Wednesday, November 2, 2016 Craig Stowe

Theme - Do You See What I See? Or My EYES Are Crossed [Up.] or  I-Yigh-Yie.  An anagramish theme in which the letters of the word EYES are scrambled and tucked into theme answer phrases of 2 or 3 words, in each case spanning two of those words.  If you're lucky, you got these letters circled for easy identification.

17. "Gotta go!" : SEE YA LATER.   Adios, amigos -- except I can't leave now, I'm just getting started.

24. Peter Parker's alarm system : SPIDEY SENSE.  To be a bit pedantic, Peter Parker's SPIDER SENSE is a kind of ESP that causes a tingling at the base of his scull, thus alerting him to danger. SPIDEY SENSE is a slangey generalized derivative phrase applied to anyone's [possibly uncanny] ability to suss out danger.

50. Henry VIII's third wife : JANE SEYMOUR.  JANE [1508-1537] was Queen of England for a little more than a year, following the unfortunate Anne Boleyn.  Sadly, Jane died of postnatal complications a few days after the birth of her son, who eventually went on to become King Edward VI.  Queen Jane is not to be confused with Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg [b. 15 February 1951] from Hayes, Middlesex, England, the daughter of Mieke (van Tricht), a nurse, and John Benjamin Frankenberg, an obstetrician.

Medicine Woman

58. Sign of deceit, and a hint to this puzzle's circled letters : SHIFTY EYES.  Supposedly, a liar cannot look you straight in the EYES.  In reality, this only apples to rank amateurs.  The good ones can pull it off, no prob - without batting an EYE, so to speak.  Here, SHIFTY gives us a clue that the letters of the word EYES have been tampered with.

Hi gang.  JazzBumpa here, complete with bifocals.  Let's give this puzzle the EYE and see what we can discover.

Across

1. Less-played song, usually : B-SIDE.   Takes me back to my yute, when 45 RPM records typically contained a hit song on the A-SIDE and some other less commercially successful song on the B-SIDE.

6. Big name in big projections : I-MAX.   Big screen theater.

10. Skips, as TiVoed ads : ZAPS.  I guess you can ZAP something to make it disappear.

14. Like Andean pyramids : INCAN.  Of or pertaining to the INCA people.

15. Bumpkin : RUBE.  Simple farmers, people of the land, the common clay of the new west  .  .  .

16. Touched down : ALIT.  Landed, as a bird, plane, or lunar module.

19. Without serious thought : IDLY.  As in chattered IDLY.

20. Cuts down : HEWS.  HEW is one of those odd English language verbs that means two wildly different things.  Here, it means to chop or cut with an AXE or other tool.  The other meaning is to adhere to some idea or set of principles.

21. Single : ONE.  As a dollar bill.

22. Garson of Hollywood : GREER.  Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson [1904-1996] was a very popular movie star with MGM in the 1940's.

Real Redhead

23. "Do it, __ will!" : OR I.  Is this an offer or a threat?

27. Bed blossoms : PANSIES.  Flowers.

29. Hyundai rival : KIA.  Korean cars

30. Vineyard cask : TUN.   A large cask holding 252 gallons.

31. Stainless __ : STEEL.   An alloy containing chromium that is highly resistant to rusting.

32. Agent : REPresentative.

33. "Looney Tunes" stinker, familiarly : PEPE. Le Pew, a skunk.

Provide your own caption

34. Kaiser roll topping : POPPY SEED. A pinwheel shaped soft bread roll with a crisp crust, topped with seeds that actually do come from the opium poppy.

38. Hide from a hunter? : PELT.   Cute misdirection, hide and PELT both referring to the skin removed from the hunted animal.  Cf. 53 A.

41. "Yet cease your __, you angry stars of heaven!": "Pericles" : IRE.  From scene I of Shakeseare's play.  IRE, of course, meaning anger.

42. E-cigarette output : VAPOR.

46. Firefighter's tool : AXE.  For HEWING.

47. Lanai music maker : UKE.  Not exclusively for Hawaiian songs - but there are strings attached.

48. Has a conniption : GOES APE.  A way of manifesting IRE.

53. "Noah kept bees in the ark hive," e.g. : PUN.  Word play based on similar sounds and [often awkwardly imposed] double meanings.

54. __ acid : AMINO.  The building block of life.  This organic compound has both carboxylic acid and amine functionality.  These two reactive groups can react with each other, and thus form long complicated molecular chains.  The rest is history.  Or maybe chemistry.  Or biology.  It all gets a little muddy.

