Husker Gary here taking over the Friday bridge for a few weeks. Daniel has a supplied a delightful challenge to you and me as he does some word EDITING on the word GENE under the rubric of GENETIC EDITING we see in his reveal:
50. Molecular manipulation technique ... and a hint to the starts of the three other longest puzzle answers : GENE EDITING - Which is shown symbolically here
Since our mission here is in the linguistic and not biological sciences let's confine our discourse to the former and not the latter. Daniel has taken the word GENE and has edited that word by replacing the fourth, second and third letters respectively and using that product as the first word in three fun theme entries. Very cool!
Let's start by looking at Daniel's three themers:
21. Counseling for boomers' kids? : GENX THERAPY (the E is edited to an X) -
A Medical Procedure and GEN X Prototypes who are getting some Breakfast Club therapy |
26. Sign on a film studio employee's door? : GONE SPLICING (The E is edited to an O)
A Medical Procedure and a Film Editor's Job |
43. Altered clone of actor Richard? : GERE MUTATION (The N is edited to an R)
A Medical Procedure and RICHARD GERE altered and not really mutated 😜 |
Now let's see how Daniel tested our genetic makeup today:
1. Free : LET GO - Verb not adjective
6. Crusty formation : SCAB
10. One in a farm array : BALE - Round BALES have mostly supplanted old, labor intensive rectangular ones
14. Truism : AXIOM - The whole is greater than the part - Euclid
15. Kappa preceder : IOTA
16. Entry : ITEM - My lovely OCD bride checks every ITEM on every receipt when we get home!
17. Saint toppers : NIMBI - No idea for this verbal cowboy and since I chose the Y for 5. "Yikes!" : O MI GOSH (which yields NIMOY? across), I'll take one bad cell and go to my room.
18. Equine footwork : GAIT
19. Glitz : GLAM - GLAM rock was not a big part of my world
20. Renewed one's energy, in a way : ATE
24. Santa __: Sonoma County seat : ROSA - So much was destroyed in the recent fires
25. Complimentary writers : ODISTS
31. Words of desire : I WISH
32. Room at the hacienda : SALA
33. Fast hit : JAB - Derek Jeter wants no part of a JAB from "The Greatest"
36. Gave for a while : LENT
37. Some rank indicators : BELTS - Judo BELTS
39. Corona product : BEER
40. Disturbance : ADO
41. "Write once, run anywhere" software : JAVA - Cross platform for sure.
42. One with many mouths to feed? : HYDRA
46. French gambling game : ECARTE - Ce jeu est nouveau pour moi (This game is new to me)
49. Zero : NONE - Describes my previous knowledge of ECARTE after I saw the answer was not baccarat
53. Sudden turn : ZAG
56. Advantage : EDGE
57. Bunches : A LOT
58. Immune system component : T CELL - An important topic in HIV discussion
60. Food preservative : SALT - The Lincoln, NE minor league team is named for this valuable resource found there 150 years ago
61. Cithara relative : LYRE - The oldest cithara shown here was not big in GLAM rock.
62. Clear, in a way : ERASE
63. "__ bien!" : TRES - My granddaughter's description so far of her semester in Grenoble, France
64. Word appearing twice in a Woody Guthrie title : LAND - This LAND is your LAND
65. Synthetic polymer : NYLON
Down
1. Turner of "The Bad and the Beautiful" : LANA - She plays a woman who is victimized by a studio head played by Kirk Douglas. Nah, that could never happen!
2. It's a turnoff : EXIT - If you miss EXIT 193 on the Florida Turnpike, the next one is 48 miles away
3. What's up at the deadline? : TIME - I can't tell you how many kids have their project done the day AFTER the deadline
4. Mushy lump : GOB
6. Traffic or turn follower : SIGNAL - "Is my turn SIGNAL working?" "Yes, no, yes, no..."
7. Influence with flattery : COAX - More carrot and less stick
8. Studying like crazy, say : AT IT
9. Tub soothers : BATH OILS
10. Interstate rumbler : BIG RIG - Two BIG RIGS hauling a, uh, BIG RIG
11. Condemned Titan : ATLAS - He was condemned to hold the Earth (Gaia) on his shoulders
12. Jumped : LEAPT
13. "Game of Thrones" accumulation : EMMYS - I'm the guy who has never watched it
22. Zener cards presumably tested for it : ESP - He never had a chance did he?
23. "Show Boat" author Ferber : EDNA
24. Take a load off : REST
26. __ monster : GILA
27. Was required to pay : OWED - To whom is the money shown here OWED?
28. Yucatán youngster : NINO - Who is this kid and why is he messing with our weather?
29. Sunni's religion : ISLAM
30. Indoor __ : CAT - Our Lily is clearly one and it appears she brought M & M's to the manger
34. NASA prefix : AERO - My golf pro's daughter is on the left and is a member of the UNL AEROspace Engineering team that is building a retractable arm to be used on a future NASA vehicle at Langley.
35. Muffin option : BRAN
37. Left nothing out : BARED ALL
38. Big event lead-in : EVE - All Hallows' EVE just passed
39. Data measure : BYTE
41. Ballet jump : JETE - A dramatic view of one
42. Do a surfing maneuver : HANG TEN - Toes overboard!
43. Shakes hands with, say : GREETS
44. Bonded : UNITED
45. Weigh station unit : TON
46. Get rid of : EGEST - I get Amazon videos but this is not making my playlist
53. Gusto : ZEAL - A little too much being shown in the EGEST movie above
47. Wood for grilling planks : CEDAR
48. What "x" may be in trigonometry : ANGLE
51. Former NHL winger Kovalchuk : ILYA - Я не имел понятия об этом парень! (I had no clue about this guy!)
52. Uncertain : TORN
54. "Just one more thing ... " : ALSO
55. Narrow valley : GLEN - Oh Danny Boy, The pipes, the pipes are calling. From GLEN to GLEN and down the mountainside
59. Sound of woe : CRY
DA GRID:
It's time to SPLICE your responses to this exposition: