Happy Thursday! A certain aquatic mammal took off to Europe so y'all are stuck with me again.
Today we have a bit of a rebus. The words that fill the circles are only connected to the theme by the letters in the circles.
Let's just look at the theme-reveal and the grid and not clutter the LEDE with shoe-fitting fill.
63a. Stack at Famous Footwear, and a hint to the sets of circled letters: SHOEBOXES.
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| The Grid |
If you didn't have the circles, finding the BOXES of SHOEs would be another puzzling challenge. Here they are, color-coded, for later discovery:
BOOT - Hopefully after today's Blog, C.C. won't give me one.
FLAT - An apartment in London
PUMP - Gets water out of the ground
MULE - Beast that comes with 40 acres
HEEL - C.C., if she gives me the BOOT ;-)
Ok, we all know that's not what Catherine was going for...
All the 'boxes' contain, read clockwise, types of shoes the Famous cobbler-shop offers.
Wait a minu... The store's not Famous; it's that it sells Famous-branded footwear, right?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Across:
1. Isabel Allende's "In the __ of Winter": MIDST. A 2017 novel about three people who find themselves together during a winter storm and tell of their tragic pasts. That's all the internet would tell me in less than 10 minutes.
6. Albumen container: EGG. Albumen is the white of a egg. It contains Albumin.
Albumen is the white of an egg. It contains albumin proteins. It is the scientific name for the white of a cooked egg. Albumin is a class of several hundred proteins. #Learning
9. Blades on a small 12-Down, for short: PROPS. PROPellerS. It took me a while to figure out what type of blades (grass?, rotors?, knives?) we were looking for.
14. Words said with a shrug: I'VE NO IDEA. I never do.
16. Biathlete's equipment: RIFLE. Ski then shoot. Rinse & repeat.
17. Tosses a monkey wrench into: SABOTAGES.
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
18. Site for a rite: ALTAR. I like the clue's alliteration.
19. Catch or latch follower: ONTO. When I catch onto that she latched onto another fella...
20. R&B's Boyz II __: MEN. Clue/Answer says it all.
21. Like some auctions: SILENT. I won a baseball signed by Lance Berkman at a silent auction.
I got home, Googled, and found I paid >1.5x what it was worth. Oh well, it was for charity (and I have a cool ball).
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| Lance Berkman |
22. Grandpa Walton, to Grandma Walton: ZEB. I inked Paw (? should be Pa, no?) first. I don't remember watching The Waltons. His name is Zebulon. #Learning
24. Tag sale reminder: AS IS. No refunds.
26. Teachers' org.: NEA. National Education Association.
27. Apprised (of): ABREAST. ONTO.
31. Accordion fold: PLEAT.
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| Weird Al |
33. Like some chins: CLEFT.
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| For Irish Miss |
34. Word with history or hygiene: ORAL.
36. Puerto __: RICO.
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| Let's not forget these US Citizens after Ian |
39. Crass: RUDE. I thought "blue" at first.
40. San Antonio team: SPURS. Texas has 3 NBA (National Basketball Association) teams: [see: c/a], Dallas Mavericks, and, The Houston (my fair city) Rockets.
41. CGI birds in Liberty Mutual Insurance commercials: EMUS. Don't make me link one.
42. Important stretches: ERAS. What separates an ERA from an AGE? An ERA has an epoch (definative start date).
43. Tach stats: RPMS. A Tachometer measures RevolutionS Per Minute.
44. Puff up: SWELL.
Lois Lane mocks Kent for saying SWELL
45. Announce: STATE. I live in the "Announce" of Texas?
47. Argentine novelist Sabato: ERNESTO. Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. #Learning
49. Wanted poster letters: AKA. Also Known As. The Wanted's alias(es).
51. Fill with freight: LADE.
53. __ française: A LA. In the style of the French.
54. Luxury furs: SABLES.
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| Cute little Critter |
56. "90 Day Fiancé" cable channel: TLC. The Learning Channel. I can't think of one lesson you can learn from that show.
58. News article intro: LEDE. Lois never buried hers.
62. Gather wool from: SHEAR. Not the SABLE!
63. [See: theme]
65. Put in office: ELECT. Fingers crossed this still holds...
66. Topic of a note home, perhaps: TARDINESS. Been there. School wouldn't ALERT my parents until I was late 8 times. But!, they only tallied per class. Lots of library time...
67. Big name in rain gear: TOTES. Macintosh was too long.
68. Terminus: END. End? I'm not even getting started... ;-)
69. Reptile with sticky toe pads: GECKO. Another insurance mascot.
Down:
1. Soybean paste: MISO.
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| Yum! -- And it's easy! |
2. Catcher Rodríguez inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017: IVAN. AKA Pudge. He had a stint with the Houston Astros in 2009 but made his name with the (Dallas) Texas Rangers (1991-2001) and, IIRC, was part of the Florida Marlin's World Series winning team (2003). //I had to lookup the year(s).
