Theme: Emoticon Explications :)
Four theme phrases clued by their emoticons:
17A. >:-( I'M REALLY FURIOUS
25A. :-( WHAT A DOWNER
47A. ;-) JUST KIDDING
60A. :-O THAT'S SURPRISING!
Four emoticons - these ones are described as "sideways, Latin only". These were the first, simple ways of denoting a facial expression in textual form and used in early chat rooms. They've now developed into a quite complex sub-language, and also sparked the development of the graphical emojis that you find on your mobile phone.
One of my favorites is the portrait of Homer Simpson ~(_8^(I)
This puzzle looks to be the LA Times debut for Morton, so congratulations are in order. He's been published in the New York Times prior, but I can't see any history in the LAT. Four nice in-the-language phrases matching the facial expressions.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Gucci of fashion : ALDO
5. Manual reader : USER
9. Certain highlands musician : PIPER. The Great Highland bagpipes, the ones you're probably most familiar with, are inflated by blowing down the chanter. Irish pipes use a bellows instead, so all those pipers you see on St. Patrick's Day are using the wrong instrument. Also, this tune, which you also hear a lot on March 17th is called "Scotland the Brave". Never ceases to amuse me.
14. Celebrity : LION. This is our local celebrity lion - the mountain lion which hunts in Griffith Park.
15. Salon service : PEDI
16. Eco-friendly spa brand : AVEDA. Salon brand also - they make hair products as well.
20. Gazpacho ingredient : TOMATO' Food! Basic recipe, I give mine a bit of zing with a dash of balsamic and Worcestershire sauce (repeat after me - wuster sauce, not war-sester-shyre!)
21. Grammatical unit : SENTENCE
22. Make up for skipping classes, perhaps : CRAM. I did my fair share of this back in the day.
24. Scholar's deg. : PHD.
30. Carpooling calc. : ETA. I think this refers to the time you're going to get picked up when you're part of a carpool. Makes a change from the airport clues though.
33. Frigid end? : AIRE
34. Straight man : STOOGE. Were the Three Stooges all straight men? Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond" was one of the best.
35. Bust : NAB
36. Vegetation : FLORA
38. Tarzan creator's monogram : ERB. Edgar Rice Burroughs. He owned a ranch a few miles from me in the San Fernando Valley, which is now the neighborhood named "Tarzana".
39. Virus named for a Congolese river : EBOLA
41. Trains above the road : ELS. Giving Ernie a rest today.
42. Allows to attack : LETS AT
45. "Smack That" rapper : AKON. Thank you, crosses.
46. Manhattan part : RYE. Bartenders tell me that the only cherries that you should use are the ones made by Luxardo. Cheers!
49. Pro : FOR
50. Cabinet dept. with an Office of Science : ENER. A guess, but seemed reasonable.
51. Dined at a table for one : SAT ALONE
56. Near-failing grade : D-MINUS
62. Reached, as expenses : RAN TO
63. Veiny cheese : BLEU. Food! Here's English Stilton, "The King of Cheeses".
64. Work with needles : KNIT
65. Med. specialty : OB-GYN
66. Couture line : SEAM. Nice clue/answer combo.
67. Gels : SETS
Down:
1. Came to rest : ALIT
2. Long drive? : LIMO. Took a couple of beats to see this one.
3. Brown digs? : DORM. Brown University.
4. Many an Albee play : ONE-ACTER. I tried ONE-ACTED first which had me looking sideways at "FLODA"
5. Puts on the internet, e.g. : UPLOADS. Like I'll do with this blog in a few minutes.
6. Poivre companion : SEL. I was given a set of electric pepper and salt grinders this Christmas, appropriately made by Peugeot, a French car company. What a car manufacturer is doing making kitchen equipment I have no idea.
7. Slow Churned ice cream : EDYS. Dreyer's out here in the West. Same stuff.
8. Swarming (with) : RIFE
9. Where many aces can be seen : PAR THREE. Most holes-in-one on the golf course come on the shorter par-3 holes. I've never made one, but I gave a club to a friend of mine, and he hit a hole-in-one with it the very next time out on the course. I claim an assist.
10. Like some academic walls : IVIED. Some baseball grounds too, Wrigley most famously.
11. Menial worker : PEON
12. Part of NEA: Abbr. : EDUC.
13. Demolish, in Devon : RASE. "Fawlty Towers" was based on a hotel in Torquay in Devon, which is a long way round of saying that John Cleese would be called John Cleeze here.
