Theme: Revealed in 36 Across: One of six in this puzzle: ANAGRAM CROSSING.
1A. SPOUTS crosses 5D. TOSSUP
18A. MANATEES crosses 10D. EMANATES
28A. PASTA crosses 24D. TAPAS
48A. TOTEM crosses 35D. MOTET
61A. PEAR TREE crosses 37D. REPARTEE
68A. MENTAL crosses 49D. MANTLE
Al here. I eliminated the clues in the above, hopefully to make the theme answers and their relationships clearer, but included them down in the rest of the write-up. One of those puzzles where the theme really didn't come into play for me. Just as with Dan's puzzle yesterday, this "solved" like a themeless puzzle. Even once I knew they were supposed to be there, I had to look for places where the across and down were the same length, and of course the symmetric positions, after I was done solving. Very heavy theme count, 13 answers, 79 squares. Lots of tricky cluing as well, so a fun solve, but not a walk in the park by any means. I made a colored picture showing the theme layout, but there are so many crossings with other answers, I'm not sure it helps all that much. At the bottom there are notes from Don about constructing something like this.
ACROSS:
1. Orates: SPOUTS. As in a fountain spouting, comes from a root word meaning to spit. It was also the slang term for the lift in a pawnbroker's shop, up which articles were taken for storage, hence fig. phrase up the spout "lost, hopeless, gone beyond recall"
7. Hourly wage, e.g.: BASE RATE.
15. Refuses to: CANNOT. This one took me a long time to agree with, so I held off filling it in at first, but when someone says "I cannot help you", it does usually mean they won't, not that they are unable to.
16. Astronomy measurements: AZIMUTHS. The definition is just confusing: Distance of a star from the north or south point of the meridian. A picture works better.
17. Engrave: INCISE. Cutting into.
18. Sea cows: MANATEES. Dugongs are in the same family.
19. Brief needlework?: TATS. Tatting is making knotted lace. (Correction, as several regulars pointed out, and I originally missed, this is short for tattoos)
20. Megan's "Will & Grace" role: KAREN. Megan Mullaly, Karen Walker. Grace's secretary, who doesn't really need to work because she married into money several times.
21. Label for some Glenn Frey hits: MCA. Music Corporation of America.
22. Physicist with a law: OHM. I was taught this as V=IR (voltage = amperage times resistance)
23. Acting teacher Hagen: UTA.
25. "It __ far, far better thing...": Dickens: IS A. From Tale of Two Cities, It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.
26. Wages: PAY. Can't argue with that...or else you'll get canned.
27. Get: SEE. I get it, see?
28. Noodles, say: PASTA.
30. The Simpsons, e.g.: TOONS.
32. Wedding dance: HORA. The chair dance, right?
34. Fabled mattress lump: PEA.
35. Mal de __: MER. Sea sickness. Also once meant scurvy.
42. Some tech sch. grads: EES. Electrical Engineers.
43. Top ten item: HIT.
44. Sign: OMEN.
45. Pricey: STEEP.
48. Pole symbol: TOTEM.
50. Wall St. exec's degree: MBA. Master of Business Administration.
51. Collar: NAB. Variant of nap "to grab or seize" as in kidnap.
52. "Aladdin" monkey: ABU. The Disney version.
54. Frat letter: ETA. College Greeks.
55. Food scrap: ORT.
56. Geneva-based workers' gp.: ILO. International Labour Organization.
57. Babe and Baby: RUTHS. A candy bar and a baseball great shaped like one.
59. Gijon goose egg: NADA. Spanish for nothing. A numeric zero on a scoreboard looks like a big fat goose egg.
61. Orchard grower: PEAR TREE.
63. An iamb's second half gets it: STRESS.
65. Noteworthy: ESTEEMED. As in estimated, from ais-temos "one who cuts copper," i.e. mints money.
66. Mount McKinley's home: ALASKA. Did Mrs. McKinley ever visit? I dunno, I'll ask her.
67. Relax: REST EASY.
68. Word with health or illness: MENTAL. I was disappointed when this show was canceled. I should go work for the networks, I think. If I like a show, they'll know not to even bother making it and save a lot of money. Firefly, New Amsterdam, John Doe, all too short-lived. The networks are all Mental.
