Theme: NO NEED TO SHOUT or, as the reveal succinctly explains:
36A. Emphatic type ... or what the beginnings of the longest entries are? : ALL CAPS
16A. Tension-easing activity : ICEBREAKER. Ice cap.
22A. It supposedly keeps the monster inside the closet : NIGHT LIGHT. Nightcap. Cheers!
45A. Jam site : BOTTLENECK. Bottle cap. I was thinking "bottleneck" in the slide guitar/jam session sense of the word before I saw sense. Ah! Traffic! Here's Brian Jones playing slide guitar on the Rolling Stones' "No Expectations", the last thing he recorded before his death.
57A. Baby blanket, perhaps : SHOWER GIFT. Shower cap. I confess I flat-out don't like this. Wedding shower gift, bridal shower gift or baby shower gift - all fine, but "shower gift" seems contrived to me. I'd have probably tried something else like SHOWER HEAD here.
Neat theme, but with the aforementioned stutter-step at the end. Let's see what else we've got going on.
Across:
1. Fraternal order member : ELK
4. Deposit : PAY IN
9. Candy shape : CANE
13. Pressure for payment : DUN
14. He became New York Philharmonic music director 30 years before Leonard : ARTURO. Toscanini.
15. Part of ABC: Abbr. : AMER. The American Broadcasting Company.
18. Butcher's cut : LOIN. Food! Butcher's cuts also refer to lesser-known cuts of meat such as flank steak, hanger steak, sirloin cap and bavette that are packed with flavor and less expensive than the better-known varieties.
19. Coffee cart item : CREAMER
20. Turf controllers : GANGS. I'm going to come off as pedantic here, but there's no plural of "gang" in this sense. More than one of this type of turf controllers are called "gang mowers". "Gang" refers to multiple reel mowers that are "ganged" together.
21. Durbeyfield daughter : TESS. I re-read the book recently - I enjoyed it much more than when we had to study it at school.
26. Tiebreakers, briefly : O.T.S Overtimes. Three NCAA Div 1 games have gone to seven overtimes - Arkansas played in two of them and lost them both.
28. Turkish money : LIRAS. Really? I think this one's little but of a stretch - I can't think of a case where I'd use it in preference to "lira". One lira, twenty lira. Twenty liras? Not so much.
29. Host : EMCEE
31. Holistic healers' observations : AURAS
32. Day __ : SPA
35. Winery wood : OAK. Plenty of it here. This is Caymus in Napa; I visited there last year.
38. Colorful carp : KOI
39. Turndowns : NOS
40. What Lot's wife looked back at : SODOM. Not a wise move unless you were planning on being turned into a pillar of salt.
41. Pastoral poem : IDYLL.
43. Stat for a reliever : SAVES. Blown Saves too, but pitchers don't like to talk about those.
44. Nancy Drew's beau : NED. Nickerson. Crosses for me, I never read the books.
50. Everymutt : FIDO
53. WWII attacker : U-BOAT. They were around in WWI too, most notoriously U-20 which fired the torpedo that sank the Lusitania. Erik Larsen's book "Dead Wake" is a fascinating account of the controversial tragedy.
54. New Hampshire prep school town : ANDOVER. Legend has it that the US Postal Service once successfully decoded and delivered a letter with the address:
HILL
JOHN
NH
56. Fanny : REAR. I still chuckle when I see this. A fanny in England is a quite different part of a lady's anatomy.
60. Subtle "Over here!" : PSST!
61. Trojan hero : AENEAS
62. Japanese drama : NOH
63. Hardens : SETS
64. 2012 title judge played by Karl Urban : DREDD. Never saw it. Topical though, Urban is reported as saying in the last couple of days that a TV series "could happen". My breath is bated.
65. Prefix with caching : GEO- Something of a nerdy pastime whereby you take your GPS handheld and go find something placed at a specific coordinate. When you find it, you write your name on it and put it back. Apparently.
Down:
1. Decree : EDICT
2. Riches : LUCRE. Generally "filthy" for some reason.
3. Kilt companions : KNEE SOCKS
4. Groom with a bill : PREEN
5. Jaguar creator : ATARI. Crosses filled this in for me - the Atari Jaguar was a video gaming console. Now, if I pronounce the British car "jag-you-a" and the NFL team "Jagwires", how do I pronounce a Japanese console?
6. Big laugh : YUK
7. Wrath : IRE
8. Postal motto word : NOR. It's an unofficial motto and is inscribed on the James Farley post office in New York City:
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"
9. French town closest to England : CALAIS. If you stand on the top of the cliffs at South Foreland in England and use your cellphone, it's very likely that you'll incur roaming charges because the strongest signal comes from France Telecom across the Dover Straits. Here's the view from Calais.
