Friday, July 25, 2025, Dan Schoenholz

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a Friday puzzle by Dan Schoenholz who's puzzles have previously appeared in the LAT and NYT.  Today, at five places in the puzzle (I hope that the count is correct this time 😁) Dan conjures up homophones of common words by splitting the word into two parts.  The result each time is a punny, two-word answer to the themed clue.  All of these answers end with the sound of "ease".  Cleverly, the sound is created four different ways - EASE, IES, EES, IES (again) and EAS.  If, e.g., EZE could had been employed in lieu of the second IES then the feat would have been, perhaps, even more remarkable.

The gimmick is applied at:

17 Across:  Baseball player who flirts with joining the Kansas City squad?: ROYAL TEASE.  From ROYALTIES.

The Baseball Team

31 Across:  Release vital agricultural workers?: FREE BEES.  From FREEBIES.  Everybody loves free stuff.

37 Across:  Sound of a job seeker who ran hard to get to an appointment on time?: INTERVIEW WHEEZE.  From INTERVIEWEES.

46 Across:  Precaution for absent-minded drivers?: TWIN KEYS.  From TWINKIES.  Have you ever asked yourself "Where did I put my keys"?  While holding them in your hand?

64 Across:  Coast Guard's desire after a hurricane warning?: VACANT SEAS.  From VACANCIES.  Stay in port.

The completed grid looks like this:

. . . the the rest of the clues/answers:

Across:

1. Quarrel: SPAT.  Alternative clue:  Hocked a loogie.

5. Hosting, briefly: M C ING.  Rarely have I heard emcee employed as a gerund.

10. "Love & Basketball" actor Omar: EPPS.  A frequent visitor.

14. Electrolyte components: IONS.

15. Cartoon hunter Fudd: ELMER.

16. Dab: BLOT.   A Little BLOT' ll do Ya?  Meh.

19. __ carotene: BETA.  BETA carotene is a plant pigment that can be converted into vitamin A and has antioxidant properties.

20. Form: SHAPE.  What tree has fruits of all shapes and sizes?  The geometree.

21. Fill in for: ACT AS.

23. Three-in-one vaccine, familiarly: DPT.

24. Laughfest: RIOT.  A real hoot!

26. Cheap smoke: STOGIE.  A not-very-good cigar.  Presumably from stoga + ie, the former of which is derived from Conestoga, Pennsylvania.  The Conestoga Cigar Company (1880s) was one of the first Pennsylvanian cigar factories.

28. Legal action: APPEAL.  My buddy was trying to explain the APPEAL of invisible ink...but I just didn't see it.

33. Meadow: LEA.  Frequently visited.

34. French greeting: ALLO.  Sort of rhymes with Bardot.

Brigitte

36. [Bam!]: POW.

43. Hundred Acre Wood resident: ROO.   An A. A. Milne / Winnie The Pooh reference.  See also 2 Down.

44. Mascara site: LASH.

45. Unagi roll fish: EEL.  A frequent bite to eat.

49. Comes to: AWAKES.

52. Sneak: WEASEL. A WEASEL walks into a bar.  The bartender says “Wow, I’ve never served a weasel before. What can I get you?”  “Pop,” goes the weasel.

53. Attempt: STAB.  Idiomatic.

54. "To __ is human ... ": ERR.  . . . and our puzzles often prove us to be human.

55. Majestic: REGAL.

58. Iranian language: FARSI.

62. Suggestions, for short: RECS. RECommendationS

66. German chancellor who presided over reunification: KOHL.  Helmut KOHL served as chancellor from 1982 to 1998.

67. Kagan of the Supreme Court: ELENA.  A frequent visitor.

68. Bring in: EARN.

69. Vodka brand in blue bottles: SKYY.

70. Mean-spirited: NASTY.

71. Narrow opening: SLIT.

Down:

1. Old-fashioned letter opener: SIRS.  Dear SIRS:  . . .

2. Hundred Acre Wood resident: POOH.  See also 43 Across.

3. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA.  Not a name familiar to this solver.  Thanks, perps.

4. Airport express lane, briefly: TSA PRE.

5. With 56-Down, annual NYC fashion event: MET. and 56. See 5-Down: GALA.  The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Benefit, is the annual haute couture fundraising festival held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in Manhattan. The Met Gala is popularly regarded as the world's most prestigious and glamorous fashion event.

6. Sports stud?: CLEAT  One definition of CLEAT is "a projecting piece of metal or hard rubber attached to the underside of a shoe to provide traction".   Stud seems to be just a bit of a stretch.

