Theme: Twisted NEWS, North, East, West, South describing the DIRECTION of the fill. Each of the ten (10!) theme answers represent a way to read, West to east (left to right); east to west (right to left) ; north to south (top to bottom) and south to north (bottom to top). See a simple diagram here. English for example is East, Hebrew West, Chinese South ,and ancient Korean North. What an wonderfully creative grid, which really makes you shake up your thought process and see things upside down and backwards. All theme answers are connected by the clecho: APT. And the answers flow around the edge of the grid.
Lemonade here, and we have back to back corner denizen puzzles, so let us see what the dynamic duo have wrought.
1A. Aptly, Chinese, e.g.: ASIAN. East Asian. The inscrutable East and an immediate shout out to C.C.'s heritage.
6A. Aptly, Park Avenue area: SIDE. The East Side of Manhattan; everything west of Fifth avenue is West Side, everything east...
10A. Aptly, New Jersey beach phenomenon: WIND. East wind. The wind blowing to the ocean. They even named an airline based in Trenton, EASTWIND AIRLINES.
37A. "Apt" geographical element needed to complete the answers to 10 of this puzzle's clues: DIRECTION. The unifier smack dab in the middle.
67A. Aptly, Israeli-occupied territory: KNAB. The West Bank, written right to left as Israelis and Arabs alike do.
68A. Aptly, Oval Office site: GNIW. The West Wing of the White House and a long running TV show. Also, present occupant accused of moving the country from right to left.
69A. Aptly, Hollywood locale: TSAOC. The West Coast, California here I come.
1D. Aptly, about 5 percent of the Earth's surface: ACIREMA. North America, bottom to top.
13D. Aptly, Pierre's state: DAKOTA. South Dakota, read top to bottom. Pierre is the capital.
45D. Aptly, "Happy Talk" musical: PACIFIC. South Pacific, the Broadway Musical.
46D. Aptly, Pyongyang resident: NAEROK. North Korean form this CITY .
Across:
14. Treinta ÷ seis: CINCO. Thirty divided by six equals five, Spanish lesson 1.
15. Some Neruda works: ODES. CA has given us some of PABLO NERUDA'S work.
16. Conscription category: ONE-A. Draft status.
17. "What else __?": IS NEW. The structure of this puzzle is new.
18. Tour de force: FEAT. A major accomplishment, like have a puzzle published.
19. Terrible: WACK. This is such a cool clue, really current slang meaning awful, slowly derived from wacky, with the "H" removed to distinguish it from whacked, the mob version of killed.
20. Bona fide: REAL. Literally in good faith in Latin.
21. Wall makeup, maybe: STONES. Gee, I thought PINK FLOYD sang this SONG .
23. Intl. commerce group: WTO. World Trade Organization.
24. Anger: ENRAGE. I hope none of you were put off by the extra layer of thought required to solve this puzzle.
26. Main vessel: SEA BOAT. Once again, the bounding main, and a beautiful PAINTING.
28. '60s chic: MOD. MEMORIES?
29. Virgil contemporary: OVID. A Roman poet, who had his own course back when I was studying Latin. Speaking of Latin, 32A. Earth, to 29-Across: TERRA. And, 33A. 29-Across's "__ amatoria": ARS. The Art of Love, which you can read part of translated for you in this LINK. I guess it would be a Friday so I could give a little Latin Lesson.
34. Contradict: BELIE.
36. Pop-ups, perhaps: ADS. Does anyone not have a pop-up blocker?
40. Diamond stat: RBI. Baseball, not gemstone.
42. Assault: STORM. I always associate this usage with a tower.
43. Spot in a poker game: PIP. The little things there are three of on a trey.
46. Isn't far from reaching: NEARS.
48. Like some blog comments: Abbr.: ANON. Another great inside joke from our constructors; I feel like I am watching an episode of the old George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.
49. Peruvian pronoun: ESA. Feminine, ESO, masculine.
50. "So soon?": ALREADY. You are back, oh oh.
