research Center, NASA tested the Lunar Excursion Model
2. Driver or putter : CLUB - The 200 yd shot with the Driver counts the same as the 2 inch shot with the putter 3. Subdue with a charge : TASE 4. Cocktail made with brandy and crème de menthe : STINGER 5. Timber often used for guitar fretboards : ROSEWOOD - Maybe the guy who bought the Honus Wagner baseball card would pony up $25,000 for this Fender ROSEWOOD Telecaster
6. Triage locales, briefly : ERS 7. "La Bamba" singer Ritchie : VALENS 8. Addams family cousin : ITT 9. Military rebels : GUERRILLAS - I suppose our Minuteman could have been so classified 10. Ready for the worst : ON RED ALERT - In the movie War Games it was called Def Con 1 11. Speaks with a scratchy voice : RASPS - Bonnie Tyler used her characteristic RASPY voice to sing Total Eclipse Of The Heart onboard a cruise ship on the day of the eclipse.
13. Geometric art style : DECO 14. __ Mason: asset management giant : LEGG - That's LEGG MASON INC. in BUSINESS LETTERS 17. Aswan Dam site : NILE 18. In the direction of : TOWARD 23. Properly arranged : IN ORDER - I'm not OCD, but... 24. Underground find : ORE 26. Be judged unfairly : GET A BAD RAP 27. Performer's array : REPERTOIRE 31. Genetic code transmitter : RNA
32. Often fruity dessert : PIE - Coincidence or not? 34. Slangy "Let's move on ... " : ANYHOO 35. Like priests : ORDAINED 37. What some caddies carry : TEA - A lovely Chinese TEA Caddy
39. The Northwest's Sea-__ Airport : TAC - Seattle/TAComa 41. Private jet choices : CESSNAS - Headquartered in Wichita, KS 43. "Any volunteers?" : WHO'S IN? 44. Cultural pic that may go viral : MEME
45. Oscar-winning director Frank : CAPRA - There are so many but these are some sterling examples 46. Frog habitat : POND 47. Pre-coll. exams : SATS 51. Spots to conceal : ACNE 52. Dole (out) : METE 54. Kinsey research focus : SEX - Hugh Hefner said he was profoundly affected by Kinsey's research 55. Producer of some Talking Heads albums : ENO 56. Sample : SIP Now, how 'bout some GLOWING words for C.C.'s puzzle: The Grid
Theme: OLD VINYL. Each two word entry has the letters L and P as its alpha and omega [so to speak.] These letters signify a Long Playing phonograph recording - i.e. one with several songs on a side. More will be explained when we get to the unifier.
17A. *Vodka cocktail often served with a sugared rim : LEMON DROP. Made with vodka, Triple Sec, simple syrup and fresh lemon juice. Pucker up.
60A. *Largely bygone penal colony : LABOR CAMP. A prison camp where hard labor is enforced.
3 D. *Store website feature : LOCATOR MAP. Here is the locator map for the restaurant where we had a wonderful lunch with some relatives yesterday.
And now the unifier -- 26 A. With 49-Across, it keeps repeating itself ... and, based on the first and last letters, an apt description of each answer to a starred clue : BROKEN.
49 A. See 26-Across : RECORD.
So, now we see that the wide split between the L and the P indicates that the RECORD has been BROKEN - but not in the sense of a historic feat of athleticism. In the old days, back in my yute, a phonograph record that was scratched or broken would catch the play-back stylus and keep repeating the same groove section on the recording surface, groove section on the recording surface, groove section on the recording surface. Very annoying. Hence, a person who repeated himself a lot would be compared to a BROKEN RECORD.
Raising this up a notch, conceptually, is the fact that the unifier itself is broken. So we have a pinwheel formation of theme fill, that also includes the symmetrically placed two-part unifier. Very clever and unusual design!
Hi Gang, JazzBumpa on duty. Let's see where our own hostess and travel guide C. C. takes on this trip.
Across
1. Fancy parties : GALAS.
6. [This is gonna be really bad!] : GULP. Nervous reaction, not a drink - though that also might help.
10. OutKast rapper Big __ : BOI. No idea.
13. Hi in Hawaii : ALOHA. Island greeting. Cuter clue would have been Hi, but not high, in HI.
14. Senior golfer Aoki : ISAO. [b 1942] He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.
15. Lends support to : AIDS.
16. Likely to speak out : VOCAL. A band arrangement to accompany a singer is also called a VOCAL.
19. Text update from an Uber driver: Abbr. : ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. Not just for air ports any more.
