Theme: Read all about it. Names of magazines begin each theme entry clued in a hilarity-ensues fashion.
20. Financial magazine tracking device? : FORTUNE COOKIE. Cookie in the web browser context. For any nerds out there, the original computing cookie actually was called a fortune cookie because it contained an embedded message.
37. Newsstand selling many a human-interest magazine? : PEOPLE MOVER. My local newsstand on Laurel Canyon sells about a million titles. I don't know how the owner keeps track of them all.
44. Keeping cool with a fashion magazine? : ELLE FANNING. Teen actress, and sister of the perhaps better-known Dakota.
59. Rolled-up news magazine drifting at sea? : TIME IN A BOTTLE. This was apparently a Jim Croce hit in 1972. I'm guessing it didn't make the charts in the UK as I'd never heard of it, and listening to it on YouTube I have to confess I don't think I missed much.
Good day, all! Steve here reporting from snowy Denver and feeling glad that I remembered to pack my gloves and scarf. Scraping the snow off the windshield isn't something that I have to do very often in Studio City!
A straightforward enough theme with some Thursday-level cluing misdirection. The middle-top section came last for me due to some biblical name amnesia and aforementioned clue-trickeration.
Let's see what else we can find.
Across:
1. Covenant : BOND
5. Poorest : WORST
10. Eldest son on "Bonanza" : ADAM. "Madam, I'm Adam".
14. Snack choice : OREO. If I had a dollar for every time I've filled this into a grid, I'd have .... a lot of dollars.
15. Eldest son of Cain : ENOCH
16. City ENE of Petaluma : NAPA. It's also WSW of Sacramento and NNE of San Francisco for the direction-trivia fans in our midst.
17. Musically off : FLAT
18. Stage __ : ACTOR
19. A four beats it : TREY. Here's aptly-numbered Trey Burke, Utah Jazz point guard.
23. Earliest stage : ONSET
24. Abbr. on a business card : TEL
25. Family guy : DAD
28. Credit card bill list : DEBTS. Odd clue - I'd say a credit card bill is a list of charges, not debts.
32. Development sites : UTERI. Not a word most people use pretty much - ever.
34. World currency org. : I.M.F. The International Monetary Fund.
40. Spring tide counterpart : NEAP. The spring tide is when there is the greatest distance between low and high tide. The neap tide is when there is the least difference.
42. Pleasant surprise : TREAT
43. Salon option : TINT
47. Wager : LAY
48. Green sauce : PESTO Food! What to make when you've got a shed-load of basil. Traditionally made with pine nuts, but these are so expensive nowadays almonds are often substituted.
49. Horse-drawn wagons : DRAYS. I enjoyed this. I used to live near Young's Brewery in London and they continued to deliver beer to local pubs by dray well into the 1980's. The horses were more economical over short distances than diesel-fueled trucks.
51. Golf bag item : TEE
52. One who helps break the case : RAT
55. Piece between steps : RISER. Do you know your nosings from your stringers? Staircases are fraught with specialist vocabulary.
64. Biblical preposition : UNTO. Topically "Unto us a child is born".
66. Pot boiler : STOVE
67. Camera feature : IRIS
68. Singer Redbone : LEON. Thanks, crosses. I need to "bone" up on my Cyprus-born Canadian/American ragtime/jazz singers.
69. Bygone : OLDEN
70. Au naturel : NUDE. Stop snickering at the back.
71. Deep-six : TOSS. Originally referred to a depth of six fathoms, or 36 feet. It was difficult to recover something from this far below the surface.
72. Dukes and barons : PEERS
73. Proofreading mark : STET
Down:
1. Smashing, in show biz : BOFFO. I love this word, and the various headlines in Variety magazine that spawn some great slang words: "Boffo at the B.O."
2. Synthetic fabric : ORLON. Fill in ON and wait for the crosses.
3. Verges on : NEARS
4. Like staccato notes : DOTTED "Dit dit dit dit dit dit ....."
5. Withdraw by degrees : WEAN. Tricky area for me here today. This and the next four downs caused some slow going.
6. Back in the day : ONCE. I tried "THEN" first, and along with trying OPEC below I was way off base.
7. Drilling gp. : ROTC. Parade ground drilling, not oil wells.
8. Hotfoot it : SCOOT
9. Sharp pang : THROE. Not often felt outside of crosswords. The plural is more likely to be encountered in day-to-day speech, and often misused. You need to be in the middle of something painful or unpleasant to be "in the throes of" that situation.
