Theme: Going in circles.
Extremely elegant puzzle, but I wonder how many will catch on to the nuances here?
18. Congregational divide : CHURCH AISLE.
24. "Inside the NBA" analyst Barkley, familiarly : SIR CHARLES.
40. Fix-it guide : REPAIR CHECKLIST.
52. Wooly garment : MOHAIR COAT.
And the unifier:
63. Office purchase, and in a way, what can be seen in this puzzle's sequence of circles : SWIVEL CHAIR.
At first, I thought it was just anagrams of the word CHAIR. "Ah, but look closer Grasshopper, and you will see that the 'chair' swivels one letter at a time":
r - chai
ir - cha
air - ch
hair - c
And did I mention? It is a pangram, to boot! Fantastic execution! And very timely, because I am in the process of re-doing my office, complete with new office chairs...
Marti here, to look at the rest of the entries with you.
Across:
1. Browns' org. : NFL. National Football League. Or "Cle," on scoreboards.
4. Twine material : SISAL
9. Come-ons : LURES
14. SS supplement, for some : IRA. Individual Retirement Account.
15. Golfer who was #1 when she retired in 2010 : OCHOA . Mexican-born Lorena OCHOA Reyes, who was the top women's golfer from 2007-2010. She won her first state event at the age of five! (How's that make you feel, HG?)
16. Missouri's ___ Mountains : OZARK . Map.
17. TUMS target : GAS . I wanted "acid," but it wouldn't fit.
20. Modern address starter : HTTP . Hypertext transfer protocol. Who comes up with these names, anyway?
22. Spirited mount : STEED
23. Do a hatchet job : HEW
28. Burning rubber sound : SQUEAL
30. Decorous : PROPER
34. Green hole : CUP . The hole on the green that OCHOA hits more often, with less strokes, than I!
35. Wings it, musically : VAMPS . Trust me, I read more about VAMP than I ever care to remember while looking this one up. So let's just go to an example. 4:21
39. Heavenly bear : URSA. Major or minor?
44. Like many eBay items : USED
45. Tuscany city : SIENA. Another map.
46. Hum attachment? : VEE . This vehicle.
47. Fable messages : MORALS
50. Manually : BY HAND
56. He voiced Elmer : MEL. Blanc. The man of a thousand voices.
59. Sweethearts maker : NECCO . New England Confectionery Company.
60. Leap in a tutu : JETE
67. Fish lacking pelvic fins : EEL. It does, however, have a dorsal fin.
68. Aptly named bug spray : REPEL. Never heard of the brand, so this was a WAG.
69. New product div. : R AND D. Research and Development. Also abbreviated R&D, RND or simply R-D.
70. Holiday tuber : YAM. It's getting to be that time of year.
71. Surrogate : PROXY . This evening, we spotted a small kitten in our yard that had a collar. It ran right up to us and mewled loudly. Unfortunately, there was no ID tag on the collar, so we took her in, gave her food & water, a litter box, and a pillow for a bed out in the Florida room. I put up posters with her picture throughout the neighborhood. But I think I have become her surrogate mother. Tomorrow I will call the animal control officer and the local pet shelter to see if anyone has reported a missing cat. Anyone have any other ideas of how I can find her owners?
72. Out of port : AT SEA
Down:
1. Soon to happen : NIGH
2. Its name usually has only two or three letters : FRAT . Alpha Tau Omega, or Delta Phi, for example. Not to be confused with 37 Down. Part of PBK : PHI . Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society.
3. DaVinci masterpiece, with "The" : LAST SUPPER. I used to take my lunch and sit on the bench in front of it when I worked in Milan.
4. Humanities maj. : SOC. Sociology.
5. Einstein's "I" : ICH . German.
6. Complaint about a library volume? : SHUSH . Fun clue. I was thinking in terms of books as volumes, not sound.
7. Primary artery : AORTA
8. One working on a punch, perhaps : LACER . Well I guess if you have to include a word like "lacer", then at least the clue can be fun! It refers to the one with the pint of vodka, spiking the punch at the senior prom. Sound like anyone you know??
9. Dump truck adjunct : LOADER . Or the one who gets 11 Down?
10. Israeli arms expert ___ Gal : UZI . Israel...arms...has to be UZI, right?
11. Diaper woe : RASH .
12. Gardner who invented cases : ERLE . We know him from his "Perry Mason" series.
13. Depict unfairly : SKEW . Did I ever tell you about the course I took in college, called "Lying With Statistics"? It gave me a permanently skeptical view of anything published with graphs...
19. Common menu option : HELP
21. À la mode serving : PIE
25. Sitarist Shankar : RAVI
26. Woodwind instr. : CLAR. inet. I totally missed the abbr. of "instr." and automatically filled in "oboe" at first.
27. Franklin's genre : SOUL. Aretha, not Benjamin!
28. Rugby tussle : SCRUM . Don't ask me how I knew this, but it filled automatically.
29. Mexican cheese : QUESO
31. Magnum, for one : PRIVATE EYE . '80's TV show called "Magnum, P.I."
32. Krupp Works city : ESSEN. Not to be confused with the coffeemaker family "Krups."
33. Did Ebert's job : RATED . Formerly partnered with Siskal, in a show where they reviewed movies and gave them either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. "Two Thumbs Up" would indicate a real "must-see."
36. Roast hosts, for short : MCS . Master of Ceremony(s). Masters of Ceremony. Master of Ceremonies. Let's just go with "emcees," OK?
38. Understand : SEE. See?
41. First family member? : ADAM . (Because Barack, Michelle, Malia or Sasha wouldn't fit.)
42. "Mad Money" channel : CNBC . Never saw it. Know it from crosswords.
43. Put on the canvas : KAYO. K-O, or "knock-out," in boxing.
48. Desolate : LONELY.
49. Poet Silverstein : SHEL. "Uncle Shelby" to his fans. I miss ClearAyes, so here's one of his poems in her memory.
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
51. Pilgrimage to Mecca : HAJ
53. Ghana's capital : ACCRA. Another map.
54. Apple messaging tool : iCHAT
55. Horses with interspersed colored and white hairs : ROANS.
56. Amt. you don't expect to pay : MSRP. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.
57. Wide-mouthed pourer : EWER.
58. Slimming choice, briefly : LIPO . I'll go with Windhover's method, thank you.
61. Marsh duck : TEAL . Lovely!
62. Sailor's patron : ELMO . "St. Elmo's Fire" is a weather phenomenon in highly charged atmospheres. It would appear as a luminous glow on the ends of the ship's masts, and was regarded by sailors with religious awe.
64. Plague : VEX
65. Ending with fluor- : IDE
66. Nutritional stat : RDA . Recommended Dietary Allowance replaced the older term "Recommended Daily Allowance."
That's all for now. 'Til next week!
Hugs,
Marti
Late addition: Anyone know whose cat this is?