55. Capp and Capone : ALS.  Two guys names AL.  One was a rum-running crime boss and the other gave us Li'l Abner.

56. Poet Whitman : WALT.  An American poet [1819 - 1892.]  His collection, Leaves of Grass, was considered to be pornographic at the time.

57. Manner : MIEN.  From the same root as "demeanor."  A way of presenting one's self.  This word was popular ca. 1800, and has been in decline since, especially after 1900.

61. Years, to Livy : ANNI.  Latin and plural.

62. Navigation hazard : HAZE.  It impairs vision, shifts the EYES, and comes in many colors.



63. __-garde : AVANT.  From Olde French into late Middle English - meaning the most forward part of an advancing military force.  Now, by extension, anything at the cutting edge of technology or culture.

64. Establishes : SETS.

65. Fancy jug : EWER.

66. Nutty green sauce : PESTO.  Olive oil based sauce containing pine nuts, basil and garlic, typically served over pasta.

Down

1. Vatican personnel : BISHOPS.  Also chess men.

2. Show disdain for : SNEER AT.   With a contemptuous or condescending facial expression.

3. Dessert drink made from frozen grapes : ICE WINE.   The grapes are frozen on the vine, concentrating the sugars and other solids, yielding a smaller amount of concentrated very sweet wine.

4. Weekly septet : DAYS.  Check your calendar.

5. Disney doe : ENA.   Bambi's aunt appears alliteratively.

6. Modern Persians : IRANIS.  Ancient Persia ---> modern Iran.

7. Subdued : MUTED.  Even on the trombone.



8. Civil War nickname : ABE.   President Lincoln

9. Boomer's kid : X-ER.  Those in generation X.   The baby boomers are the demographic cohort born from ca. 1946 to 1964, in the aftermath of WW II.  Generation X has historically been a disparaging term used to describe alienated youth.   It was only after 1991, when Canadian writer Douglas Coupland came out with his novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, that it was applied to the previously unnamed cohort that followed the boomers.  There are cultural implications to identifying with a particular cohort, and Gen X-ERs, not specifically limited to the after 1964 crowd, could have been born as early as 1956, and up until some vague date in the neighborhood of 1980.

10. '70s-'90s African state : ZAIRE.  Now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

11. Pasta preference : AL DENTE.  Cooked until still firm, and not mushy.

12. Forms a big stack : PILES UP.  I'm thinking of all the leaves yet to land in my yard.

13. Compound in many disposable coffee cups : STYRENE.   Vinylbenzene, a genuinely nasty chemical that also is found in other commercially important plastics.

18. Easy pace : LOPE.

22. Govt. property overseer : GSA.   The General Services Administration is an independent government agency that helps manage and support other government agencies.

24. Corn Belt sight : SILO.  Commonly a cylindrical tower used for storing grain.

25. Barely makes, with "out" : EKES.   Commonly EKES its way into a crossword.

26. "Geez!" : YIPE.   I prefer YIKES!

28. When the NFL's regular season begins : SEPTember brings us football at all levels.

32. Canadian whisky : RYE.  Is all Canadian whiskey RYE? I know not all RYE is Canadian.

33. BlackBerries, e.g. : PDAS.  Personal Data Assistants.

35. Seattle's __ Place Market : PIKE.   One of the oldest continuously operating farmers' markets in the U.S.

36. Antelopes, to lions : PREY.  A step lower on the food chain.

37. At any point : EVER.

38. Sleepover need : PAJAMAS.

Sleepwear for the whole family

39. Check out : EXAMINE.  Take a gander at those jammies!

40. Lax : LENIENT.  Not strict.

43. Tropical fruits : PAPAYAS. The fruit of a tree native to Central America that has been locally cultivated for many centuries.

44. Rich : OPULENT.  Displaying conspicuous or ostentatious wealth.

45. Charges for use of, as an apartment : RENTS TO.

47. GI hangout : USO.  The United Services Organization, Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides programs, services and live entertainment to U.S. military personnel and their families.

48. Club owner? : GOLFER

49. Toss from office : OUST

51. County seat of County Clare : ENNIS

52. Thanksgiving decoration : MAIZE

56. "__ Only Just Begun": Carpenters hit : WE'VE

58. Ship, to its crew : SHE

59. "Hee __" : HAW

60. Go on and on : YAP

That wraps it up for today.  Hope your vision didn't get blurred or HAZY.  And that's the truth!

Cool regards!
JzB