17A. Chinese noodle dish : CHICKEN CHOW MEIN. Food! Off to a great grid-spanning start, although it wouldn't span the grid in Mandarin with just these two characters: 炒面
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| Yum! |
47A. Greeter of new homeowners : WELCOME WAGON. New to me. I didn't know the next theme entry either, so very reliant on crosses down in this area.
57A. Will Schuester portrayer on "Glee" : MATTHEW MORRISON. I needed to be introduced to him today.
and the reveal tucked away in the middle of the grid:
38A. Whiskas alternative ... or, literally, what's hidden in 17-, 23-, 47- and 57-Across : MEOW MIX
Welcome to Wednesday everyone! Steve here with a fine anagram-themed puzzle from John Dunn. I love anagrams and so I threw in an extra one with my posting title. Extra credit for the solution to that!
This puzzle gave me fits for a Wednesday - it took me quite some time; in fact longer than last Saturday's Silkie. Finally I had to WAG the "U" for the UBOATS/UGARTE intersect - EGARTE would have looked equally correct to me. When we opened up with "Z" I was looking out for a pangram but in the end we're missing a Q.
Across:
1. Takes out in an arcade, as bad guys : ZAPS
5. Longtime AFL president Gompers : SAMUEL. I was surprised I'd not heard of him as I'm such a sports fan, but then I discovered that the clue refers to the American Federation of Labor, not the American Football League.
11. Rank above cpl. : SGT
14. Spread unit : ACRE
15. Really enjoys : IS INTO
16. Quattro meno uno : TRE. Spanish math class today!
20. Clothes line : HEM. Check the clecho at 43A
21. Antiquing agent : AGER. For faux antiques. The genuine agent is time.
22. "A Farewell to __" : ARMS
27. Lincoln Town Cars, e.g. : SEDANS. Almost always black, for some reason.
30. Highest point : ACME. Apex went in first, then came out just as quickly.
31. "Jeopardy!" name : ALEX. Mr. Trebek one of only two names in the puzzle today that I knew. I didn't know that he is part Canadian.
32. Hanging around : LOITERING. Doing this "with intent" used to be a crime in the UK. It's still not actually legal, but you now violate the wider "Criminal Attempts Act".
37. Org. for Hawks but not Eagles : NBA. The purist in me would have liked to have seen this clued this as "Org. for Hawks but not Falcons" as they're both Atlanta-based teams.
40. Pivotal : KEY
41. Commonly yellow blooms : DAFFODILS. I thought all daffodils were yellow, but I'm not a horticulturist. I thought the white/yellow varieties were narcissi.
43. Clothes line : SEAM
44. Not quite closed : AJAR
45. WWII fleet : U-BOATS. As I mentioned earlier, I could easily have put E in place of U.
52. Missouri River tribe : OTOE
53. "Dies __" : IRAE
54. Deluge refuge : ARK. Loved the clue.
62. Was tricked by a worm? : BIT. It took a few beats to see this one - from the perspective of a fish.
63. Pull into, as a motel : STOP AT
64. Late-night rival of Jimmy and Jimmy : DAVE. Letterman, to Fallon and Kimmel.
65. Pavement warning : SLO. If you drive on the pavement in the UK you'll get arrested - that's what Brits call the sidewalk.
66. "__ here": "Poltergeist" : THEY'RE. I've never seen it and never will - I can't watch horror movies, they scare the bejasus out of me. I snuck into "The Exorcist" when I was about 14 and I had to sleep with the light on for a month.
67. Expel with force : SPEW
Down:
1. "The Hangover" actor Galifianakis : ZACH. I'm terrible with actors' names. I saw the movie but didn't have a clue with this one.
2. Workout consequence : ACHE
3. Schoolmarmish : PRIM.
4. "Hold on a __!" : SEC
5. Extended attacks : SIEGES
6. Good __: fully restored : AS NEW
7. Start to manage? : MICRO. Micromanage. Another fun clue/answer.
8. The Wildcats of the America East Conf. : U.N.H.
9. 1940s mil. zone : E.T.O. The European Theater of Operations. I think it should be "theatre" being as it's Europe.
10. Cattle call : LOW. Hand up for MOO first.
11. Back at sea : STERN
12. Fairy tale brother : GRIMM
13. High-strung : TENSE
18. Lyricist Gus : KAHN. I had to look him up, he has quite a body of work including this gem.
19. Champion skier known as the "Herminator": MAIER. The other name that I knew. He is famous for getting up after this amazing crash during the Nagano Olympics downhill event and winning gold medals in giant slalom and Super-G a couple of days later.
23. Strain : TAX
24. Seriously injures : MAIMS
25. Overture follower : ACT I
26. "Breaking Bad" setting: Abbr. : N.MEX. I just stared watching season 1 - I'm a tad behind the times when it comes to popular TV culture.
27. Beach pailful : SAND
28. Where Napoleon was exiled : ELBA. He was able, ere he saw it.
29. Like The Who's Tommy : DEAF. Also mute and blind; he wasn't dealt a good hand. Did you know his last name was Walker?
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| Elton John exercising his usual understated restraint in "Tommy" |
33. Head-rotating bird : OWL
34. Source of much dorm furniture : IKEA
35. "Groovy!" : NEAT
36. Fitness centers : GYMS
38. Magic amulet : MOJO
39. Mild cheese : EDAM
42. Gem surface : FACET
43. George W., to George : SON
45. Lorre's "Casablanca" role : UGARTE. No idea, and came close to having me stumped as I mentioned before.
46. Certain Afrikaner : BOER. I thought all Afrikaners were Boers? This seems to suggest that there are Afrikaners who are not.
47. Areas for development : WOMBS
48. Cybercommerce : ETAIL. It took me a while to shake E-TRADE out of my head.
49. Numbers game : LOTTO
50. Not macho at all : WIMPY. It's a fast food chain in the UK and pre-McDonald's invasion it was pretty much the only place to get a burger. Take my word for it - they were not good.
51. Like a loud crowd : AROAR
54. "By yesterday!" letters : ASAP. Tempted by STAT, resisted.
55. Gad about : ROVE. I'd like to see Karl do this, so I could say I saw Rove rove.
56. Had down cold : KNEW
58. FDR successor : HST. Hunter S. Thompson? Wait, no, Harry S. Truman
59. Biblical verb suffix : -ETH
60. Misfortune : WOE
61. They may be checked at the door : ID'S. This was my first US driver's license before the stress of living in California turned my hair gray.
... and with that I'm done, or as the ruler said to the knuckles - it's a rap!