10. Not backing : ANTI
11. Big risk taker : DAREDEVIL
12. Gorilla, for one : APE
13. Possibly will : MAY
21. The Miners of Conf. USA : U.T.E.P. Nailed it! University of Texas at El Paso.
22. "Project Runway" host : KLUM. I know of Heidi, I don't know the show. A friend of mine occasionally provides security for her in Los Angeles, and describes her as completely down-to-earth and a pleasure to work for.
26. Sports spot : ARENA
27. Unscrupulous : DIRTY
29. __ blocker : BETA. Commonly taken to alleviate high blood pressure caused by misuse of the word "throes".
30. In a quandary : TORN
31. Lay out : SPEND
33. Preschooler : TOT
34. All thumbs : INEPT. There is no good reason that I can find why "ept" is not a word meaning "capable".
35. Fracas : MELEE
36. Some doo-wop voices : FALSETTOS. High ones.
38. Bestial hideaway : LAIR
39. Mount near Catania : ETNA. I didn't know where Catania was, but it didn't stop me from filling this in without a thought.
41. Like a preferred theory : PET
45. Diving judge's concern : FORM
46. Sandwich with tzatziki sauce : GYRO. Yum! Here-o, jeer-o, jire-o, whatever you like to call it.
50. Peaceful protests : SIT-INS
53. Notable author of animal tales : AESOP
54. Proof of ownership : TITLE
56. Walk like Jagger : STRUT. A little late in the expo for a music link, but I couldn't resist this one. Here's Maroon 5 and Christine Aguilera. Check out the interview clips with a very young Mick. If you're a Stones fan like me, be sure to look out for the documentary "Crossfire Hurricane" if you ever see it pop up on your TV listings.
57. Skip over, in speech : ELIDE
58. Pedometer button : RESET
60. Physics particles : IONS
61. Point of connection : NODE
62. State categorically : AVER
63. Uncle __ : BEN'S. I buy my rice in 10lb sacks from the Asian markets for about the same price as an 8oz box of the supermarket brands.
64. Final: Abbr. : ULT
65. Prefix with con : NEO. Although usually used to refer to a neo-conservative, the word actually is a trademark of the group who organizes an annual commercial interior design exposition. Who knew?
That's about it from me. Heading back to the warmer climes of SoCal after my brief dose of a Colorado winter. See you all next week!
Steve
20. Financial magazine tracking device? : FORTUNE COOKIE. Cookie in the web browser context. For any nerds out there, the original computing cookie actually was called a fortune cookie because it contained an embedded message.
37. Newsstand selling many a human-interest magazine? : PEOPLE MOVER. My local newsstand on Laurel Canyon sells about a million titles. I don't know how the owner keeps track of them all.
44. Keeping cool with a fashion magazine? : ELLE FANNING. Teen actress, and sister of the perhaps better-known Dakota.
59. Rolled-up news magazine drifting at sea? : TIME IN A BOTTLE. This was apparently a Jim Croce hit in 1972. I'm guessing it didn't make the charts in the UK as I'd never heard of it, and listening to it on YouTube I have to confess I don't think I missed much.
Good day, all! Steve here reporting from snowy Denver and feeling glad that I remembered to pack my gloves and scarf. Scraping the snow off the windshield isn't something that I have to do very often in Studio City!
A straightforward enough theme with some Thursday-level cluing misdirection. The middle-top section came last for me due to some biblical name amnesia and aforementioned clue-trickeration.
Let's see what else we can find.
Across:
1. Covenant : BOND
5. Poorest : WORST
10. Eldest son on "Bonanza" : ADAM. "Madam, I'm Adam".
14. Snack choice : OREO. If I had a dollar for every time I've filled this into a grid, I'd have .... a lot of dollars.
15. Eldest son of Cain : ENOCH
16. City ENE of Petaluma : NAPA. It's also WSW of Sacramento and NNE of San Francisco for the direction-trivia fans in our midst.
17. Musically off : FLAT
18. Stage __ : ACTOR
19. A four beats it : TREY. Here's aptly-numbered Trey Burke, Utah Jazz point guard.
23. Earliest stage : ONSET
24. Abbr. on a business card : TEL
25. Family guy : DAD
28. Credit card bill list : DEBTS. Odd clue - I'd say a credit card bill is a list of charges, not debts.
32. Development sites : UTERI. Not a word most people use pretty much - ever.
34. World currency org. : I.M.F. The International Monetary Fund.
40. Spring tide counterpart : NEAP. The spring tide is when there is the greatest distance between low and high tide. The neap tide is when there is the least difference.