10. Honor __ thieves : AMONG
11. Pastoral sound : NEIGH
12. Surrealist Max : ERNST.
14. Branch : ARM
17. Keep moist, in a way : BASTE
20. Enclose, as a porch : GLASS IN
23. Sugary stuff : GLUCOSE
24. Distiller Walker : HIRAM. Cheers! Canadian Club is still made at the original distillery, although the brand is now owned by Beam Suntory of Japan.
25. Snare : TRAP
27. Topping for fancy chocolate : SEA SALT. I use Maldon salt from the UK. I used to bring it back with me after a visit, but my local market stocks it now. Williams-Sonoma also stocks it, for more than twice the price of anywhere else, naturally.
29. Long stretch : EON
30. "Little Red Book" author : MAO. Formally titled "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung".
31. Mayflower Compact signer : ALDEN
32. High jumps : SKYDIVING. Something seems off to me here. SKYDIVES better matches the clue, "High jumping" better suits the answer.
33. Campaign pro : POL.
34. Catch a bug : AIL
37. Sweetheart : LOVE
42. Clear, as a windshield : DEFOG
43. They may be false : STARTS. "Take your marks, set .....".
45. Pats on the back, maybe : BURPS
46. Really big : OBESE
47. Brown : TOAST. Blacken if the timer is set too long.
48. Cried in the cornfield : CAWED. Crows' cornfield cries.
49. Work on in a bakery : KNEAD
51. Crusoe creator : DEFOE. Likely inspired by the story of sailor Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned with his dog for four years on a Chilean island.
52. Garden products brand : ORTHO
55. OBs and ENTs : DRS. What's up, Docs?
57. Down : SAD
58. What's-__-name : HER
59. United : ONE
Just in time for the grid, and that's it from me!
Steve
36A. Emphatic type ... or what the beginnings of the longest entries are? : ALL CAPS
16A. Tension-easing activity : ICEBREAKER. Ice cap.
22A. It supposedly keeps the monster inside the closet : NIGHT LIGHT. Nightcap. Cheers!
45A. Jam site : BOTTLENECK. Bottle cap. I was thinking "bottleneck" in the slide guitar/jam session sense of the word before I saw sense. Ah! Traffic! Here's Brian Jones playing slide guitar on the Rolling Stones' "No Expectations", the last thing he recorded before his death.
57A. Baby blanket, perhaps : SHOWER GIFT. Shower cap. I confess I flat-out don't like this. Wedding shower gift, bridal shower gift or baby shower gift - all fine, but "shower gift" seems contrived to me. I'd have probably tried something else like SHOWER HEAD here.
Neat theme, but with the aforementioned stutter-step at the end. Let's see what else we've got going on.
Across:
1. Fraternal order member : ELK
4. Deposit : PAY IN
9. Candy shape : CANE
13. Pressure for payment : DUN
14. He became New York Philharmonic music director 30 years before Leonard : ARTURO. Toscanini.
15. Part of ABC: Abbr. : AMER. The American Broadcasting Company.
18. Butcher's cut : LOIN. Food! Butcher's cuts also refer to lesser-known cuts of meat such as flank steak, hanger steak, sirloin cap and bavette that are packed with flavor and less expensive than the better-known varieties.
19. Coffee cart item : CREAMER
20. Turf controllers : GANGS. I'm going to come off as pedantic here, but there's no plural of "gang" in this sense. More than one of this type of turf controllers are called "gang mowers". "Gang" refers to multiple reel mowers that are "ganged" together.
21. Durbeyfield daughter : TESS. I re-read the book recently - I enjoyed it much more than when we had to study it at school.
26. Tiebreakers, briefly : O.T.S Overtimes. Three NCAA Div 1 games have gone to seven overtimes - Arkansas played in two of them and lost them both.
28. Turkish money : LIRAS. Really? I think this one's little but of a stretch - I can't think of a case where I'd use it in preference to "lira". One lira, twenty lira. Twenty liras? Not so much.
29. Host : EMCEE
31. Holistic healers' observations : AURAS
32. Day __ : SPA
35. Winery wood : OAK. Plenty of it here. This is Caymus in Napa; I visited there last year.
38. Colorful carp : KOI
39. Turndowns : NOS
40. What Lot's wife looked back at : SODOM. Not a wise move unless you were planning on being turned into a pillar of salt.
