Theme: TURN IT AROUND (54A. Recover from a setback, and a hint to 20-, 33- and 40-Across) - IT is turned around and changed to TI.
20A. Sloppily kept tents? : CAMPING STIES. Camping sites.
33A. Low clouds on an East Asian island? : TAIWAN STRATI. Taiwan Strait.
40A. Conditions of kids' shoes, too often? : UNTIED STATES. United States.
Boomer here, pinch-hitting for Lemonade, who is sick. He'll be back next Friday.
I
just wanted to start by mentioning a bowling tournament I was in last
Sunday. The lane conditions were tough, but I was doing okay, averaged
210 for 6 games and had won 4 of 6 matches. Then I moved to my next
pair, lanes 13 & 14 and tossed 3 splits, (not spltis), and a washout
and scored 150 for the game. I suspect this puzzle for you solvers was
a Lanes 13 & 14.
Across:
1. "Little House on the Prairie" merchant ___ Oleson : NELS. I never watched "Little House" but there are many guys named Nels here in Minnesota, don'tcha know.
5. Bit of trickery : TRAP
9. Genoan chiefs of old : DOGES - You could fill a nostril of a flea with my knowledge of Genoan chiefs.
14. Part of many co. names : INIT
15. Poet Teasdale : SARA
16. Far beyond the norm : ULTRA - A good brand. Fleer made Ultra baseball cards, and there's a golf ball brand Ultra, for those who cannot afford Titleists.
17. See 36-Down : ACTE. And 36-Down: With 17-Across, intermission music: ENTR. Entr'acte.
18. Reunion nicknames : UNCS - If this is short for Uncles, then I suppose Aunts would be AUNS ??
19. Award for John le Carré : EDGAR. Mystery.
23. Tropical rainforest critter : IGUANA.
Many folks keep these for house pets. They are kind of ugly, so they
can replace a husband, (until it's time to fix something).
24. Pacific coast desert : ATACAMA
- Of course I was trying to fit Mohave in here, Las Vegas, Southern
Calif, etc. I sort of forgot that Chile also has a Pacific Coast.
Apologies to my buddy, Jorge, from Santiago.
28. Top-selling 1980s game console : NES - Nintendo - Final Fantasy was great.
29. Key of Brahm's Piano Sonata No. 1 : C MAJ
32. Pill bug or gribble : ISOPOD - A crustacean that I've never heard of.
35. Genesis wife : LEAH - Seems Jacob had a couple of wives.
38. Prior to, to Prior : ERE
39. Louisiane, e.g. : ETAT - I get it - Louisiane is French for Louisiana, Etat is french for state. Do you want fries with that??
45. "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy" author : STERNE (Laurence)
46. Doctor's specialty? : SPIN - Why pick on doctors? I prefer politician's specialty as a clue.
47. "Ta-ta" : BYE
50. Locks without keys : TRESSES - Kind of a hairy answer that I didn't get right away.
52. Cooking surface : TEFLON - A DuPont innovation in the day. They now have pans with surfaces so hard you can burn a block of cheese and it won't stick.
57. "Why Can't I?" singer Liz : PHAIR - Sorry, not well known to me.
60. "I'll say!" : AMEN - Latin for "So be it". Often used and mis-clued in Crosswords.
61. Language written right to left : URDU - another virtually unknown reference.
62. Teegarden of "Friday Night Lights" : AIMEE
63. Equal: Pref. : PARI - My first thought was parimutuel betting at the track. But that never seems to come out equal.
64. Troon turndowns : NAEs
65. Sporty Nissans : Z-CARS -
In 1969, Nissan skipped the entire alphabet and produced their first
Z-car in Japan. Not sure why a Japanese company used our English
alphabet ... or maybe I am.
