Theme: 16x15
Words: 69 (missing J,Q,W,Z)
Blocks: 34
Today's offering is another expanded standard grid from the duo of Messrs Martin and George to allow for the triple quad stack in the middle, and that's not all; an additional pair of spanners, one at the top and bottom of the construction with nifty 11-letter climbers that cross the quad stack and one of the other 15-letter fills. This is our second puzzle from the pair, the other being 23 Jan of this year - I looked back and reported that I did OK with the spanners, but not so well everywhere else. This time, I did better, but still got stuck with one - just one - red letter cheat to get me thru due East. Oh well. The spanners;
16a. It's airtight : THE PERFECT ALIBI
29a. Light carrier : FIBER OPTIC CABLE - I knew the first part, but the 'CABLE' part didn't occur to me right away - which is odd, because in my local area, there's a 'cable war' going on between Verizon FiOS, which is Fiber optic, and Cablevision, which is standard; my brother tried FiOS, and switched back.
35a. Text ending in Panama? : A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL - a palindrome; the same forwards and backwards, when you add PANAMA to the end
36a. Eviction consequence : VACANT APARTMENT - I once worked for a cleaning company that specialized in apartment complexes - we had mixed feelings about evictions because the ex-tenant usually ended up leaving valuables behind ( leather jackets, guitars, liquor, porn ) but also some really vicious mess to clean up - used appliances never once wiped down, and in one case, out of spite, sugar in the carpet and ketchup on the walls
37a. Investment in a relationship : EMOTIONAL ENERGY - well, it fits, but I have never really heard this as a "term" before
54. Retire : PUT OUT TO PASTURE - I had the "-TO PASTURE" part, but my first fills in the SW Down were wrong, so it took a while
I'm on vacatiON WARD~!
ACROSS:
1. Line at the supermarket : SOUP CANS - nothing about BAR CODE(s)
9. Tapering part : SPIRE - my first thought was candles, and table legs - and then other kinds of legs....
Words: 69 (missing J,Q,W,Z)
Blocks: 34
Today's offering is another expanded standard grid from the duo of Messrs Martin and George to allow for the triple quad stack in the middle, and that's not all; an additional pair of spanners, one at the top and bottom of the construction with nifty 11-letter climbers that cross the quad stack and one of the other 15-letter fills. This is our second puzzle from the pair, the other being 23 Jan of this year - I looked back and reported that I did OK with the spanners, but not so well everywhere else. This time, I did better, but still got stuck with one - just one - red letter cheat to get me thru due East. Oh well. The spanners;
16a. It's airtight : THE PERFECT ALIBI
29a. Light carrier : FIBER OPTIC CABLE - I knew the first part, but the 'CABLE' part didn't occur to me right away - which is odd, because in my local area, there's a 'cable war' going on between Verizon FiOS, which is Fiber optic, and Cablevision, which is standard; my brother tried FiOS, and switched back.
35a. Text ending in Panama? : A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL - a palindrome; the same forwards and backwards, when you add PANAMA to the end
36a. Eviction consequence : VACANT APARTMENT - I once worked for a cleaning company that specialized in apartment complexes - we had mixed feelings about evictions because the ex-tenant usually ended up leaving valuables behind ( leather jackets, guitars, liquor, porn ) but also some really vicious mess to clean up - used appliances never once wiped down, and in one case, out of spite, sugar in the carpet and ketchup on the walls
37a. Investment in a relationship : EMOTIONAL ENERGY - well, it fits, but I have never really heard this as a "term" before
54. Retire : PUT OUT TO PASTURE - I had the "-TO PASTURE" part, but my first fills in the SW Down were wrong, so it took a while
I'm on vacatiON WARD~!
ACROSS:
1. Line at the supermarket : SOUP CANS - nothing about BAR CODE(s)
9. Tapering part : SPIRE - my first thought was candles, and table legs - and then other kinds of legs....
14. Freezer bar with Sir Isaac Lime and Alexander the Grape flavors : OTTER*POP
15. Aleichem who created Tevye : SHOLEM - filled via perps
18. Short and sweet : TERSE
19. Sea lion, e.g. : EARED SEAL
20. Galeón cargo : ORO
21. Etym. : DERIVation - the etymology of a word is where it comes from; I especially like "neighbor" - see here
22. Base address : SIR - dah~! Not APO
24. Confession starter : MEA
26. "Just __" : ASK
38. Medicare card fig. : SSN
39. Go down : SET - think sun
40. __ Banos, California : LOS - one of those has to be LOS or LAS, but with an obscure (for this east-coaster) town
41. Spring time : APRIL - two words, but it wasn't MAY, JUNE, or MARCH
44. Courses for coll. credit : APs - I took two in high school
47. Teachers' lounge : STAFFROOM
52. Berkshire attraction for race fans : ASCOT
56. Charge : ONRUSH - oops, not AMBush
57. Mae West's final film : SEXTETTE - semi-WAG; not in my wheelhouse. The IMDb
58. Lacerations : TEARS - ah, I tried SCARS - and then again one other place
59. Get smashed : TIE ONE ON - haven't done so in over 11 years - now I tie two on - each of my shoes....
DOWN:
1. __ voce : SOTTO - as we have discussed here before, the bigger the stacks, the shorter the crossing fill is, and thus usually easier to fill
2. Remaining : OTHER
3. Unborn, after "in" : UTERO
4. Fires (up) : PEPS
5. Algonquian language : CREE
6. Credit fig. : APR - I am looking into this Lending Tree Credit Card offer of $0 balance transfer; semi-clecho with - 7a. Credit card come-on : NO FEE
8. Fishing tool : SPEAR
9. Sardine cousin : SHAD
10. D.C. in-crowd : POLiticianS
11. "__ awake at night": "Pretty Boy" lyric : I LIE - made sense, so I put it in....
12. Name on the 1984 album "My Kind of Country" : REBA - really my only four-letter go-to fill for country
13. __ Sinclair, protagonist of Hesse's "Demian" : EMIL - again, perps
15. "The Office" star : STEVE CARELL
17. Record holder? : CRIMINAL
21. Be affected by gravity : DROP TO EARTH - I had "drop toWARDS", which made sense, but baffled me in the SW corner
22. French governing group : SÉNAT
23. Qom inhabitants : IRANIs
25. Bankbook ID : ACCT. No.
26. Marryin' Sam presided over his wedding : ABNER - OK, I tried ELVIS....
27. Word on the street : SLANG
28. Big name in backpacks : KELTY - my one red-letter was the "K"
29. Pets : FAVES
30. Muslim clerics : IMAMS
31. Strips for brunch : BACON
32. Nursery item : PLANT POT
33. Bite with un aperitivo : TAPA
34. Willie of "Eight Is Enough" : AAMES - didn't watch the show - "Buck Rogers" was more to my liking
 |
| first guy on the top |
42. All-night bar? : ROOST
43. JFK Library architect : I.M. PEI - I knew this one
44. Less than right? : ACUTE - angles - har-har
45. __ Alegre, Brazil : PORTO
46. Rembrandt contemporary : STEEN
47. Blemish : SPOT - I went with SCAR here, first, and it was altogether wrong
48. Harmony : TUNE
49. Sharp brand introduced in 1977 : ATRA
50. Lou Gehrig's number : FOUR - I thought it was NINE, and so I was never going to succeed until I came to the conclusion that I was wrong
51. Stir : FUSS
52. On the subject of : AS TO
53. Acronymous WWII gun : STEN - I knew this one, too
55. Pink-slip : AXE
Splynter
