Theme: Now where did I hide that SOCIAL anagram I made for my circle?
Each of the four theme answers has an anagram for SOCIAL hidden in its words. Including the reveal, we have three grid spanning fill and two 9s for 63 letters in the theme. This is our third offering from JW, and my first time dissecting his work. This to me is a more traditional Friday with a lower word and block count, and some thought provoking fill, some new things and nice balance. On to the show.
17A. Sherlock Holmes forte : LOGICAL SOLUTION.(15) Deductive reasoning tells us something is hidden in the circles, right Watson.
22A. 1891 self-named electrical invention : TESLA COIL.(9) Here we notice the same letters are in the circles So, it is anagram time. Right Jerome? I am sure you all want to know How to BUILD ONE.
37A. "They're running neck and neck!" : THIS IS A CLOSE ONE.(15)
46A. Product introduced as Brad's Drink in 1893 : PEPSI COLA. (9)
The reveal:
57A. Advocates for change, and a hint to this puzzle's circled letters : SOCIAL REFORMERS.(15) like poor Tom and his Irish peers. The clue tells us we are literally re-forming the letters in SOCIAL.
Across:
1. Dragster, e.g. : FAST CAR. We start with something for Dennis, Barry G. and our other muscle car enthusiasts. CLIP.(10:17).
8. Crammed, perhaps : STUDIED. In college, it was the only type of studying I did, which often left me...
15. Without a clue : UNAWARE.
16. Having merit, as a theory : TENABLE. I seldom hear this word, but its antonym, untenable is very popular. Nice long fill.
19. Steve of the Lakers : NASH. They acquired him and Dwight Howard to challenge OKC but things have not gone well. STATS.
20. Involuntary movement : TIC. Too soon to link Chief Inspector Dreyfus again.
21. Find the right words, say : EDIT. Nice clue for an old stand by.
26. Lethargic : POKY.
29. Crew member : OAR. back in the prep school days the boys in crew were quite popular, and they were known by which oar they were, but this was tricky for me, even if only three letters.
30. Computer media : DISKS. Does anyone still have their old floppies? I am not referring to those suffering from low T.
34. Very long time : EON.
35. "Nonsense!" : BUNK. Short for bunkum, phonetic spelling of Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. The usual story (by 1841) of its origin is this: At the close of the protracted Missouri statehood debates, supposedly on Feb. 25, 1820, N.C. Representative Felix Walker (1753-1828) began what promised to be a "long, dull, irrelevant speech," and he resisted calls to cut it short by saying he was bound to say something that could appear in the newspapers in the home district and prove he was on the job. "I shall not be speaking to the House," he confessed, "but to Buncombe." Bunkum has been American English slang for "nonsense" since 1841 (from 1838 as generic for "a U.S. Representative's home district"). (Stolen from someplace).
36. Golf course freebie : PENCIL. Do not see how it is free when you need to pay the fees to get the scorecard and pencil.
40. Show to be false : REFUTE. I wonder who futed it in the first place.
41. Checkpoint demand : HALT. Conjures up Berlin Wall imagery for me.
42. Dedicatory verse : ODE. Am I the only one who has OD'ED on this fill?
43. Handy : ADEPT.
44. Old-time whaler's harvest : OIL. Whale oil had many uses for years.
45. Bit of a disagreement : SPAT. You think it comes from people 'spitting' at each other?
50. TV doctor : PHIL. Not a fan; Oprah is not always right.
53. Market tracking aid: Abbr. : UPC.Universal Product Code.
54. ___ mater : ALMA. Latin for 'nourishing mother', though used now to signify a school attended.
62. High point of many a small town : STEEPLE. Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and here are the people? LINK.(0:35).
63. Like bumpers : CHROMED.
64. Bette Midler classic : THE ROSE. Sit back and LISTEN.(3:39).
65. Flirt's quality : COYNESS. How many of you dear ladies know the secret to being "artfully shy?" Certainly Lady Mary has not been coy.
