Theme: Cross-Referenced Circle Chicanery
The reveal:
33A. With 43-Across, acting like an unscrupulous contractor ... and a hint to this puzzle's circles : CUTTING
43A. See 33-Across : CORNERS
Clockwise from the northwest corner, we find the nicely alliterative SEVERS, SHAVES, SLICES and SHEARS highlighted by the circles. If you don't get circles in your publication and you don't like cross-referenced clues, then this puzzle won't win your personal popularity contest.
With O'ER, E'ER and E'EN I was looking for EBON to complete a poetic quad-fecta (Yay! New word!) but we capped out at three. I have to say that there did seem to be a preponderance of bitty three-letter fill today. Let's see what else we've got going on:
Across:
1. Retro photos : SEPIAS. Suitably stern-looking gentleman in this one:
7. Condescends : STOOPS
13. Tympanic membrane : EARDRUM
15. Half a notable San Francisco intersection : ASHBURY. Hippie central at the corner of Haight.
16. Heavy marble : STEELIE. We called 'em something different in England - "dobber" springs to mind but it was many years ago that I last used one.
17. Worried about : SWEATED
18. Brandy letters : VSO. Very Superior Old. Often followed followed by "P" for "Pale".
19. Some grad students : TA'S. Apparently in middle school you are now a "paraprofessional".
21. P.O. boxful : ENVS. Envelopes stuffing your post office box. Most of the mail I get stuffed into my mailbox is junk.
22. One of a divided trio? : DEE. Three "D"s in "divided".
24. Like some room fresheners : PINEY
26. Anthem contraction : O'ER
28. Lucid : SANE
30. Tony winner Martin in the 2013 "Pippin" Broadway revival : ANDREA. No clue. Thank you, crosses.
32. Cargo wts. : TNS. Tons. I'm not sure if I've seen this abbreviation before - "t" is more common.
35. Prom dress material : TAFFETA
37. They may be crunched : ABS
38. Bollywood star Aishwarya __ : RAI. No clue. Thank you, crosses. Here she is:
39. Curaçao cocktails : MAI TAIS. Rum, curaçao and lime juice. Cheers!
47. RR schedule listing : STN.
48. Land on a lake? : REEL IN. Nice clue. Landing a fish.
50. Psyche's beloved : EROS
51. Letters on old TV dials : UHF. Ultra-High Frequency. I remember these things. I recall UHF was where the local channels lived, VHF was where the other stuff was. We only had four channels in England for the longest time. I grew up with two, went to three when the BBC introduced color TV on VHF and finally Channel Four added the second commercial channel. You didn't really need a remote - there was not much channel-hopping between the two primary channels (the publicly-funded BBC and the commercially-funded ITV).
52. Strainer : SIEVE
53. For time eterne : E'ER
54. "Girls" creator Dunham : LENA. Dug up from the deep recesses.
57. "There's __ in ... " : NO I
58. XL squared : MDC 40 x 40 = 1600. I still can't figure out how the Romans did math. "Borrow X and carry VII". Hopeless.
60. Old Buick : LE SABRE
62. Indian spiced drink : CHAI TEA
66. Wearing, with "in" : ATTIRED
67. Lots of shots : SALVOES
68. Juiced-up Roadsters? : TESLAS. A colleague of mine owns one. He lives in Texas, I thought he'd get some stick from the oil industry folks, but he says no-one's been mean to him yet.
69. Breastbones : STERNA. Really? I've never, ever had the need to use this word.
Down:
1. French possessive : SES. His, her or its plural possessive. Parisians love to tell you that you should use "son" instead of "ses" when the vowel begins with a consonant. I love to tell them that all their vines are grafted onto Californian rootstock after the phylloxera virus devastated their vineyards in the 1860's.
2. Take in : EAT
3. Hinder : PREVENT
4. Ominous date : IDES. March got a bad rap. The other nine ides didn't have such an ominous cloud looming over them.
5. Patron of Alice's : ARLO. Arlo Guthrie's song. If you can put up with 18 minutes of it, here's your link.
6. __ generis : SUI. Unique. Why use one English word when two Latin ones will do?
7. Louisville-to-Nashville dir. : SSW
8. Fare-well bridge : THEE
9. Scottish resort town known for its whisky : OBAN. In 2011, about $10,000's worth of fireworks were ignited all at once due to a computer glitch. The show was originally planned to last 30 minutes, it was all over in less than 60 seconds. Classic!
10. Defeat at the polls : OUTVOTE
11. Gift : PRESENT
12. Barrett of Pink Floyd : SYD
14. Doling (out) : METING
15. Declare : ASSERT
20. Furthermore : AND
22. Mil. bravery medal : D.S.C. Distinguished Service Cross. One notch down from the Medal of Honor.
23. Evian, par exemple : EAU
24. Colorful flowers : PANSIES
25. The very beginning, figuratively : YEAR ONE
27. Pretoria's land: Abbr. : R.S.A. Republic of South Africa.
29. Virginie, to Eugénie : ÉTAT. State.
31. A long way away : AFAR
34. Support beam : I-BAR
36. Penalty for wrongdoing : FINE
39. The Bulldogs of the SEC : M.S.U. Mississippi State University.
40. Game player : ATHLETE
41. Overruns : INFESTS
42. Fished with a net : SEINED. Fished with a seine net, like this:
43. Study of government : CIVICS
44. Meccano construction set : ERECTOR. The "Erector" brand is now being retired after the company was purchased by Meccano in 2000.
45. 1973 Court decision alias : ROE vs. Wade.
46. Old map abbr. : S.S.R. Soviet Socialist Republic
49. One of the fire signs : LEO
55. Attach, in a way : NAIL
56. Magical opening : ABRA-cadabra
58. Beer ingredient : MALT
59. Act like a loon? : DIVE.
60. Map coordinate: Abbr. : LAT. Latitude.
61. Legal thing : RES. More Latin.
63. Possesses : HAS
64. Poetic dusk : E'EN. More poetry.
65. Simile center : AS A. As happy as a clam in the sand where no-one's digging.
I'm back in LA this week. I was asked last week how many miles I fly each year - it varies, but never less than 50,000; usually quite a bit more. I'm up to about 45,000 so far in 2016. United puts your name on a plane if you hit the 10 million mile lifetime mark, I'm a LONG way from that milestone, thank goodness. I'd rather have my sanity and my home life than a 777 called "Steve".
Aaaand - here's the grid.
Steve
The reveal:
33A. With 43-Across, acting like an unscrupulous contractor ... and a hint to this puzzle's circles : CUTTING
43A. See 33-Across : CORNERS
Clockwise from the northwest corner, we find the nicely alliterative SEVERS, SHAVES, SLICES and SHEARS highlighted by the circles. If you don't get circles in your publication and you don't like cross-referenced clues, then this puzzle won't win your personal popularity contest.
With O'ER, E'ER and E'EN I was looking for EBON to complete a poetic quad-fecta (Yay! New word!) but we capped out at three. I have to say that there did seem to be a preponderance of bitty three-letter fill today. Let's see what else we've got going on:
Across:
1. Retro photos : SEPIAS. Suitably stern-looking gentleman in this one:
7. Condescends : STOOPS
13. Tympanic membrane : EARDRUM
15. Half a notable San Francisco intersection : ASHBURY. Hippie central at the corner of Haight.
16. Heavy marble : STEELIE. We called 'em something different in England - "dobber" springs to mind but it was many years ago that I last used one.
17. Worried about : SWEATED
18. Brandy letters : VSO. Very Superior Old. Often followed followed by "P" for "Pale".
19. Some grad students : TA'S. Apparently in middle school you are now a "paraprofessional".
21. P.O. boxful : ENVS. Envelopes stuffing your post office box. Most of the mail I get stuffed into my mailbox is junk.
22. One of a divided trio? : DEE. Three "D"s in "divided".
24. Like some room fresheners : PINEY
26. Anthem contraction : O'ER
28. Lucid : SANE
30. Tony winner Martin in the 2013 "Pippin" Broadway revival : ANDREA. No clue. Thank you, crosses.
32. Cargo wts. : TNS. Tons. I'm not sure if I've seen this abbreviation before - "t" is more common.
35. Prom dress material : TAFFETA
37. They may be crunched : ABS
38. Bollywood star Aishwarya __ : RAI. No clue. Thank you, crosses. Here she is:
39. Curaçao cocktails : MAI TAIS. Rum, curaçao and lime juice. Cheers!
47. RR schedule listing : STN.
48. Land on a lake? : REEL IN. Nice clue. Landing a fish.
50. Psyche's beloved : EROS
51. Letters on old TV dials : UHF. Ultra-High Frequency. I remember these things. I recall UHF was where the local channels lived, VHF was where the other stuff was. We only had four channels in England for the longest time. I grew up with two, went to three when the BBC introduced color TV on VHF and finally Channel Four added the second commercial channel. You didn't really need a remote - there was not much channel-hopping between the two primary channels (the publicly-funded BBC and the commercially-funded ITV).
