Paul makes a quick turn around after his Thursday last week, this time featuring humor as the primary theme. The basics- take a breed of dog and pair it with a sound-alike word that creates a funny image. Then clue them all with "Dog who loves..." With only 40 squares of theme and no reveal, we have a variety of longish fill - EPISODE, ITERANT, MANDALA, MONOPOD RAINOUT, TREATER, BREATHER and INERRANT. As we will discuss, ITERANT and INNERANT are both very much Friday words. We have some sports, some music, some food, some French, Italian and Spanish, lots of fun for me. Let's go.
17A. Dog that loves a burger topping?: ONION BEAGLE (11). The ONION BAGEL often dresses up the lox and cream cheese with onion and tomato. Spitz, am I right the word bagel comes from a German word for bracelet?
29A. Dog that loves a winter sport?: HOCKEY PUG (9). Hockey and the PUCK are our first sport of the puzzle and the basis of this punny pup. Ice hockey and its various precursor games utilized balls until the late 19th century. By the 1870s, flat pucks were made of wood as well as rubber. At first, pucks were square. The first recorded organized game of ice hockey used a wooden puck, to prevent it from leaving the rink of play. wiki.
49A. Dog that loves to play in the rain?: MUD POODLE (9). A poodle playing in a mud puddle is a pretty cool image, especially if it a white one.
65A. Dog that loves spaghetti?: PASTA COCKER (11). The use of a PASTA COOKER rather than merely boiling water may seem extreme, but a Cocker Spaniel eating spaghetti is a great image.
On to the solve.
Across:On to the solve.
1. Indian state bordering Bhutan: ASSAM.
6. Pasture sound: BLEAT. And the clecho 34A. Called from the pasture: BAAED.
11. Cheese go-with: HAM. Sorry, this was hard for me.
14. Fiji neighbor: TONGA. Geography 2.
15. Asperity: RIGOR. Fun five letter word, but I never thought of them as synonyms.
Asperity-harshness of tone or manner. Rigor-severity or strictness. Dictionary.
16. Trick taker, often: ACE. Bridge, spades, hearts, etc. and a repeat fill from yesterday.
19. Mme., in Madrid: SRA. A little Spanish, literally.
20. Blueprint: MAP. We have two so far today.
21. Loved ones: DEARS.
22. Colorless: ASHEN.
24. Repeating: ITERANT. Ah, here we are; we have all heard people reiterate and probably iterate, but the definition repeating; iterating; as an iterant echo? I love this quote from George Sand, “Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.”
26. "__ Day": chapter in the '50s "The Thin Man" TV series: ASTA. What an odd way to clue the dog, but perhaps a bonus dog fill.
28. Noel: CAROL. A little early Christmas.
36. Bearish?: URSINE. If you remember the frequent URSA major/minor, this is easy.
37. "The Facts of Life" actress Charlotte: RAE. This diminutive DIVA goes all the way back to Car 54 where are you?
40. Barbecue, say: BROIL.
42. "As if!": NOT. A popular phrase from the 80s.
43. Equanimity: APLOMB.
46. Vacant, as an apartment: UNLET. Let's undo this un-answer.
51. Green pair, often: PUTTS. Par is determined by an estimated 2 putts on every green.
55. "Do __ others ... ": UNTO.
56. Cancellation of a sort: RAINOUT. Common in baseball.
58. Bit of statuary: TORSO.
61. Undercover cops' gear: WIRES. Did you all watch the WIRE?
63. Part of un giorno: ORA. Day and Hour in Italian. Buon Giorno!
64. Brown, e.g.: IVY. Out of my league.
68. Born, in Brest: NEE. French.
69. Vast quantity: OCEAN.
70. Socially active sort: DATER. My meh of the day.
71. Triage ctrs.: ERS.
72. Limp Bizkit vocalist Fred: DURST. Then and now.
73. Black shade: EBONY. No Ivory today.
Down:
1. Very minute: ATOMIC.
2. Beethoven's "Moonlight," for one: SONATA. Clecho 44D. 27, for Beethoven's "Moonlight": OPUS.
3. Inveterate critic: SNIPER. That sounds harsh, but then I think of Gibbs.
4. Back: AGO.
5. Hindu meditation aid: MANDALA. A mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल, maṇḍala; literally "circle") is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe. In common use, "mandala" has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe. wiki.
6. Rest: BREATHER.
7. Pinocchio, at times: LIAR. And now a star of TV commercials.
8. Arachnid's hatching pouch: EGG SAC. All you need to KNOW.
9. Verizon subsidiary: AOL.
10. Generous bar buddy: TREATER. Not my favorite clue/fill.
11. Chop finely: HASH. Dictionary says to chop (food, such as meat and potatoes) into small pieces.
12. Real estate unit: ACRE.
13. Signify: MEAN.
18. Oscar winner Kingsley: BEN. 35 years ago. 1983 OSCAR.
23. Comes out with: SAYS.
25. Take badly?: ROB. A repeat but fun.
27. "Hamlet" prop: SKULL. Our very brief Will S. reference this week for Friday after yesterday's double dip.
30. Two-time N.L. batting champ Lefty: O'DOUL. Hewas so much MORE than just a very successful baseball player and manager.
31. One standing at the end of a lane: PIN. More sports, and a CSO for Boomer.
32. A, in Acapulco: UNO.
33. Acquire: GET.
35. Brothers' keeper?: ABBOT. Cute clue, as the head of the monks.
37. Zodiac critter: RAM.
38. Toon storekeeper: APU. The Simpsons, not a favorite here. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is an Indian Immigrant settled in Springfield.
39. Antiquity, in antiquity: ELD.
41. Perfectly correct: INERRANT. This has a religious meaning, basically infallible but also has a meaning from astronomy : 1650s, in reference to "fixed" stars (as opposed to "wandering" planets), from Latin inerrantem (nominative inerrans) "not wandering, fixed (of stars)," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + errans, present participle of errare "to wander, stray, roam, rove" (see err). Meaning "unerring, free from error" is from 1785.
45. One-legged camera support: MONOPOD. Tripod- three. Mono- one.
47. Netflix installment: EPISODE. They are going after the world of entertainment since streaming began working and you did not have to wait for a disc in the mail.
48. 252 wine gallons: TUN. That is about what my friend drinks annually.
50. Divining rod: DOWSER.
52. Grew fond of: TOOK TO.
53. Deep dish: TUREEN. Generally to serve soup. LINK.
54. Like a cloudless night: STARRY.
57. NRC forerunner: AEC. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Atomic Energy Commission.
58. Food sticker: TINE. Generally more than one on your fork.
59. "Your turn": OVER.
60. Bakery selections: RYES. It is so hard to find a good rye bread in the south.
62. See __ an omen: IT AS.
66. Prefix with pressure: ACU. Not to be confused with APU.
67. Hack: CAB. You wonder why? Hack short for "hackney cab," which referred to a carriage for hire drawn by a hackney, or an ordinary horse -- leading to the use of "hack" to mean "writer for hire," and the word "hackneyed," which means cliche-ridden. The use of "hacker" to refer to a computer user dates back to the mid-1970s.
Wow, that was work and fun; so much to say, so little time. Thank you, Paul our own PC constructor, and you the readers and writers. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
Happy birthday to Jaelyn's beautiful grandma Melissa, creator of Adopt an Inmate project and our faithful Wednesday Sherpa. Melissa's compassion, tenacity and and adventurous spirits continue to inspire me. She is also a deeply spiritual person, always so calm and cool. Have a beautiful day, dear Melissa!