7. Apple on a desk: IMAC.  These days, a clue that is a bit ambiguous.

8. Tree house?: NEST.  A "house" found in a tree.

Jackie, Shadow, Gizmo and Sunny's House.

9. Laundry challenge: GREASE.

10. Recede: EBB.

11. Promising time in public broadcasting?: PLEDGE WEEK.  Time to make a financial promise.  It seems as if it's perpetually PLEDGE WEEK.

12. Marie Callender's purchase: POTPIE.

13. Mexico's 31: STATES.  Would have expected estados.

18. Kylo Ren's mother: LEIA.  A Star Wars reference.

22. NBA superstar Curry: STEPH.  Of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.

25. Patron saint of Norway: OLAV.  This solver often forgets which is OLAV and which is OLAF.

OLAV

OLAF

27. Bassoon kin: OBOE.  A musical instrument frequently heard in our puzzles.

28. Comedian Wong: ALI.  How do I clue thee?  Let me count the ways.  Muhammad, Laila, Mahershala, Wong, MacGraw, Baba  . . .

29. Author: PEN.  Used as a verb.  To write.

30. Male-dominated society: PATRIARCHY.   The longest word in this puzzle.

31. Cat-nippers?: FLEAS.  Cute play on words.  Fleas bite (nip) cats.

Sometimes The Cats Fight Back

32. Uses oars: ROWS.  A couple of Fridays ago ROWS was clued as fights.

35. Easter bloom: LILY.  Puns are blooming all over this write up....Like a cat fight between a dandelion and tiger LILY . . . Oops, a daisy.

 

38. So very long: EONS.  

39. Al of "Today": ROKER.  The weather reporter.

40. "Huh?": WHAT.  You can say that again!

41. Capital of Zimbabwe?: ZEE.  One of those clues.  Did it fool you?

42. Overhead trains: ELS. ELevated TrainS.

46. Shakes one's booty: TWERKS.

47. "Don't worry about us": WERE OK.  Or Not.

48. Nearing noon: ELEVEN.  This solver might have clued it differently.

The Grateful Dead

50. Float, as a scent: WAFT.

51. Belittles: ABASES.

53. Writer's angle: SLANT.  As in bias.  Anyone try to squeeze in ITALIC?

57. Nails: ACES.  As in the idiom "to nail it".

59. Authentic: REAL.

60. South Asian wrap: SARI.  SARI puns would be repetitious.

61. "__ that something?": ISN'T.

63. Sneaky: SLY.

65. Vote against: NAY.  We often have to choose between YEA and AYE for the pro votes but with the anti bloc it's EEZE - ier.

Well, it's now time to ease on down the road.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

__________________________________________________

Saturday, July 19, 2025, Chandi Deitmer and Erik Agard

  Saturday Themeless by Chandi Deitmer and Erik Agard

           

Chandi wrote, I am a full-time puzzler out of Cambridge, MA with a love of nice people, spicy food, and (whatever entry POWER CLASHING is!). Hmmm...I wonder who came up with that clue/fill? 😀

Erik Agard (born 1993) is a crossword solver, constructor, and editor. He is the winner of the 2016 LollapuzzoolaExpress Division, the 2018 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), a frequent contributor to the New York Times crossword puzzle, a crossword constructor for The New Yorker, the former USA Today crossword editor, and a former Jeopardy! contestant. He is currently a crossword editor at Apple News+.

I had a lovely trip through this collaboration but POWER CLASHING, BURBLE and MOCHI DONUT were speed bumps. Also, 46, 47 and 53 Down were just devious. I got the fill and then wracked what little brain power I had to make sense of them. 

Across:

1. Take off: STRIP.

6. Book jacket blurbs: BIOS.

10. Cover one's tracks?: DUB 😀 - Did you enjoy the "singing" of Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Marni Nixon was the actual performer who glorious singing voice was DUBBED over for these famous roles.

 

13. African capital with a City of the Dead: CAIRO - More info

14. Step in some Sun Salutations: COBRA POSE - Number 5 below

16. Attorney-__: AT LAW.

17. Boxing titles?: RING NAMES - Take a guess at the RING NAME of this boxing great Walker Smith Jr.. Answer at bottom of write-up *.

18. Greta of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse": LEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ She voiced a character named Layla

19. GPS figs.: ETAS - My GPS does not consider detours and construction zones or my tendency to drive 4mph over the speed limit so my Estimated Time of Arrival is not always so accurate. 