DOWN:
1. __-fi: SCI. An "old" abbrev for Science Fiction. SF writers prefer it to be called SF these days, but that's too short for a crossword answer.
2. Temple of the gods: PANTHEON.
3. Being filmed: ON CAMERA.
4. Platoon, for one: UNIT.
5. Anybody's guess: TOSSUP.
6. Chateau __ Michelle winery: STE. A new and different way to clue a French abbrev for a female saint.
7. The Tide: BAMA. They call Alabama the crimson tide. Deacon Blues.
8. Hank who voices many 30-Across: AZARIA. Also played three roles in the "Night at the Smithsonian" movies: Kahmunrah/The Thinker/Abe Lincoln.
9. Cosecant reciprocals: SINES. A graph showing the relationship.
10. Arises: EMANATES. Directly from Latin emanare "flow out, arise, proceed,"
11. Groove: RUT. Sure, they mean the same thing, except when they don't idiomatically. If I'm "in the groove", I'm certainly not "in a rut".
12. At the original speed, in music: A TEMPO.
13. Jail, in slang: THE CAN. If you played kick the can, someone had to go to jail. I wonder if one is related to the other.
14. Tests that are hard to guess on: ESSAYS.
20. Deejay Casey: KASEM.
22. Dept. of Labor agency: OSHA. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
24. Spanish appetizers: TAPAS. Lots of different kinds.
29. Speed: Pref.: TACHO. Straight from the Greek.
31. Meeting time qualifier: OR SO.
33. One-time Time critic James: AGEE.
35. Sacred choral piece: MOTET.
37. Comeback: REPARTEE.
38. Solemn acts: RITES.
39. Bold: IMMODEST.
40. Big 12 school soon to be in the Big Ten: NEBRASKA.
41. No-see-um, say: GNAT.
45. Hard-to-see shooter: SNIPER.
46. "Thy Neighbor's Wife" author: TALESE. About "free love", i.e. a marriage-less society.
47. WWII torpedo launchers: E-BOATS. The "E" is thought to mean Enemy, but could be from Eilboot (hurry boat). They were called Schnellboots by the German navy.
48. Some learners: TUTEES.
49. It's beneath the crust: MANTLE. Layers of the earth, crust, mantle, core. (OK, two mantles and two cores if you're picky).
53. Siam neighbor: BURMA. Today's geography lesson.
58. Actress Lamarr: HEDY. Along with being quite the looker, she co-invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications, a key to many forms of wireless communication from the pre-computer age to the present day.
60. Sweater style named for Irish islands: ARAN.
62. Like some mil. officers: RET. Military, retired.
63. Yosemite __: SAM. The rootinest tootinest shootinest bob tailed wild cat in the west.
64. ESPN reporter Paolantonio: SAL. Not in my sphere of awareness.
Answer Grid.
Al
Here are some thoughts from Don about today's puzzle:
"Anagram Crossing:
Sometimes a theme shows up while one is constructing another puzzle. In this case, I noticed two words in a grid crossing each other that were anagrams of each other. I thought that was interesting, and started to play with the possibilities. One needs a unifier in this case, and ANAGRAM CROSSING was a lucky choice, being exactly 15-letters long. That meant that it had to be in the center, because anywhere else would require another 15-letter word to reflect it, and that would disrupt the theme pattern. I thought that I could get six anagram crossings, and it ended up that I could barely do that. The central 15-letter answer makes it a great challenge. On the plus side, there are many anagrams to choose from. On the down side, they have to cross in my scheme, and possibly cross the central answer, and I wanted to enter them symmetrically in the grid and cross at the same places. I don’t know why. It just looks prettier that way. So I just kept hunting, and eventually worked it out. On my first submission, Rich thought that I shouldn’t have a brand name entry, so I had to change things. I think I ended up with five different grids, if that is an indication of how difficult it is to change something like this. I don’t think I’ll try that again!"
