Theme: The Leith Police dismisseth us.
A very cool theme today - three anagrams of the unifier, which itself alludes to the fact that the answers to the first three are "twisted", or anagrams!
19A. Novice chocolatier's lessons? : SWEET TUTORING
23A. Walks in the rain, vis-à-vis fair-day activities? : WETTER OUTINGS
44A. Vacations led by Twitter? : TWEETING TOURS
and the unifier:
50A. Speaker's challenge scrambled three times in this puzzle : TONGUE TWISTER
Happy Friday, everyone. Steve here on stand-in duty for Lemonade. I love anagrams, and I really liked these three and the clever reveal. The theme I chose is reputedly the most difficult tongue-twister in the English language. Give it a try and see how you do!
Now let's take a look at the rest (Red Buick, Blue Buick)
Across:
1. University of Georgia athlete, familiarly : DAWG. The Bulldogs in polite circles.
5. Scorned paper : RAG
8. Ticket holder with a conflict, maybe : NO-SHOW. This whole section was hard work for me, but I liked everything when it finally fell into place.
14. In opposition : AVERSELY
16. Self-loathing direction : INWARD
17. "Just curious" : NO REASON
18. Note sentiment : THANKS
21. Pres. between JAG and GC : CAA. Chester Alan Arthur, who came between James Abram Garfield and Grover Cleveland.
22. It might be closed due to flooding : ROAD
29. Med. land : ISR. Neither Israel nor Mediterranean are the easiest place names to reliably spell correctly.
31. "... __ he drove out of sight" : ERE. From "The night before Christmas" by Clement Moore.
32. Mena of "American Beauty" : SUVARI. Crosses all the way. I will NEVER remember this actress's name!
33. Endured : STOOD
36. Tar on a deck : GOB
38. Mantle's number : SEVEN. The Yankee's Hall of Fame Center Fielder had three nicknames - "The Mick", "The Commerce Comet" and simply "Muscles".
39. Hardly unexpected : NOT NEW
41. Threw one's hat in the ring : RAN
43. Head start? : EGG. Egghead.
48. Internet game site : POGO. Again, crosses for me. Never heard of this.
49. __ Balls: Hostess treats : SNO
56. Of an upper heart chamber : ATRIAL. This took a bit of digging out from the recesses of the brain. I kept coming up with AORTAL and knew it wasn't right.
58. Tab, for one : DIET COLA. I remembered this being clear, but I didn't remember it being low-calorie.
A very cool theme today - three anagrams of the unifier, which itself alludes to the fact that the answers to the first three are "twisted", or anagrams!
19A. Novice chocolatier's lessons? : SWEET TUTORING
23A. Walks in the rain, vis-à-vis fair-day activities? : WETTER OUTINGS
44A. Vacations led by Twitter? : TWEETING TOURS
and the unifier:
50A. Speaker's challenge scrambled three times in this puzzle : TONGUE TWISTER
Happy Friday, everyone. Steve here on stand-in duty for Lemonade. I love anagrams, and I really liked these three and the clever reveal. The theme I chose is reputedly the most difficult tongue-twister in the English language. Give it a try and see how you do!
Now let's take a look at the rest (Red Buick, Blue Buick)
Across:
1. University of Georgia athlete, familiarly : DAWG. The Bulldogs in polite circles.
5. Scorned paper : RAG
8. Ticket holder with a conflict, maybe : NO-SHOW. This whole section was hard work for me, but I liked everything when it finally fell into place.
14. In opposition : AVERSELY
16. Self-loathing direction : INWARD
17. "Just curious" : NO REASON
18. Note sentiment : THANKS
21. Pres. between JAG and GC : CAA. Chester Alan Arthur, who came between James Abram Garfield and Grover Cleveland.
22. It might be closed due to flooding : ROAD
29. Med. land : ISR. Neither Israel nor Mediterranean are the easiest place names to reliably spell correctly.
31. "... __ he drove out of sight" : ERE. From "The night before Christmas" by Clement Moore.
32. Mena of "American Beauty" : SUVARI. Crosses all the way. I will NEVER remember this actress's name!
33. Endured : STOOD
36. Tar on a deck : GOB
38. Mantle's number : SEVEN. The Yankee's Hall of Fame Center Fielder had three nicknames - "The Mick", "The Commerce Comet" and simply "Muscles".
39. Hardly unexpected : NOT NEW
41. Threw one's hat in the ring : RAN
43. Head start? : EGG. Egghead.
48. Internet game site : POGO. Again, crosses for me. Never heard of this.
49. __ Balls: Hostess treats : SNO
56. Of an upper heart chamber : ATRIAL. This took a bit of digging out from the recesses of the brain. I kept coming up with AORTAL and knew it wasn't right.