18. Gillette brand : ATRA
19. Remove wooden pins from : UNPEG
23. Sacred songs : MOTETS. Learning moment. I knew the word, I didn't know that they were sacred.
25. Mass consumption? : WAFER. Nice. Communion wafer.
26. Like links-style golf courses : HILLY. "Hilly" isn't the first adjective I'd choose to describe a links course. The Old Course at St. Andrews, the most famous of them all, is as flat as a pancake.
27. Sprang up : AROSE
28. Razzie Award adjective : WORST
29. Easy to prepare, as desserts : NO-BAKE
30. Mushroom in Asian cuisine : ENOKI. Food! I'm getting full here. Also known as enokitake, Great in noodle bowls.
31. Raptor's weapon : TALON
32. Go out with __ : A BANG
37. "The Jazz Singer" singer : AL JOLSON
40. Applicants with low credit scores, to loan officers : BAD RISKS
43. Dutch banknotes : EUROS
44. Günter Grass novel, with "The" : TIN DRUM
48. __-plié: ballet movement with knees half-bent : DEMI. Not known, but the "half-bent" makes this easy to guess.
49. Like marbled steak : FATTY. Food! I cooked a prime rib roast on New Year's Day. I dreamt about it last night. I wonder about myself sometimes.
* For extra credit, what's unique about the word "dreamt" in the language?
51. Houston pro, locally : 'STRO. Baseball's Astros. We had the long version of the name yesterday.
52. Captain who says, "For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" : AHAB. From "Moby Dick."This monomaniac was in our "Captains" puzzle a couple of Thursdays back.
53. Sharp flavor : TANG
54. Well-used crayons : NUBS
55. Creator of Perry and Della : ERLE. Crosses for me. Perry Mason, Della Street, Erle Stanley Gardner.
57. Diamond complement : NINE. I had to stare this one down before the penny dropped. Nice players on a baseball team.
58. Minute, e.g. : UNIT
59. Some NCOs : SGTS
61. __ shooter : PEA
That wraps it up for me. Time for dinner!
Steve
Four theme phrases clued by their emoticons:
17A. >:-( I'M REALLY FURIOUS
25A. :-( WHAT A DOWNER
47A. ;-) JUST KIDDING
60A. :-O THAT'S SURPRISING!
Four emoticons - these ones are described as "sideways, Latin only". These were the first, simple ways of denoting a facial expression in textual form and used in early chat rooms. They've now developed into a quite complex sub-language, and also sparked the development of the graphical emojis that you find on your mobile phone.
One of my favorites is the portrait of Homer Simpson ~(_8^(I)
This puzzle looks to be the LA Times debut for Morton, so congratulations are in order. He's been published in the New York Times prior, but I can't see any history in the LAT. Four nice in-the-language phrases matching the facial expressions.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Gucci of fashion : ALDO
5. Manual reader : USER
9. Certain highlands musician : PIPER. The Great Highland bagpipes, the ones you're probably most familiar with, are inflated by blowing down the chanter. Irish pipes use a bellows instead, so all those pipers you see on St. Patrick's Day are using the wrong instrument. Also, this tune, which you also hear a lot on March 17th is called "Scotland the Brave". Never ceases to amuse me.
14. Celebrity : LION. This is our local celebrity lion - the mountain lion which hunts in Griffith Park.
 |
| Photograph by Steve Winter/National Geographic |
15. Salon service : PEDI
16. Eco-friendly spa brand : AVEDA. Salon brand also - they make hair products as well.
20. Gazpacho ingredient : TOMATO' Food! Basic recipe, I give mine a bit of zing with a dash of balsamic and Worcestershire sauce (repeat after me - wuster sauce, not war-sester-shyre!)
21. Grammatical unit : SENTENCE
22. Make up for skipping classes, perhaps : CRAM. I did my fair share of this back in the day.
24. Scholar's deg. : PHD.
30. Carpooling calc. : ETA. I think this refers to the time you're going to get picked up when you're part of a carpool. Makes a change from the airport clues though.
33. Frigid end? : AIRE
34. Straight man : STOOGE. Were the Three Stooges all straight men? Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond" was one of the best.
