google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner

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Oct 25, 2018

Thursday, October 25th 2018 C.C. Burnikel

Theme: Military Maneuver - as the reveal at the "foot" of the puzzle tells us:

53D. Spring time ... or a military procession involving a word sequence hidden in 15-, 31-, 41- and 61-Across: MARCH

15A. Trying to overcome a late start, say: PLAYING CATCH-UP

31A. "Any minute now": IT WON'T BE LONG

41A. Critical shuttle maneuver: EARTH RE-ENTRY

61A. NBC soap since 1965: DAYS OF OUR LIVES. That's 13,455 episodes I need (?) to catch up on, as of today.

A neat theme from C.C.; the hidden words are all nicely scattered around in the theme entries, and the "THREE" spans a word divide and a hyphen to obscure things a little. I don't think it would be possible to see the theme without the reveal, which is placed nicely at the bottom of the puzzle in the down entries.

Two pairs of stacked 8's in the downs, and two 14's and two 12's in the theme make for a nice construction job; C.C.'s definitely an expert at that.

There might be a shout-out to some puzzle bloggers - ARGYLE for sure, and "Splinter" group and STEVIE almost make it. She's been a MENTOR to a lot of puzzle constructors and bloggers, so that works nicely too.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Smudge: BLOT

5. Splinter group: SECT

9. Instagram or Snapchat: APP. I still don't know quite what the point is of these two. Apparently I have an Instagram account, it came with something, I have no idea what.

12. Past time: YORE. Days of.

13. Union agreements?: I DO'S. Nice one.

14. "Get outta here!": SHOO!

18. Clemson's conf.: A.C.C. The Atlantic Coast Conference. Now includes some schools from the Midwest and the Northeast.

19. Silicon Valley setting: BAY AREA

20. Hoops net holder: RIM

22. Deli order: SALAMI

24. New York prison in 1971 headlines: ATTICA

26. Wine glass feature: STEM. My daily use wine glasses are stemless. I kept breaking them off in the dishwasher. I keep the stemware for special bottles, then break them off in the dishwasher.

27. Suffers from: HAS

30. Prince Harry's alma mater: ETON. Harry is an "old boy" of Eton, an "Old Etonian". I'm an "Old Symondian", from Peter Symond's School in Winchester.

36. Org. with Jays and Rays: M.L.B. It's World Series time, and neither the Jays nor the Rays are anywhere to be seen.

39. Elastic bikini top: BANDEAU

40. Org. with an annual Codebreaker Challenge: NSA

44. Skier's pick-me-up?: T-BAR

45. Summer hrs.: DST

46. Archipelago part: ISLE

50. Sweater pattern: ARGYLE

53. Salieri, to Liszt: MENTOR

55. Streaming delay: LAG

56. Spiritual leader of Nizari Ismaili Muslims: AGA KHAN

60. Actress Mendes: EVA

64. Mineral sources: ORES

65. Poolroom powder: TALC

66. Gimlet garnish: LIME

67. ACLU concerns: RTS

68. Cross with a top loop: ANKH

69. Creepy glance: LEER

Down:

1. Go around: BYPASS

2. Humorous feline meme: LOLCAT. A lolcat's language is "lolspeak".


3. Prophecy source: ORACLE. Every self-respecting Greek city should have one. The best-known Oracle was at Delphi, she cornered the market in predictions to the great and the good.

4. "The Daughter of Time" novelist: TEY

5. Six-Day War peninsula: SINAI

6. Pushing boundaries: EDGY

7. Soft-drink word since 1886: COCA. COLA went in without a thought, then had me wondering, and rightly so.

8. Deposed Russian ruler: TSAR

9. "That feels good": AHH!

10. Pull out all the stops: POUR IT ON

11. Katy Perry and Mariah Carey: POP ICONS

14. "Get outta here!": SCAT!

16. Watson creator: IBM

17. Beverage with dim sum: TEA. I love dim sum. On my first trip to Hong Kong my first stop was a dim sum restaurant in Kowloon for Sunday lunch. There was a slight snag in that there were no carts, and the menu was all in Cantonese. Pointing at plates on other tables got me fed. I learned all the names of the dishes after that. The tea came without me asking, so that part was simple.

21. Comics read vertically: MANGA

23. MontrĂ©al mate: AMI. Or a Canadian-South American fusion cimarrĂ³n, but that wouldn't fit.

25. __ Aviv: TEL

27. Perfected: HONED

28. Mints brand with mountain peaks in its logo: ANDES. I did not know that. Now I do.

29. Surgical tube: STENT

32. "Speaking frankly," in texts: TBH. To Be Honest - and, to be honest, why wouldn't you be?

33. Armed conflict: WAR

34. Home run hitter?: BAT

35. Spain's cont.: EUR

36. Like virtually all golf club heads nowadays: METAL. I can't remember when I last saw a persimmon club head. My first set of clubs had persimmon for the driver, three- and five-woods.

37. __ retriever: LABRADOR

38. Blowhard: BRAGGART. I always forget that the final "T" isn't a "D". As I did in this case.

42. Push to the limit: TRY

43. Yang's opposite: YIN

47. Memorable guitarist __ Ray Vaughan: STEVIE

48. 2009 Justin Bieber hit: LOVE ME. Awkward neighbors; Stevie Ray and the Biebster.

49. Correction device: ERASER

51. Highlands girl: LASS

52. Big 38-Down feature: EGO

54. Bigger photo: Abbr.: ENL.

57. Mennen lotion: AFTA. After-shave lotion. Simple enough to remember it once you've heard what it is.

58. Zen question: KOAN

59. "Incredible" hero: HULK

62. "Of course!": YES

63. Not well: ILL

And that's about it from me. Back in New York for a couple of days - what happened to the nice LA weather? Oh, I left it in LA, silly me.

Here's the grid, nicely tricked out with the theme words highlighted for y'all.

Steve