20. Trippy '60s drug : LSD. Lysergic Acid Diethyl Amid. Never tried it. Then again, I never owned a LAVA LAMP.
22. Milked for all it's worth : BLED DRY. All used up.
23. Mai __: rum drinks : TAIS. For SIPS, not GULPS.
25. Post-CrossFit woes : ACHES. Exercisers' pains
28. "__-ching!" : CHA. Expression of triumph.
29. Down with the flu : ILL. Five days of misery.
32. NFLer again in 2016 : L.A. RAM. The RAMS started in Cleveland in 1936, moved to L. A. in 1946, to St. Louis in 1995, then back to L.A. in 2016. Goats do roam.
33. Early American furniture style : COLONIAL.
36. Casino cash source : ATM. Automatic Teller Machine. Why is this never paired with an Automatic Penn Machine?
37. Oft-injured knee part, for short : ACL. The Anterior Cruciate Ligament runs diagonally in the middle of the knee. It prevents the tibia from sliding out in front of the femur, as well as provides rotational stability to the knee.
40. Bit of texting tact : PLS. Please, I assume.
41. Sine __ non : QUA. An essential condition, something that is absolutely necessary.
42. Interest-arousing promo : TEASER AD.
45. More accurate : TRUER. Some things are clearly true or false. Others have 50 shades of grey.
47. Mud bath offerer : SPA. For people. STY for swine.
48. Night before : EVE. Where was Adam the nighh before?
6. Coat, as jewelry : GILD. Cover with a thin layer of gold. My King 2B has a sterling silver bell section with a gilt inner surface.
My most prized possession
7. Put in the game : USE.
9. Place for a break? : POOL HALL. Clever! Each game of pool starts with an initial shot at the pool balls arrayed in a particular way. This shot breaks up the cluster.
10. Dove or robin : BIRD. Flighty critters.
11. Campfire attraction : ODOR. The aroma of burning wood.
12. Kids' game for car trips : I SPY. Do you see what I see?
15. Includes : ADDS IN.
18. Maiden name intro : NEE. From French, referring to the family name with which the bride was born.
21. Nine-digit ID : SSN. Social Security Number. Guard yours from identity thieves.
24. Wanted poster letters : AKA. Also Known As - referring to an alias.
26. Cry from a sheep : BLAT. Or the sound of a bad trombonist. Not that I would know anything about it.
27. Motel postings : RATES. Charges for staying, by the night or by the hour.
31. "Today" co-host Matt : LAUER.
34. Manipulative health care practitioner : OSTEOPATH. Chiropractor doesn't fit.
35. Pie crust fat : LARD. Pig fat.
38. Mountain climber's piton spots : CREVICES. Narrow openings or fissures in the rock face.
43. Artillery bursts : SALVOS. Simultaneous discharge from several weapons.
44. Essen article : DER. "The" in German. This is the masculine form, since all German nouns have gender.
46. Electronics giant : RCA. Originally Radio Corporation of America.
49. Hitter's stat : RBI. Runs Batted In. We knew there had to be some baseball. Congrats to the Twins for getting to the wild card game. The Tigers are in for a long, dark tea time of the soul.
51. Sound-detecting organ : EAR. Listen up.
53. Claimed in court : PLED. To PLEAD or make a PLEA is to issue a formal statement by or on behalf of a defendant, stating guilt or innocence in response to a charge or allegation.
54. Hard to find : RARE.
55. "Buy It Now" site : EBAY. On line auction site that offers an opportunity to bypass the competitive bidding process and purchase an item for a set price. Ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances.
56. Agile : SPRY. Energetic or active. Almost always said of older people, if it is is unexpected.
58. Like orange or red persimmons : RIPE. Interested readers can learn about these exotic fruits here.
59. Marsh plant : REED. A grass species that grows 5 to 15 feet tall. Not to be confused with an oboe, which is about 25 1/2 inches long.
61. Athletes for Hope co-founder Hamm : MIA. [b 1972] Mariel Margaret Hamm- Garciaparra is a retired U.S. soccer player who won Olympic gold twice and is a two time FIFA Women's World Cup Champion. The mission of Athletes for Hope is "To educate, encourage and assist athletes in their efforts to contribute to community and charitable causes, to increase public awareness of those efforts, and to inspire others to do the same."
63. Calendar square : DAY.
That wraps up another Wenesday. Hope y'all had a fine time.
