Theme: Bacchanalian Brigade: Four inebriated entries:
17A. They're loaded : FILM CAMERAS. It's been quite some time since I had to do this - you always lived in trepidation that you'd somehow mess up and either expose the whole roll or shoot 36 frames and never get one on the emulsion:
29A. They're loaded : CROOKED DICE. I've been at craps tables in Las Vegas when I swore there was funny business afoot. In the unloaded light of day, of course it was just me being an appallingly bad gambler. The dice tumble where they may:
45A. They're loaded : BIG SPENDERS. Sadly, not me, probably because of the craps table behavior (see above).
61A. They're loaded : SIX SHOOTERS. Here's an 1882 Colt .44 - Did they mess up, was it meant to be a .45? It was made over 130 years ago, maybe the micrometers weren't so accurate back then. Or the gunsmith was loaded?
Good morrow! Steve here with a great mental workout from Marti - all kinds of head-scratching with the fill, and a really nice set of four theme entries, all 11's and no reveal other than the clechoes. The mid-Atlantic section was the one that had me staring down some white squares - EAMES and ENDEAR went in relatively easily, but the rest had me convinced I'd made a major goof until I caught on to the "they're not all single words" possibility and eventually C-NOTE, I.D. TAG and GE'S came to pass. Good stuff! And ....
Across:
1. Chinese secret society : TONG. C.C. might be a member, but of course she couldn't tell us if she was. Shhh!
5. Like many a rural road : SCENIC
11. "Big Blue" : IBM. We've seen Kubrick's "2001" rogue computer HAL quite frequently in the puzzles recently. Add one alphabet-count letter to HAL and you get - IBM.
14. Ancient concert halls : ODEA
15. Music industry underhandedness : PAYOLA
16. Call from a pasture : MOO
19. K+, e.g. : ION. An ionized potassium atom. My chemical knowledge is now officially exhausted.
20. Morning beverage choice, facetiously : UNLEADED. I'm totally defeated by the idea or purpose of decaffeinated coffee in the morning.
21. Dye source : HENNA. I dyed my hair with henna once or twice in my early twenties. Thankfully I realized that a rather jaunty orange wasn't a good look in the financial district in London.
23. Editor's mark : STET
24. Fla.-to-Cal. route : I-TEN
26. Former CNN host Alina : CHO. Thank you, crosses.
34. Terra firma : EARTH. Hmmmm. To me, Terra firma is dry land. Earth is the planet Earth, 90% of which is ocean and decidedly wet.
36. Wedding announcement word : NÉE. Acute accent on the first "E" if you want to be particular about this.
37. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA. Who? Thank you, crosses. I'll let the poetic blog readers pitch in here.
38. One who may need an alibi : LIAR. For explaining why his pants are on fire?
39. Bar closing hr. : ONE A.M. Not in London (11PM) nor LA (2AM). Your mileage may vary.
41. Energy source : ATOM
42. Mediterranean tourist attraction : ETNA
43. Alley target : PIN. Boomer's milieu, not mine. I've been bowling a few times, I think if you described me as "Bambi on a frozen pond" I'd be flattered.
44. Give an address : ORATE
49. Some ranges : GE'S General Electric cooktops. (If you want to put something in my Christmas stocking, I'll take this one, thankyouverymuch - I'll cook you dinner). A little ironic that the burners are gas-fired though:
50. Crown of light : HALO
51. UFO-tracking org. : SETI. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Was the screen saver that we all so religiously downloaded and left running all night a hoax?
53. Carl Reiner's nine : EMMYS. Nine wins, six nominations. Not too shabby.
56. Take care of : ATTEND TO
60. Eastern way : TAO
64. Jungfrau, for one : ALP. Stunningly beautiful. I've skied parts of the mountain from Grindelwald.
65. Leveling tool : EVENER. OK, hold on - is this really a thing?
66. Carrier with only kosher meals : EL AL
67. Grant foe : LEE
68. Vacation destination : RESORT
69. Long ride : LIMO. This took me a while before the V8 moment! Great stumping for such a little word.
Down:
1. Vegan staple : TOFU
2. Role in the 2011 film "Thor" : ODIN
3. "Little" Dickens girl : NELL. I tried DORI first before I saw sense, realized it would be DORRIT and started over.
4. Olympic __ : GAMES
5. "The Blacklist" star : SPADER. Who he? More crosses to the rescue. This chap:
6. Woke up : CAME TO
7. Looked up and down : EYED
8. Neither partner : NOR
9. Stevedore's gp. : I.L.A. International Longshoreman's Association.
10. Left the tables for the night, with "in" : CASHED. It might equally be "cashed out" except it wasn't clued that way. Something I've rarely done in Vegas (see 27A above). I don't gamble much any more, I'm seriously bad at it.