1A. SPOUTS crosses 5D. TOSSUP
18A. MANATEES crosses 10D. EMANATES
28A. PASTA crosses 24D. TAPAS
48A. TOTEM crosses 35D. MOTET
61A. PEAR TREE crosses 37D. REPARTEE
68A. MENTAL crosses 49D. MANTLE
Al here. I eliminated the clues in the above, hopefully to make the theme answers and their relationships clearer, but included them down in the rest of the write-up. One of those puzzles where the theme really didn't come into play for me. Just as with Dan's puzzle yesterday, this "solved" like a themeless puzzle. Even once I knew they were supposed to be there, I had to look for places where the across and down were the same length, and of course the symmetric positions, after I was done solving. Very heavy theme count, 13 answers, 79 squares. Lots of tricky cluing as well, so a fun solve, but not a walk in the park by any means. I made a colored picture showing the theme layout, but there are so many crossings with other answers, I'm not sure it helps all that much. At the bottom there are notes from Don about constructing something like this.
ACROSS:
1. Orates: SPOUTS. As in a fountain spouting, comes from a root word meaning to spit. It was also the slang term for the lift in a pawnbroker's shop, up which articles were taken for storage, hence fig. phrase up the spout "lost, hopeless, gone beyond recall"
7. Hourly wage, e.g.: BASE RATE.
15. Refuses to: CANNOT. This one took me a long time to agree with, so I held off filling it in at first, but when someone says "I cannot help you", it does usually mean they won't, not that they are unable to.
16. Astronomy measurements: AZIMUTHS. The definition is just confusing: Distance of a star from the north or south point of the meridian. A picture works better.
17. Engrave: INCISE. Cutting into.
18. Sea cows: MANATEES. Dugongs are in the same family.
19. Brief needlework?: TATS. Tatting is making knotted lace. (Correction, as several regulars pointed out, and I originally missed, this is short for tattoos)
20. Megan's "Will & Grace" role: KAREN. Megan Mullaly, Karen Walker. Grace's secretary, who doesn't really need to work because she married into money several times.
21. Label for some Glenn Frey hits: MCA. Music Corporation of America.
22. Physicist with a law: OHM. I was taught this as V=IR (voltage = amperage times resistance)
23. Acting teacher Hagen: UTA.
25. "It __ far, far better thing...": Dickens: IS A. From Tale of Two Cities, It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.
26. Wages: PAY. Can't argue with that...or else you'll get canned.
27. Get: SEE. I get it, see?
28. Noodles, say: PASTA.
30. The Simpsons, e.g.: TOONS.
32. Wedding dance: HORA. The chair dance, right?
34. Fabled mattress lump: PEA.
35. Mal de __: MER. Sea sickness. Also once meant scurvy.
42. Some tech sch. grads: EES. Electrical Engineers.
43. Top ten item: HIT.
44. Sign: OMEN.
45. Pricey: STEEP.
48. Pole symbol: TOTEM.
50. Wall St. exec's degree: MBA. Master of Business Administration.
51. Collar: NAB. Variant of nap "to grab or seize" as in kidnap.
52. "Aladdin" monkey: ABU. The Disney version.
54. Frat letter: ETA. College Greeks.
55. Food scrap: ORT.
56. Geneva-based workers' gp.: ILO. International Labour Organization.
57. Babe and Baby: RUTHS. A candy bar and a baseball great shaped like one.
59. Gijon goose egg: NADA. Spanish for nothing. A numeric zero on a scoreboard looks like a big fat goose egg.
61. Orchard grower: PEAR TREE.
63. An iamb's second half gets it: STRESS.
65. Noteworthy: ESTEEMED. As in estimated, from ais-temos "one who cuts copper," i.e. mints money.
66. Mount McKinley's home: ALASKA. Did Mrs. McKinley ever visit? I dunno, I'll ask her.
67. Relax: REST EASY.
68. Word with health or illness: MENTAL. I was disappointed when this show was canceled. I should go work for the networks, I think. If I like a show, they'll know not to even bother making it and save a lot of money. Firefly, New Amsterdam, John Doe, all too short-lived. The networks are all Mental.
