A quick revisit from Mark Bickham who provided Sunday's 21x21. Mark is one of my favorites and this puzzle was happily easy for me based on the subject matter, but it is an odd one. Each of 4 common legal phrases is re-clued in witty fashion and then tied together with an equally deceptive but amusing reveal. I cannot tell if the terminology is tricky for those who do not have a legal background, so I am not sure if the puzzle will be hard for anyone, but it was a quicker than normal solve for me. The 5 theme related answers use 67 letters, so like last week, we have lots of short fill to balance. Overall this one has a very un-Friday like average word length under 5 letters with lots of black squares. The few non-themers over 5- ALYSSA, GROSSE, LIED TO, NATION, SPEARS, SUMMON, INSECTS, INTERNS, BEQUEATHS and PRE-ASSIGN are okay, and none seem too obscure. Let's look at what happened.
17A. Rating for a recap? : SUMMARY JUDGMENT (15). A recap is a summary; a rating is a judgment; a summary judgment is a legal term referring to the disposition of a case without a trial.
29A. Advice on paper size? : LEGAL COUNSEL (12). I do not use apple computers (at least not until the end of the month) but on all of my print functions, one of the decisions one must make is paper size, letter or legal. If you ask someone to suggest one...legal counsel is one phrase for the attorney.
44A. Dibs on kitchen space? : COUNTERCLAIM (12). Dibs is a great invention, like calling shotgun; while kitchens all have counters. A counterclaim is where a Defendant files an action against the original Plaintiff in a law suit.
58A. Displeased wave of the hand? : MOTION TO DISMISS (15). I can picture many famous hand wave dismissals, while a Motion to Dismiss is a pleading to end a case based sole on deficiencies in the language of the original complaint.
and the reveal:
36A. Fooled by one's imagination ... or, another way, what the four other longest puzzle answers are? : HEARING THINGS (13). All relate to matters which will go to a hearing before a judge.
Okay let's plunge in the rest....
Across:
1. Hybrid carriers : MULES. Great misdirection to begin Friday, if you did not think about cars you are smarter than I.
6. Hardly next door : AFAR.
10. Shelter gp. : SPCA. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has a long HISTORY worldwide.
14. Functional : UTILE. One of those words that sounds like more trouble than it is worth.
15. Winter Olympics event : LUGE.
16. __ Mountains: European border range : URAL.
20. Start to state? : TRIstate. I just did the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania part after Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island part.
21. Land east of the Suez Canal : ASIA.
22. June portrayer in "Henry & June" : UMA. Do we like her or not? LINK. (1:28).
23. Trainees : INTERNS. We have a summer intern at the office this year. Her name is Stephanie, we now call her Charlie.
26. __ Pointe: Detroit suburb : GROSSE. An old COMMUNITY.
32. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers since 2010 : ABBA. This would have been hard except that the only bands I could only think of with four letters were ABBA and TOTO which was mentioned yesterday, and TOTO never made it to the hall.
34. Word with sick or cold : OUT. Out sick, or out cold.
35. Press : INK. A term I learned from reading where comments were made about how much ink did a story get.
41. __ au vin : COQ. Who makes this at home? RECIPE.
42. Ornamental fish : KOI. let's not carp about what they are.
43. Stapes, for one : BONE. Earie?
49. Artist with the 2011 album "Femme Fatale" : SPEARS. A little glimpse of dear BRITNEY. (3:33).
50. Antennae holders : INSECTS. A very fun clue, hey John Lampkin.
54. Took in : ATE. Reminds me of this LIST.
55. Cooperate with in a caper : ABET.
57. Eggs : OVA.
63. Point-of-view intro : IMHO. In My Humble Opinion.
64. It may need cobbling : BOOT. I really like this one.
65. Shafts on the road : AXLES. Don't get cranky if you think they are actually above the road.
66. AAA part: Abbr. : ASSN.
67. Magazine filler : AMMO. Nice classic clue.
68. Erroll Garner classic : MISTY. Worth a LISTEN. (2:48)
Down:
1. "Can't you get someone else?" : MUST I?
2. Political surprise : U-TURN. I had trouble parsing this one. Flip flopping?
3. Cap : LIMIT.
4. Shade provider : ELM.
5. Source of shells : SEA. So simple, I was afraid it was wrong.
6. "Mistresses" co-star Milano : ALYSSA. She and ex co-star Shannen Doherty supposedly cannot be in the same room.
7. Big name in film : FUJI.
8. Río contents : AGUA. A River holds water (Sp.).
9. __ cell : RED. A clue out of the 50's and 60's when people saw communists everywhere.
10. Call : SUMMON. Sounds like a word to use with demons.
11. Designate in advance : PRE-ASSIGN.
12. Has the power : CAN.
13. Either of two space bar flankers : ALT. For the online solvers a gimme, but did you have to look?
18. Checked out of the store, with "up" : RANG.
19. Wise teacher : GURU.
24. Island off Tuscany : ELBA. I was able to get this.
25. Bottom : REAR. PC, PC!
26. Black-clad subculturist : GOTH. My youngest hung out with the goths in early high school, but i believe it was the girl goths who got him.
27. Sight, say : SENSE.
28. Image on Idaho's state flag : ELK. If you want to see, LOOK.
30. Detective's skill : LOGIC. Elementary my dear Watson.
31. Song on a record : CUT. This used to be literally true.
32. Renoir's "Girl With __" : A HOOP. This was before they realized you could do the Hula with it.
33. Wills : BEQUEATHS. A bonus legal term.
37. A Clanton and a president : IKES. Quite the logical pair. IKE 1. IKE 2.
38. Fish-fowl link : NOR.
39. Sacred wader of ancient Egypt : IBIS. The Miami Hurricanes like this bird, which I did not know comes in red.
40. Seward Peninsula city : NOME. How many of the Corner have been to this Alaskan CITY?
41. Engine units: Abbr. : CCS. Cubic centimeters.
45. Turkey, for one : NATION. Fooled me at first.
46. Old Smartphone : TREO. I had a friend who loved hers, until Blackberry came along.
48. Unwilling to stand up for : ANTI. Iffn you aint fer me, yer agin me.
51. Some are tightly wound : COILS.
52. Den focal point : TV SET. More from the 50s and 60's.
53. Impudent : SASSY.
55. Smashing target : ATOM. My favorite clue.
56. Mike holder : BOOM. Hand held.
58. Girl's name that's a verb spelled backwards : MIA. This is a really obscure clue; are there other possibilities?
59. Serene sounds : OMS. For those who meditate.
60. Org. with Kings and Wizards : NBA. National Basketball Association. And the free agent parade continues.
61. "I can't remember it, Miss Ilsa" speaker : SAM. Great movie.
62. 11th-century year : MXI. 1011, a kind of pun?
Thank you Mark B. and thank you all for tuning in. Hard to believe we are already in the second half of the year. Lemonade out.
Notes from C.C.:
1) Belated Happy 45th Birthday to our Anon-T (Tony), the computer geek, foodie and an incredibly caring friend, on and off the blog. He also solves LA Times puzzle with his mother-in-law at times. So sweet!
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| Anon T, Giza, Feb 2014 |
2)
Happy Birthday to my mentor and close friend Don G, who turns 61 years old today! We've collaborated on over 100 puzzles for various venues the past few years. The time and attention he's given me are truly unparallelled.
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| Don & his wife Barbie |