66. Austen heroine : EMMA - Not Ross Geller and Rachel Green's little girl?
67. London flat, perhaps : TYRE. Flat tyre.
Down:
1. Vitamin in liver : NIACIN - I guess this is vitamin B3 - for those who need to know.
2. Coop up in a coop : ENCAGE
- Picky, Picky - I am not sure if encage is a word. I am pretty sure
that a cage is not a coop. The Metrodome is a cage, Target field is a
coop. (Flying objects can escape).
3. Substance in acid tests : LITMUS
- Red is for acid, blue is for Alkaline, (Hall of Famer who played
right field for the Tigers, before Detroit went broke.) Purple is
neutral, Vikings training camp opened this week.
4. Process start : STEP A
5. Earthquake consequence : TSUNAMI - I never heard this term until a few years ago. We always called them tidal waves when I was a kid.
6. Gave a buzz : RANG
- Didn't like the clue. Gave a buzz is what the barber did to your
head a few days before boot camp. Rang is more of a chapel bell sound.
It used to be a phone call before ring tones and vibrates.
7. Curved pieces : ARCS
8. It may be corkscrew-shaped : PASTA - yeah, Rotini, but it won't open a bottle of wine.
9. 90 degrees : DUE EAST - Only if you're facing North or South.
10. It takes time to settle them : OLD SCORES
11. Ta-ta, to texters : GTG (Got to Go) - I don't text or tweet.
12. Cheer competitor : ERA - Soapy Sales
13. Genealogically-based patriotic org. : SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) - TMAITP (Too many acronyms in this puzzle).
21. Andean native : INCA - Believe it or not, the Incas populated an area from Columbia to the ATACAMA Desert. 24 Across anyone?
22. Medical office closing? : ITIS - Arthritis? Hepatitis? Gingivitis? PLEASE, this is a suffix, not a closing.
25. ___ on the back : A PAT
26. Manny who ranks third in MLB lifetime pinch hits : MOTA - A great pinch hitter, mostly for the Dodgers and Pirates.
27. Colliery entry : ADIT
30. Blows away : AWES - Sorry, not really awed by this puzzle.
31. Horseshoes-like game : JARTS
- They changed the name to Lawn Darts, but then I think they had to
pull it from the market due to injuries caused by accidents or misuse.
Later there was Posy Pitch, but it just didn't seem to catch on. Jarts
was easier if you used a hula hoop instead of those small plastic rings
they gave you.
33. Wanting more : THIRSTIER
34. Biweekly tide : NEAP
- comes during the first and third quarters of the moon. I think it
could happen three times a month, say once every blue moon or so.
35. Zest : LUST - Zest is soap. Lust is something for which you may need the soap.
37. Fits to ___ : A TEE - I have heard the expression but I still like golf peg or field goal kickers need.
41. Cinches : ENSURES
42. Ruminants with racks : DEER - Yeah, but only in the male deer. Unlike humans where the females have the racks.
43. Oberon's queen : TITANIA - I rest my case.
44. Cabinet dept. : ENER - I have only seen energy abbreviated this way when a pen runs out of ink.
47. Disc storage format : BLU-RAY - I hardly got used to standard DVDs when along comes Blu-Ray. I suppose teeny discs for Google Glassed are next.
48. Over there : YONDER - "Lookie Yonder" was a standard phrase in the South. Probably still is.
49. Ultimate purpose : END USE
51. Dumbledore's slayer : SNAPE - I have sent people on Snipe hunts. I have never heard of Snape but he could be of the snipe family.
53. Source : FOUNT
55. Quran authority : IMAM
56. Period with limits : TERM - Frank Smith's term was over 250 episodes
57. Bolivia's La ___ : PAZ
58. Minute Maid brand : HIC - Took me awhile to see HI C. I was thinking more the result of too much Scotch.
59. GP's gp. : AMA
I
think I am done. Thank you for reading this far. Have a pleasant
Friday, and for your trivia question of the day - Who was Joe Friday's
original partner on Dragnet, before Bill Gannon? If you have to Google
it, you cannot win the prize.
Boomer
PS: There is no prize.