DOWN:
1. __-fi: SCI. An "old" abbrev for Science Fiction. SF writers prefer it to be called SF these days, but that's too short for a crossword answer.
2. Temple of the gods: PANTHEON.
3. Being filmed: ON CAMERA.
4. Platoon, for one: UNIT.
5. Anybody's guess: TOSSUP.
6. Chateau __ Michelle winery: STE. A new and different way to clue a French abbrev for a female saint.
7. The Tide: BAMA. They call Alabama the crimson tide. Deacon Blues.
8. Hank who voices many 30-Across: AZARIA. Also played three roles in the "Night at the Smithsonian" movies: Kahmunrah/The Thinker/Abe Lincoln.
9. Cosecant reciprocals: SINES. A graph showing the relationship.
10. Arises: EMANATES. Directly from Latin emanare "flow out, arise, proceed,"
11. Groove: RUT. Sure, they mean the same thing, except when they don't idiomatically. If I'm "in the groove", I'm certainly not "in a rut".
12. At the original speed, in music: A TEMPO.
13. Jail, in slang: THE CAN. If you played kick the can, someone had to go to jail. I wonder if one is related to the other.
14. Tests that are hard to guess on: ESSAYS.
20. Deejay Casey: KASEM.
22. Dept. of Labor agency: OSHA. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
24. Spanish appetizers: TAPAS. Lots of different kinds.
29. Speed: Pref.: TACHO. Straight from the Greek.
31. Meeting time qualifier: OR SO.
33. One-time Time critic James: AGEE.
35. Sacred choral piece: MOTET.
37. Comeback: REPARTEE.
38. Solemn acts: RITES.
39. Bold: IMMODEST.
40. Big 12 school soon to be in the Big Ten: NEBRASKA.
41. No-see-um, say: GNAT.
45. Hard-to-see shooter: SNIPER.
46. "Thy Neighbor's Wife" author: TALESE. About "free love", i.e. a marriage-less society.
47. WWII torpedo launchers: E-BOATS. The "E" is thought to mean Enemy, but could be from Eilboot (hurry boat). They were called Schnellboots by the German navy.
48. Some learners: TUTEES.
49. It's beneath the crust: MANTLE. Layers of the earth, crust, mantle, core. (OK, two mantles and two cores if you're picky).
53. Siam neighbor: BURMA. Today's geography lesson.
58. Actress Lamarr: HEDY. Along with being quite the looker, she co-invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications, a key to many forms of wireless communication from the pre-computer age to the present day.
60. Sweater style named for Irish islands: ARAN.
62. Like some mil. officers: RET. Military, retired.
63. Yosemite __: SAM. The rootinest tootinest shootinest bob tailed wild cat in the west.
64. ESPN reporter Paolantonio: SAL. Not in my sphere of awareness.
Answer Grid.
Al
Here are some thoughts from Don about today's puzzle:
"Anagram Crossing:
Sometimes a theme shows up while one is constructing another puzzle. In this case, I noticed two words in a grid crossing each other that were anagrams of each other. I thought that was interesting, and started to play with the possibilities. One needs a unifier in this case, and ANAGRAM CROSSING was a lucky choice, being exactly 15-letters long. That meant that it had to be in the center, because anywhere else would require another 15-letter word to reflect it, and that would disrupt the theme pattern. I thought that I could get six anagram crossings, and it ended up that I could barely do that. The central 15-letter answer makes it a great challenge. On the plus side, there are many anagrams to choose from. On the down side, they have to cross in my scheme, and possibly cross the central answer, and I wanted to enter them symmetrically in the grid and cross at the same places. I don’t know why. It just looks prettier that way. So I just kept hunting, and eventually worked it out. On my first submission, Rich thought that I shouldn’t have a brand name entry, so I had to change things. I think I ended up with five different grids, if that is an indication of how difficult it is to change something like this. I don’t think I’ll try that again!"