11. "Let's do it!" : I'M IN. My bad call in Vegas. If you ever hear me say this, cosh me over the head and put me in my room.
12. Blessing : BOON
13. Pulitzer poet Van Duyn : MONA. I'm zero-for-two with poets today. Corner?
18. __ of the day: menu offering : CATCH
22. Make lovable : ENDEAR
24. Furniture store that sells frozen meatballs : IKEA
25. Swarm : TEEM
26. 69-Across user : CELEB
27. "The Pearl of the Antilles" : HAITI
28. Sumatran simian : ORANG
30. Upright : ON END
31. Attachment seen on a carousel : I.D. TAG. The section that caused me conniptions. The ID Tag on your luggage as it takes a few turns around the baggage carousel awaiting collection. They all look the same anyway.
32. 100 bucks : C-NOTE
33. Furniture designer Charles : EAMES
35. Inferior : TRASHY
39. Autobahn auto : OPEL
40. El __ : NIÑO. And a hoped-for wet-weather phenomenon here in Southern California. We have an El Niño forecast for this winter.
44. Bone: Pref. : OSTEO
46. Quarterback, at times : PASSER. Compare with scrambler, flushed-out-of-the-pocket-and-throwing-out-of-bounds-er, dumped on his ass-er, desperately-handing-off-to-the-running-back-er, hail-mary-intecepted-er and, finally, benched-er. Choose your own nominee for this honor.
47. Old Testament queen : ESTHER
48. Comeback : RETORT
52. Recon consequence : INTEL
53. List shortener, for short : ET AL. How about a list of Middle Eastern airlines? El Al, et al
54. Drake, e.g. : MALE. "Duck" didn't work. Here's the rapper Drake:
55. Pout : MOPE
56. "It came __ surprise" : AS NO
57. Sub assembly location : DELI. Chassis, U-boat shipyard and fabrication shop all wouldn't fit.
58. Theme park transport : TRAM
59. Aftenposten newspaper headquarters : OSLO. More facts about OSLO and IKEA today. We are truly turning into experts on Scandinavian trivia.
62. "__ Got You Under My Skin" : I'VE
63. Symbolic kisses : X'ES
And with symbolic kisses, I'll sign off with Marti's trademark {hugs} and the grid is all that's left.
Steve
17A. They're loaded : FILM CAMERAS. It's been quite some time since I had to do this - you always lived in trepidation that you'd somehow mess up and either expose the whole roll or shoot 36 frames and never get one on the emulsion:
29A. They're loaded : CROOKED DICE. I've been at craps tables in Las Vegas when I swore there was funny business afoot. In the unloaded light of day, of course it was just me being an appallingly bad gambler. The dice tumble where they may:
45A. They're loaded : BIG SPENDERS. Sadly, not me, probably because of the craps table behavior (see above).
61A. They're loaded : SIX SHOOTERS. Here's an 1882 Colt .44 - Did they mess up, was it meant to be a .45? It was made over 130 years ago, maybe the micrometers weren't so accurate back then. Or the gunsmith was loaded?
Across:
1. Chinese secret society : TONG. C.C. might be a member, but of course she couldn't tell us if she was. Shhh!
5. Like many a rural road : SCENIC
11. "Big Blue" : IBM. We've seen Kubrick's "2001" rogue computer HAL quite frequently in the puzzles recently. Add one alphabet-count letter to HAL and you get - IBM.
14. Ancient concert halls : ODEA
15. Music industry underhandedness : PAYOLA
16. Call from a pasture : MOO
19. K+, e.g. : ION. An ionized potassium atom. My chemical knowledge is now officially exhausted.
20. Morning beverage choice, facetiously : UNLEADED. I'm totally defeated by the idea or purpose of decaffeinated coffee in the morning.
21. Dye source : HENNA. I dyed my hair with henna once or twice in my early twenties. Thankfully I realized that a rather jaunty orange wasn't a good look in the financial district in London.
23. Editor's mark : STET
24. Fla.-to-Cal. route : I-TEN
26. Former CNN host Alina : CHO. Thank you, crosses.
34. Terra firma : EARTH. Hmmmm. To me, Terra firma is dry land. Earth is the planet Earth, 90% of which is ocean and decidedly wet.