21. Echelons: TIERS.

22. Magnetic presence in a classroom?: DRY-ERASE BOARD - My classroom board was home to many NASA and Disney magnetic "stickers"

26. Retired players?: VCRS - Failure to expand the idea of "players" made this take more time than necessary. At first I thought of baseball and OUTS.

27. Screenwriter's creations: ARCS - Those of us with a few miles on our tires will remember the name of the show whose story ARC was the search for the one-armed-man killer. Show is named below**

28. Halyard attachments: SAILS - This land lubber confused halyard with lanyard  which is where we coaches carry our whistle and convention goers wear their ID'S. 😀

30. Dose holder: VIAL.

31. Pewter element: TIN.

34. Setting for some of "Pachinko": KOREA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

35. Participate in story time: TELL A TALE.

37. GPS fig.: LAT - This screen shot shows you the LAT and LONG of the White House.

38. Catch: SNAG.

40. Stream-ing music?: BURBLE - Not a common word to me but exchanging it for BUBBLE gave me TRANCHE

41. Increases: UPS.

42. Some social circles?: HORAS. 😀

44. Standard intro course: SALAD 😀 the course was "intro" not "first". I wonder if this was a product of Chandi or Erik.

45. Rice flour pastry: MOCHI DONUT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

48. Team whose logo is a basketball with a B: NETS.

49. In some cases, it won't break: PHONE 😀 My iPhone is in an Otter Box case and has been saved several times

50. Surprisingly good event?: MIRACLE - The 1980 Lake Placid Olympics is truly one

52. Conductor Solti who held the record for most Grammys before Beyoncé: GEORG.

53. Slayer player: METAL HEAD.

55. Classic Monopoly token: IRON.

56. Ticket line?: ONE PLEASE.

57. Misses: GALS - Noun not verb

58. Worked into a lather: SUDSY 

59. Word with chosen or precious: FEW.

Down:

1. Prep, as milk for custard: SCALD.

2. Spud: TATER.

3. B.B. King's given name: RILEY.

4. SIMPLE __: IRA.

5. Looks in two different directions at once?: POWER CLASHING ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  It's a fashion "thing". Chandi's note to me said she did not enter this. 😀

6. City that can be seen from Table Rock: BOISE.

7. Male equivalent of "bint," in Arabic: IBN.

8. Edu alternative: ORG.

9. Man known for his many gifts: SANTA CLAUS.

10. Like many mosques: DOMED.

11. App opener: USER.

12. Téa's "Madam Secretary" role: BESS.

14. Uncouth: CRASS.

15. Skating event: PAIRS.

20. Paves the way?: TARS.

23. Irish novelist Woods: EVIE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

24. Leave folks hanging: BAIL.

25. Big name in brushes: ORAL-B.

28. Genre originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble: SOAP OPERA.

29. Media training?: ART SCHOOL 😀

30. Honey-don't list?: VEGAN MENU - I'm a "meat and taters" kind of guy!

31. Dining room section: TABLE LEAF 😀 Ours are stored in the dining table.

32. Unsettled: ILL AT EASE.

33. Maslovian considerations: NEEDS - I studied (read memorized) these for my Master's Degree and then forgot them.

34. Kloss's "Project Runway" predecessor: KLUM.

Heidi Klum   Karlie Kloss

35. Tropical staple: TARO.

36. Financial term from the French for "slice": TRANCHE - This compelling scene from Margin Call uses the word TRANCHE and gives insight into a big cause of the 2008 financial crisis. It's worth 9:48 of your time.

39. Place to make a connection: NODE - Part of a Local Area Network

43. Apt: SUITED.

46. Lockers in a row?: HORNS  - Wow, variations on locker, row and horns! Here we see two kudu locking HORNS during a row (rhymes with cow). People can do the same thing metaphorically. 

47. Quarry containers: TRAPS - Continuing with animal references, some people use TRAPS to catch whatever quarry they are after. 

51. Person to fight with: ALLY - Two ways to go: The person who is with you and fighting on your side is an ally. The person who is not with you is someone you are fighting with/against.

52. Piece of work?: GIG.

53. JASON's five, e.g.: MOS - I got this eventually. JASON stands for the first letters in the MO.'S July through November. All capital letters in the clue put me off the name and MOS is most likely months. Aarrgghh! 

54. __ point: DEW - Recent numbers for Omaha.

*Walker Smith Jr. fought as Sugar Ray Robinson

**Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) sought the one-armed-man who killed his wife in The Fugitive