42. Pleasant surprise : TREAT
43. Salon option : TINT
47. Wager : LAY
48. Green sauce : PESTO Food! What to make when you've got a shed-load of basil. Traditionally made with pine nuts, but these are so expensive nowadays almonds are often substituted.
49. Horse-drawn wagons : DRAYS. I enjoyed this. I used to live near Young's Brewery in London and they continued to deliver beer to local pubs by dray well into the 1980's. The horses were more economical over short distances than diesel-fueled trucks.
51. Golf bag item : TEE
52. One who helps break the case : RAT
55. Piece between steps : RISER. Do you know your nosings from your stringers? Staircases are fraught with specialist vocabulary.
64. Biblical preposition : UNTO. Topically "Unto us a child is born".
66. Pot boiler : STOVE
67. Camera feature : IRIS
68. Singer Redbone : LEON. Thanks, crosses. I need to "bone" up on my Cyprus-born Canadian/American ragtime/jazz singers.
69. Bygone : OLDEN
70. Au naturel : NUDE. Stop snickering at the back.
71. Deep-six : TOSS. Originally referred to a depth of six fathoms, or 36 feet. It was difficult to recover something from this far below the surface.
72. Dukes and barons : PEERS
73. Proofreading mark : STET
Down:
1. Smashing, in show biz : BOFFO. I love this word, and the various headlines in Variety magazine that spawn some great slang words: "Boffo at the B.O."
2. Synthetic fabric : ORLON. Fill in ON and wait for the crosses.
3. Verges on : NEARS
4. Like staccato notes : DOTTED "Dit dit dit dit dit dit ....."
6. Back in the day : ONCE. I tried "THEN" first, and along with trying OPEC below I was way off base.
7. Drilling gp. : ROTC. Parade ground drilling, not oil wells.
8. Hotfoot it : SCOOT
9. Sharp pang : THROE. Not often felt outside of crosswords. The plural is more likely to be encountered in day-to-day speech, and often misused. You need to be in the middle of something painful or unpleasant to be "in the throes of" that situation.
10. Not backing : ANTI
11. Big risk taker : DAREDEVIL
12. Gorilla, for one : APE
13. Possibly will : MAY
21. The Miners of Conf. USA : U.T.E.P. Nailed it! University of Texas at El Paso.
22. "Project Runway" host : KLUM. I know of Heidi, I don't know the show. A friend of mine occasionally provides security for her in Los Angeles, and describes her as completely down-to-earth and a pleasure to work for.
26. Sports spot : ARENA
27. Unscrupulous : DIRTY
29. __ blocker : BETA. Commonly taken to alleviate high blood pressure caused by misuse of the word "throes".
30. In a quandary : TORN
31. Lay out : SPEND
33. Preschooler : TOT
34. All thumbs : INEPT. There is no good reason that I can find why "ept" is not a word meaning "capable".
35. Fracas : MELEE
36. Some doo-wop voices : FALSETTOS. High ones.
38. Bestial hideaway : LAIR
39. Mount near Catania : ETNA. I didn't know where Catania was, but it didn't stop me from filling this in without a thought.
41. Like a preferred theory : PET
45. Diving judge's concern : FORM
46. Sandwich with tzatziki sauce : GYRO. Yum! Here-o, jeer-o, jire-o, whatever you like to call it.
50. Peaceful protests : SIT-INS
53. Notable author of animal tales : AESOP
54. Proof of ownership : TITLE
56. Walk like Jagger : STRUT. A little late in the expo for a music link, but I couldn't resist this one. Here's Maroon 5 and Christine Aguilera. Check out the interview clips with a very young Mick. If you're a Stones fan like me, be sure to look out for the documentary "Crossfire Hurricane" if you ever see it pop up on your TV listings.
57. Skip over, in speech : ELIDE
58. Pedometer button : RESET
60. Physics particles : IONS
61. Point of connection : NODE
62. State categorically : AVER
63. Uncle __ : BEN'S. I buy my rice in 10lb sacks from the Asian markets for about the same price as an 8oz box of the supermarket brands.
64. Final: Abbr. : ULT
65. Prefix with con : NEO. Although usually used to refer to a neo-conservative, the word actually is a trademark of the group who organizes an annual commercial interior design exposition. Who knew?
That's about it from me. Heading back to the warmer climes of SoCal after my brief dose of a Colorado winter. See you all next week!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
I'd like to introduce you to Adopt an Inmate, a cause Melissa has been championing the past two years. Read that article in Melissa's blog post. I can't tell you what a caring and inspiring sister Melissa is.