3. Credit report item: DEBT. Make sure you have some debt or FICO dings you.
4. Total yawner: SNOOZE-FEST. Ok, Ok, I'll move it along...
5. Little one: TOT. Kid, child, snot-nosed brat.
6. Perimeter: EDGE. Also, with The, U2's guitarist.
7. __ Davis Institute on Gender in Media: GEENA. Geena Davis (Jan 21, 1956 -) is an actor / producer who founded the institute at Mount Saint Mary's University in Los Angeles to research gender representation in media and advocate for equal representation. #Learning.
8. Fuel for some grills: GAS.
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| Hank Hill's Goth Phase |
9. Extol: PRAISE. Hallelujah!
Leonard Cohen
10. Tiny stream: RILL. Rill? I looked it up: "A small stream." Um, OK. #Learning
11. Frequently: OFTEN TIMES. Redundant? Doesn't 'often' imply time?
12. See 9-Across: PLANE. PROPS to me for finally suss'n' the NE corner.
13. Mattress choice: SERTA. The brand with the out-of-work "Counting Sheep."
15. Sonnet line quintet: IAMBS. Poetry. I'll let someone smarter address this 'cuz I never understood counting syl-LA-bles.
21. Opera virtuoso Beverly: SILLS. Beverly Sills (May 25, 1929 - July 2, 2007) was a soprano. [Read more]
23. Put away: EAT. Nom, Nom, Nom.
25. Few and far between: SPARSE.
27. 43,560 square feet: ACRE. AveJoe surveyed a LOT of these. //See what I did there?
28. Make fuzzy: BLUR.
29. Visibly embarrassed: RED AS A BEET.
30. Bested: TOPPED. Won.
32. Question for an astrobiologist: ARE WE ALONE? Also a question for a significant-other.
35. Ingredient in many tropical cocktails: RUM. If yes to the above, start with a Piña Colada(?)
37. __ classic: CULT. What's your favorite? A) UHF, B) The Kentucky Fried Movie, C) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, D) Other (please elaborate).
38. Norwegian home of the Fram Museum: OSLO. You had me at Norwegian...
40. Misses overseas: Abbr.: SRTAS. Spanish abbreviation and an 'E' short of a mattress maker.
44. NBC show that inspired "30 Rock," for short: SNL. Saturday Night Live. It's had it's ups and downs since '75... The new cast's premier (10/1) was pretty good. Let's see if it holds.
Yeah, I *totes heart* Tina Fey.
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Tina Fey (head-writer SNL & 30 Rock) with some guy. |
46. Warns: ALERTS. I hope the above caption doesn't alert @jimmyfallon.
48. Sped: RACED.
49. Plus: ASSET.
50. "Four Inhabitants of Mexico" painter: KAHLO.
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| Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with Grandparents, Parents & Me - Four Inhabitants of Mexico |
52. Actor Hawke: ETHAN. I briefly met him one morning in New Orleans on the balcony next to ours. I had NO IDEA. He was just a dude cleaning up after a party / having his coffee. Later I was clued in.
55. Valentine trim: LACE. *looks for links* Um, no. This isn't Splynter's expo :-)
57. "Downton Abbey" title: LORD. Extol, er, PRAISE the?
59. COO, e.g.: EXEC. Chief Operating Officer - a C-Suite suit.
60. Work place: DESK. The COO's DESK is BIG. Mine ain't.
61. Standard Oil brand: ESSO. Hey, Canadian, Eh!, eh?
63. Abbr. in some vineyard names: STE. Some French (wo)men name their vineyards after Saints. I guess(?) C.Moe?
64. Important: BIG. Really important: HUGE [See: COO's DESK]
Well, that's it. Here's the TL;DR:
Thanks Catherine for the fun puzzle. Stop by The Corner; maybe give us some inside-baseball.
The theme helped me break the cross-reference in the NE corner... Gotta be FLATs(?)... Ah, yes, a Biathlon has guns!
WOs: Paw->ZEB, ATE->EAT
ESPs: ZEB, MIDST, RILL, GEENA, KAHLO | TOTES
Fav: SNOOZE-FEST. Something I hope today's expo wasn't.
//To be openly honest with y'all, I FIW. I had KAHLa | TaTES when I put my pen down.
Just 'cuz I get to expo (my honor, C.C.), doesn't mean I'm Mensa-smart.
Cheers, -T
Coda: I found some bonus SHOEBOXES in the reveal and surrounding fill: OXEN (why not?; there's MULEs), HORA (what you wear to a wedding dance?), and, um, SHAT...