Down:
1. Arm extension? : FUL. Armful, simple, I fingered it out easily.
2. Shortly : ANON. Shakespeare's characters were always saying they would be along, anon.
3. "The Lord of the Rings," for one : SAGA. More Tolkien press.
4. Full of surprises, as a plot : TWISTY. My meh of the day; I just cannot see anyone talking about a book or movie using this word.
5. Put away for later : CACHE. Do you keep your cash in a cache?
6. Constellation near Scorpius : ARA. Isn't it interesting we know all about Justin Timberlake, Selena Gomez, J Lo and the like but nothing about astronomy? I did not know THIS either.
7. Sikhism, e.g.: Abbr. : RELigion.
8. Dispassionate : STOIC. Dr. Brennan?
9. The Bell System was one, briefly : TELCO. They even have a WIKI page.
10. First Burmese prime minister : U NU. Luckily, the last time we had this man in puzzle was a Gareth Bain in November, which I blogged, so it filled easily this time.
11. Newsreel word : DATELINE. CED, I could not find a link that actually used the word, though I remember hearing it as a small child.
12. Footnote abbr. : IBID. In law citations we use ID the abbreviation of idem in stead of ibidem.
13. Simple race of fiction : ELOI. Yvette, we will never forget you.
14. Bad impression? : DENT. Cute clue.
18. Voter's dilemma, often : STARK CHOICE. Not familiar with this TERM. thinking only of rocks and hard places, or something decide by Ironman..
23. W.C. Fields persona : SOUSE.
24. Turner in films : LANA.
25. In other words, in other words : ID EST. I.E.
26. Ancient Jordanian archaeological city : PETRA. The name means rock in Greek, but it a ROSE CITY.
27. Expressed wonderment : OOHED. And afterwards, she aahed!
28. It's sharp and flat : KNIFE. Not musical notes, really cutting edge humor here.
31. Exclusive : SCOOP. With newspapers dying, we will the internet be where we see scoops.
32. In a way, slangily : KINDA.
33. Bad fall : SLEET. I had this from the perps, never would have gotten from the clue.
35. Henri : s'il vous plaît :: Heinrich : ___ : BITTE. "Please" in German. Does this multi-lingual clue please you?
36. Ristorante order : POLLO. Chicken in Italian, also in Spanish, so we have French, German, Italian and Spanish.
38. One delivering the goods : SUPPLIER. The drug world has given this word such bad connotations.
39. Secular : LAIC.
45. River leaper : SALMON. Sounds fishy to me.
47. Roots (for) : PULLS.
48. Splurge : SPREE. There is debate whether this word comes from an Irish word or a French one.
49. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" role : LARRY. Is it still a role when you play yourself? LEARN.(2:46).
50. Attention-getter : PSST.
51. Frigid planet in "The Empire Strikes Back" : HOTH. Recall this SCENE? (4:08)
52. Frozen treat : ICEE. I have already linked Sheldon twice for this clue, so today I will just say it rhymes with...
55. Cry from one eagerly raising a hand : ME ME. I have to pee pee.
56. Father of Phobos and Deimos : ARES. The Greek version of MARS.
58. Mil. mailroom : APO. Army Post Office. I wonder if they will give up Saturdays as well.
59. Radio frequency regulating org. : FCC. Federal Communications Commission
60. "So that's what's going on!" : O HO! Caught you!
61. Tom Hayden's '60s org. : SDS. Students for a Democratic Society. Their motto in 1968 was "Vote with Your Feet." He later became a Senator and married Jane Fonda.
I was always Fonda Jane, but now it is time for me to go, so enjoy your week end; stay safe if your facing a monster storm. I have squeezed all I can out this one. L714.
Notes from C.C.:
Jerry Bachmann is working on a word search tool at http://nullwords.com
in an attempt to "make a better mousetrap" by designing a site that
works well on mobile devices and that allows searches that are
compatible with some new games like Letterpress (which he plays a lot
of).
He would like to get
your feedback on the search features he's implemented so far and what
might be useful for crossword puzzle lovers.