41. Pastoral poem : IDYLL.
Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands;
Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands;
For man is man and master of his fate.
from Idylls of the King: Song from the marriage of Geraint
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
43. Stat for a reliever : SAVES. Blown Saves too, but pitchers don't like to talk about those.
44. Nancy Drew's beau : NED. Nickerson. Crosses for me, I never read the books.
50. Everymutt : FIDO
53. WWII attacker : U-BOAT. They were around in WWI too, most notoriously U-20 which fired the torpedo that sank the Lusitania. Erik Larsen's book "Dead Wake" is a fascinating account of the controversial tragedy.
54. New Hampshire prep school town : ANDOVER. Legend has it that the US Postal Service once successfully decoded and delivered a letter with the address:
HILL
JOHN
NH
56. Fanny : REAR. I still chuckle when I see this. A fanny in England is a quite different part of a lady's anatomy.
60. Subtle "Over here!" : PSST!
61. Trojan hero : AENEAS
62. Japanese drama : NOH
63. Hardens : SETS
64. 2012 title judge played by Karl Urban : DREDD. Never saw it. Topical though, Urban is reported as saying in the last couple of days that a TV series "could happen". My breath is bated.
65. Prefix with caching : GEO- Something of a nerdy pastime whereby you take your GPS handheld and go find something placed at a specific coordinate. When you find it, you write your name on it and put it back. Apparently.
Down:
1. Decree : EDICT
2. Riches : LUCRE. Generally "filthy" for some reason.
3. Kilt companions : KNEE SOCKS
4. Groom with a bill : PREEN
5. Jaguar creator : ATARI. Crosses filled this in for me - the Atari Jaguar was a video gaming console. Now, if I pronounce the British car "jag-you-a" and the NFL team "Jagwires", how do I pronounce a Japanese console?
6. Big laugh : YUK
7. Wrath : IRE
8. Postal motto word : NOR. It's an unofficial motto and is inscribed on the James Farley post office in New York City:
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"
9. French town closest to England : CALAIS. If you stand on the top of the cliffs at South Foreland in England and use your cellphone, it's very likely that you'll incur roaming charges because the strongest signal comes from France Telecom across the Dover Straits. Here's the view from Calais.
10. Honor __ thieves : AMONG
11. Pastoral sound : NEIGH
12. Surrealist Max : ERNST.
14. Branch : ARM
17. Keep moist, in a way : BASTE
20. Enclose, as a porch : GLASS IN
23. Sugary stuff : GLUCOSE
24. Distiller Walker : HIRAM. Cheers! Canadian Club is still made at the original distillery, although the brand is now owned by Beam Suntory of Japan.
25. Snare : TRAP
27. Topping for fancy chocolate : SEA SALT. I use Maldon salt from the UK. I used to bring it back with me after a visit, but my local market stocks it now. Williams-Sonoma also stocks it, for more than twice the price of anywhere else, naturally.
29. Long stretch : EON
30. "Little Red Book" author : MAO. Formally titled "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung".
31. Mayflower Compact signer : ALDEN
32. High jumps : SKYDIVING. Something seems off to me here. SKYDIVES better matches the clue, "High jumping" better suits the answer.
33. Campaign pro : POL.
34. Catch a bug : AIL
37. Sweetheart : LOVE
42. Clear, as a windshield : DEFOG
43. They may be false : STARTS. "Take your marks, set .....".
45. Pats on the back, maybe : BURPS
46. Really big : OBESE
47. Brown : TOAST. Blacken if the timer is set too long.
48. Cried in the cornfield : CAWED. Crows' cornfield cries.
49. Work on in a bakery : KNEAD
51. Crusoe creator : DEFOE. Likely inspired by the story of sailor Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned with his dog for four years on a Chilean island.
52. Garden products brand : ORTHO
55. OBs and ENTs : DRS. What's up, Docs?
57. Down : SAD
58. What's-__-name : HER
59. United : ONE
Just in time for the grid, and that's it from me!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
The fifth Minnesota Crossword Tournament will be held at the Landmark Center in St. Paul on June 12th, 2016 Sunday. Please click here for more details. Here is the direct registration link. Entry fee is only $20 per person.
Don G and I teamed up again this year. Other contributors (all LAT/NYT constructors) include George Barany, Victor Barocas, Tom Pepper, Andrea Carla Michaels and a few others. I'll let you know once the updated list is released.
Our own Jeffrey Wechsler is flying from New Jersey to volunteer for the event.
Our own Jeffrey Wechsler is flying from New Jersey to volunteer for the event.