53. Kind of acid: NITRIC. A highly corrosive acid; horrible. Want to make SOME?
55. Width measure: EEE. My clue Bigfoot?
56. Relax: GO EASY.
59. European wine area: ASTI.
60. "Shoot!": RATS. This was tricky for me.
62. Relative position: RANK. When I started practicing law in Gainesville many years ago, the old southerners would call me Colonel. Not sure why lawyers were so ranked, but I wanted to get a cigar and go cook some fried chicken.
63. "... __ of Bread ...": A LOAF. " A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou." A small piece of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and a classic example of ARS AMATORIA.
64. "__ take arms against a sea ...": Hamlet: OR TO. I do loves me my Shakespeare.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep."
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep."
65. Prado display: ARTE. Oops we slipped into Spanish again; this is the premier MUSEUM in Madrid.
66. Morels, e.g.: FUNGI. The perfect inside DF reference from our fearless leader, understood by only the corner, but like the PICTURE we all stand fully at attention to salute you in our best Dennis mode.
No rest though, we have more
Down:
2. Latin agreement: SI SENOR. Tricky, not that Latin, the other one. Yes mister!
3. Machine makeup, informally: INNARDS. Guts to me.
4. Amtrak's bullet train: ACELA . Any of you remaining New Englanders ridden it?
5. Word of impatience: NOW. "I want it on my desk...."
6. Lax: SOFT.
7. Prefix with logical: IDEO. IDEOLOGICAL. I wonder why this was not clued Logical head, to lead into....
8. Heads with lists: DEANS. Department heads who put out the List of Honor Students.
9. Big name in compacts: ESTEE. Lauder the make up queen.
10. Eye-popper response: WOW. My favorite, wowee kazowee.
11. Succinctly: IN A WORD. Very succinctly.
12. Bee drawers: NECTARS. No not little bitty knickers but the plant yummies from which bees make their honey.
21. Break off: SEVER. Like diplomatic ties.
22. Warmed the bench: SAT. Yes this (benchwarmer) was my position when I played basketball.
25. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" setting: GOBI. Chinese: 戈壁, pinyin: Gēbì. Another China reference, and a multi-award winning movie which I found difficult to follow.
27. Certain counter's unit?: BEAN. Bean counter, our euphemism for an accountant.
30. Quebec's Sept-__: ILES. The northernmost seaport in Quebec Province. LINK .
31. Orders: DICTA. From the Latin, I have given you my dicta speech before.
35. Thames landmark: ETON. Crosswordese.
36. Urgent: DIRE. Like STRAITS.
38. It may be dramatic: IRONY. One of many popular literary devices.
39. Luxury hotel: OMNI. They had them in Miami and Atlanta.
40. Freshen one's familiarity with: RELEARN.
41. '70s Robert Blake cop show: BARETTA. Look for his new reality show co-starring Casey Anthony.
43. Public projection: PERSONA. My sarcasm leaves often, non grata.
44. "Are we in?": IS IT A GO. A nice Naddorish misdirection of letters.
47. Slump: SAG.
51. Trendy headgear: DO RAG. I am not sure they are still in.
52. Long: YEARN. I'm burning, yearning for your loving.
54. Foot bone: TALUS. Ankle bone, and the name of Dr. Who's ship?
57. Objector : ANTI. Latin meaning against.
58. Slant, as to a specific audience: SKEW.
61. Graveside sound: SOB. My first thought was why would someone call another an SOB at a graveside.
63. Popeye's behind?: AFT. The sailor man's rear of the ship. Love this clue, what a great laugh to end what for me has been a great ride, with a really creative visual puzzle. Until next time.
Lemonade
1) Constructors' note:
I thought it would be fun to make a theme taking advantage of directional heading of the edge words in the grid. As is usually the case with collaborating, we (mostly Don) developed a central unifier CLOCKWISE, which was changed to DIRECTION at Rich's suggestion. The number of words that can follow the headings are rather limited. We were lucky to get them to join in the corners. Filling was weird at spots, the bottom and left-edge words can be somewhat disorienting.
2) Here is another Hard to Believe picture. Tell in the Comments section who do you think that sweet boy is.