36. Wedding announcement word : NÉE. Acute accent on the first "E" if you want to be particular about this.
37. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA. Who? Thank you, crosses. I'll let the poetic blog readers pitch in here.
38. One who may need an alibi : LIAR. For explaining why his pants are on fire?
39. Bar closing hr. : ONE A.M. Not in London (11PM) nor LA (2AM). Your mileage may vary.
41. Energy source : ATOM
42. Mediterranean tourist attraction : ETNA
43. Alley target : PIN. Boomer's milieu, not mine. I've been bowling a few times, I think if you described me as "Bambi on a frozen pond" I'd be flattered.
44. Give an address : ORATE
49. Some ranges : GE'S General Electric cooktops. (If you want to put something in my Christmas stocking, I'll take this one, thankyouverymuch - I'll cook you dinner). A little ironic that the burners are gas-fired though:
50. Crown of light : HALO
51. UFO-tracking org. : SETI. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Was the screen saver that we all so religiously downloaded and left running all night a hoax?
53. Carl Reiner's nine : EMMYS. Nine wins, six nominations. Not too shabby.
56. Take care of : ATTEND TO
60. Eastern way : TAO
64. Jungfrau, for one : ALP. Stunningly beautiful. I've skied parts of the mountain from Grindelwald.
65. Leveling tool : EVENER. OK, hold on - is this really a thing?
66. Carrier with only kosher meals : EL AL
67. Grant foe : LEE
68. Vacation destination : RESORT
69. Long ride : LIMO. This took me a while before the V8 moment! Great stumping for such a little word.
Down:
1. Vegan staple : TOFU
2. Role in the 2011 film "Thor" : ODIN
3. "Little" Dickens girl : NELL. I tried DORI first before I saw sense, realized it would be DORRIT and started over.
4. Olympic __ : GAMES
5. "The Blacklist" star : SPADER. Who he? More crosses to the rescue. This chap:
6. Woke up : CAME TO
7. Looked up and down : EYED
8. Neither partner : NOR
9. Stevedore's gp. : I.L.A. International Longshoreman's Association.
10. Left the tables for the night, with "in" : CASHED. It might equally be "cashed out" except it wasn't clued that way. Something I've rarely done in Vegas (see 27A above). I don't gamble much any more, I'm seriously bad at it.
11. "Let's do it!" : I'M IN. My bad call in Vegas. If you ever hear me say this, cosh me over the head and put me in my room.
12. Blessing : BOON
13. Pulitzer poet Van Duyn : MONA. I'm zero-for-two with poets today. Corner?
18. __ of the day: menu offering : CATCH
22. Make lovable : ENDEAR
24. Furniture store that sells frozen meatballs : IKEA
25. Swarm : TEEM
26. 69-Across user : CELEB
27. "The Pearl of the Antilles" : HAITI
28. Sumatran simian : ORANG
30. Upright : ON END
31. Attachment seen on a carousel : I.D. TAG. The section that caused me conniptions. The ID Tag on your luggage as it takes a few turns around the baggage carousel awaiting collection. They all look the same anyway.
32. 100 bucks : C-NOTE
33. Furniture designer Charles : EAMES
35. Inferior : TRASHY
39. Autobahn auto : OPEL
40. El __ : NIÑO. And a hoped-for wet-weather phenomenon here in Southern California. We have an El Niño forecast for this winter.
44. Bone: Pref. : OSTEO
46. Quarterback, at times : PASSER. Compare with scrambler, flushed-out-of-the-pocket-and-throwing-out-of-bounds-er, dumped on his ass-er, desperately-handing-off-to-the-running-back-er, hail-mary-intecepted-er and, finally, benched-er. Choose your own nominee for this honor.
47. Old Testament queen : ESTHER
48. Comeback : RETORT
52. Recon consequence : INTEL
53. List shortener, for short : ET AL. How about a list of Middle Eastern airlines? El Al, et al
54. Drake, e.g. : MALE. "Duck" didn't work. Here's the rapper Drake:
55. Pout : MOPE
56. "It came __ surprise" : AS NO
57. Sub assembly location : DELI. Chassis, U-boat shipyard and fabrication shop all wouldn't fit.
58. Theme park transport : TRAM
59. Aftenposten newspaper headquarters : OSLO. More facts about OSLO and IKEA today. We are truly turning into experts on Scandinavian trivia.
62. "__ Got You Under My Skin" : I'VE
63. Symbolic kisses : X'ES
And with symbolic kisses, I'll sign off with Marti's trademark {hugs} and the grid is all that's left.
Steve