52. Strainer : SIEVE
53. For time eterne : E'ER
54. "Girls" creator Dunham : LENA. Dug up from the deep recesses.
57. "There's __ in ... " : NO I
58. XL squared : MDC 40 x 40 = 1600. I still can't figure out how the Romans did math. "Borrow X and carry VII". Hopeless.
60. Old Buick : LE SABRE
62. Indian spiced drink : CHAI TEA
66. Wearing, with "in" : ATTIRED
67. Lots of shots : SALVOES
68. Juiced-up Roadsters? : TESLAS. A colleague of mine owns one. He lives in Texas, I thought he'd get some stick from the oil industry folks, but he says no-one's been mean to him yet.
69. Breastbones : STERNA. Really? I've never, ever had the need to use this word.
Down:
1. French possessive : SES. His, her or its plural possessive. Parisians love to tell you that you should use "son" instead of "ses" when the vowel begins with a consonant. I love to tell them that all their vines are grafted onto Californian rootstock after the phylloxera virus devastated their vineyards in the 1860's.
2. Take in : EAT
3. Hinder : PREVENT
4. Ominous date : IDES. March got a bad rap. The other nine ides didn't have such an ominous cloud looming over them.
5. Patron of Alice's : ARLO. Arlo Guthrie's song. If you can put up with 18 minutes of it, here's your link.
6. __ generis : SUI. Unique. Why use one English word when two Latin ones will do?
7. Louisville-to-Nashville dir. : SSW
8. Fare-well bridge : THEE
9. Scottish resort town known for its whisky : OBAN. In 2011, about $10,000's worth of fireworks were ignited all at once due to a computer glitch. The show was originally planned to last 30 minutes, it was all over in less than 60 seconds. Classic!
10. Defeat at the polls : OUTVOTE
11. Gift : PRESENT
12. Barrett of Pink Floyd : SYD
14. Doling (out) : METING
15. Declare : ASSERT
20. Furthermore : AND
22. Mil. bravery medal : D.S.C. Distinguished Service Cross. One notch down from the Medal of Honor.
23. Evian, par exemple : EAU
24. Colorful flowers : PANSIES
25. The very beginning, figuratively : YEAR ONE
27. Pretoria's land: Abbr. : R.S.A. Republic of South Africa.
29. Virginie, to Eugénie : ÉTAT. State.
31. A long way away : AFAR
34. Support beam : I-BAR
36. Penalty for wrongdoing : FINE
39. The Bulldogs of the SEC : M.S.U. Mississippi State University.
40. Game player : ATHLETE
41. Overruns : INFESTS
42. Fished with a net : SEINED. Fished with a seine net, like this:
43. Study of government : CIVICS
44. Meccano construction set : ERECTOR. The "Erector" brand is now being retired after the company was purchased by Meccano in 2000.
45. 1973 Court decision alias : ROE vs. Wade.
46. Old map abbr. : S.S.R. Soviet Socialist Republic
49. One of the fire signs : LEO
55. Attach, in a way : NAIL
56. Magical opening : ABRA-cadabra
58. Beer ingredient : MALT
59. Act like a loon? : DIVE.
60. Map coordinate: Abbr. : LAT. Latitude.
61. Legal thing : RES. More Latin.
63. Possesses : HAS
64. Poetic dusk : E'EN. More poetry.
65. Simile center : AS A. As happy as a clam in the sand where no-one's digging.
I'm back in LA this week. I was asked last week how many miles I fly each year - it varies, but never less than 50,000; usually quite a bit more. I'm up to about 45,000 so far in 2016. United puts your name on a plane if you hit the 10 million mile lifetime mark, I'm a LONG way from that milestone, thank goodness. I'd rather have my sanity and my home life than a 777 called "Steve".
Aaaand - here's the grid.
Steve