35. Bust : NAB
36. Vegetation : FLORA
38. Tarzan creator's monogram : ERB. Edgar Rice Burroughs. He owned a ranch a few miles from me in the San Fernando Valley, which is now the neighborhood named "Tarzana".
39. Virus named for a Congolese river : EBOLA
41. Trains above the road : ELS. Giving Ernie a rest today.
42. Allows to attack : LETS AT
45. "Smack That" rapper : AKON. Thank you, crosses.
46. Manhattan part : RYE. Bartenders tell me that the only cherries that you should use are the ones made by Luxardo. Cheers!
50. Cabinet dept. with an Office of Science : ENER. A guess, but seemed reasonable.
51. Dined at a table for one : SAT ALONE
56. Near-failing grade : D-MINUS
62. Reached, as expenses : RAN TO
63. Veiny cheese : BLEU. Food! Here's English Stilton, "The King of Cheeses".
64. Work with needles : KNIT
65. Med. specialty : OB-GYN
66. Couture line : SEAM. Nice clue/answer combo.
67. Gels : SETS
Down:
1. Came to rest : ALIT
2. Long drive? : LIMO. Took a couple of beats to see this one.
3. Brown digs? : DORM. Brown University.
4. Many an Albee play : ONE-ACTER. I tried ONE-ACTED first which had me looking sideways at "FLODA"
5. Puts on the internet, e.g. : UPLOADS. Like I'll do with this blog in a few minutes.
6. Poivre companion : SEL. I was given a set of electric pepper and salt grinders this Christmas, appropriately made by Peugeot, a French car company. What a car manufacturer is doing making kitchen equipment I have no idea.
7. Slow Churned ice cream : EDYS. Dreyer's out here in the West. Same stuff.
8. Swarming (with) : RIFE
9. Where many aces can be seen : PAR THREE. Most holes-in-one on the golf course come on the shorter par-3 holes. I've never made one, but I gave a club to a friend of mine, and he hit a hole-in-one with it the very next time out on the course. I claim an assist.
10. Like some academic walls : IVIED. Some baseball grounds too, Wrigley most famously.
11. Menial worker : PEON
12. Part of NEA: Abbr. : EDUC.
13. Demolish, in Devon : RASE. "Fawlty Towers" was based on a hotel in Torquay in Devon, which is a long way round of saying that John Cleese would be called John Cleeze here.
18. Gillette brand : ATRA
19. Remove wooden pins from : UNPEG
23. Sacred songs : MOTETS. Learning moment. I knew the word, I didn't know that they were sacred.
25. Mass consumption? : WAFER. Nice. Communion wafer.
26. Like links-style golf courses : HILLY. "Hilly" isn't the first adjective I'd choose to describe a links course. The Old Course at St. Andrews, the most famous of them all, is as flat as a pancake.
27. Sprang up : AROSE
28. Razzie Award adjective : WORST
29. Easy to prepare, as desserts : NO-BAKE
30. Mushroom in Asian cuisine : ENOKI. Food! I'm getting full here. Also known as enokitake, Great in noodle bowls.
31. Raptor's weapon : TALON
32. Go out with __ : A BANG
37. "The Jazz Singer" singer : AL JOLSON
40. Applicants with low credit scores, to loan officers : BAD RISKS
43. Dutch banknotes : EUROS
44. Günter Grass novel, with "The" : TIN DRUM
48. __-plié: ballet movement with knees half-bent : DEMI. Not known, but the "half-bent" makes this easy to guess.
49. Like marbled steak : FATTY. Food! I cooked a prime rib roast on New Year's Day. I dreamt about it last night. I wonder about myself sometimes.
* For extra credit, what's unique about the word "dreamt" in the language?
51. Houston pro, locally : 'STRO. Baseball's Astros. We had the long version of the name yesterday.
52. Captain who says, "For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" : AHAB. From "Moby Dick."This monomaniac was in our "Captains" puzzle a couple of Thursdays back.
53. Sharp flavor : TANG
54. Well-used crayons : NUBS
55. Creator of Perry and Della : ERLE. Crosses for me. Perry Mason, Della Street, Erle Stanley Gardner.
57. Diamond complement : NINE. I had to stare this one down before the penny dropped. Nice players on a baseball team.
58. Minute, e.g. : UNIT
59. Some NCOs : SGTS
61. __ shooter : PEA
That wraps it up for me. Time for dinner!
Steve