58. Tab, for one : DIET COLA. I remembered this being clear, but I didn't remember it being low-calorie.
59. Eyre's creator : BRONTE. This was Charlotte's most famous novel. I think I might have mentioned before that I had to read this in English Literature class when I was 14, and it put me off 19th-century fiction for years.
60. "Enough already" : OKAY OKAY
61. Luxury accommodations : SUITES
62. Charles River sch. : M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology sits on the north bank of the Charles River, Harvard on the south. I always imagined the students sitting on the river banks insulting each other with calculus problems and rhetoric.
63. Ocean current sources? : EELS. Great clue!
Down:
1. Dapper dressers? : DANS. My aptly-named friend Dan is very dapper, so this was a gimme.
2. Say it is so : AVOW
3. "__ off!" : WE'RE. Schoolboy sniggering here for a four-letter word that would fit. The gentleman in seat 4A on the 8:45PM United flight from Salt Lake City to LAX tonight was probably wondering what on earth was wrong with me.
4. Where Olympus rises : GREECE
5. Make clearer, hopefully : RESTATE
6. Baseball's Jesus : ALOU. Any relation to Moses? I assume so, but ...
7. Ibsen title character : GYNT. Henrick's protagonist Peer. Check out the libretto to Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King" from his operatic interpretation of the play, although it will probably ruin your breakfast.
8. Dentistry number, familiarly : NITROUS. I didn't quite understand this clue/answer. I know Nitrous Oxide is Laughing Gas and was used as an anesthetic back in the (my) day, but ...(From C.C.: numb-er here, it numbs.)
9. Taking a break : ON HIATUS. All the shows recorded at the studios close to where I live go on hiatus around May, and return about now. The hiatus weeks are notable for the pleasingly quieter restaurants, bars and traffic!
10. Graceful plunge : SWAN DIVE
11. Wait around : HANG
12. Sitcom world : ORK. "Nanu Nanu! Mork, from the planet Ork." The incomparable Robin Williams in Mork and Mindy.
13. OED listing : WDS. I need help with this one. Oxford English Dictionary I get. WDS I think is an abbreviation for "Words"? But that's plural, and the clue is "listing" singular? I know I'm missing something here.
15. Occupied, as a desk : SAT AT
20. Los Juegos Olímpicos prize : ORO. Did you see the Mexican synchronized diving pair? They didn't win Gold at the London Olympics, but wow, they were amazing!
23. Penned : WROTE. Usually, it's a she, and that's all she does.
24. Physics unit : ERG
25. Corp. change : RE-ORG. Right after a corporation does this, you can bet your bottom dollar there's going to be some downsizing, or rightsizing, or whatever is the latest euphemism.
26. Pew areas : NAVES.
27. Oldest Brady Bunch kid : GREG. Another "thank goodness for crosses" example for me today
28. Rat : SING
29. Kid's comeback : ISN'T. "IS TO" held me back for a little while before I RESTATED my answer.
30. Get into a hold : STOW. Really nice clue, had me puzzled for a good while.
34. Tight game difference : ONE POINT. I was trying to think of a sport when a one-point difference wasn't going to be close - the best I could come up with was duelling with pistols, on the assumption that you're not going to come back from a one-point deficit. (I think duelling is next week in the Olympics, right?)
35. Blow up : DETONATE
37. Step to the plate : BAT. Now this really bothers me for such an innocuous part of the fill, but - GO INTO BAT, or STEP UP TO BAT or ... but just BAT?
40. Wavy lines : WIGGLES
42. "Consider it done" : NO SWEAT
45. __-turn : NO U. Conversely, for such an innocuous piece of the fill, I loved this.
46. Show of strength : UNITY
47. 1977 Australian Open champ Tanner : ROSCOE. Golly, but he had a serve! He could crush that ball with a wooden racquet! I swear he'd give any player today a run for their money if they had to play with his equipment.
50. "Star Trek: T.N.G." role : TROI. Attaboy crosses!
51. Kingdom south of Moab : EDOM. Yay crosses!
52. Torch type : TIKI
53. Tip for a dealer : TOKE. A new meaning of the word "toke" for me. Enough said.
54. Mideast flier : EL AL
55. Beams : RAYS
56. They may be sculpted : ABS. Interestingly, I don't think you can sculpt one Ab, you have to work on them collectively.
57. 1989-'90 Broadway biodrama : TRU. Not the most critically-acclaimed of Broadway shows. Truman Capote was a complex character, and the play - well, today you'd Facebook or Tweet "Fail" and move on.
Answer grid.
And (Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper) - that's all HE wrote. Have a great day, everyone! (The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick).
Steve
Note from C.C.:
Happy Birthday to the beautiful Melissa Bee, who continues to delight us with her lovely & fun write-up despite all the technical difficulties. I also love this photo very much. So ethereal and fey.
