Title: Where did he hide my LEGO?
You have to go back more than 9 years to see the first puzzle by this team reviewed here at the CORNER. Then you have to travel 9,811 miles to watch me prepare this write-up from Thung Saliam, Sukhothai Province, Thailand. I am no world traveler like Steve, but we are here as Oo's son honors her by being ordained a monk for 7 days.
Back to the write-up; I remarked in their offering back in 2009 about coincidence in puzzles, and here we are again. Just after commented on Mark McClain's use of the black space in his Sunday effort, this team goes one better and has the black space represent the word BLOCK, which is of course is what a black space is. Wonderful. And for the icing on the cake the symmetry of the break 9/5 to 5/9 3/11 to 11/3 extraordinary.
We also find ALL HOURS REHEATED AIR LEAK APPENDS ATONING EAT AWAY and PARIAHS as long fill to thrill
17A. Impediment: STUMBLING (9) (BLOCK) and 19A. Neighborhood gathering: (BLOCK) PARTY.(5). Once a again, a grid -spanning set.
25A. Beach application: SUN (3) (BLOCK) and 28A. Billion-dollar pharmaceuticals: (BLOCK) BUSTER DRUGS.(11). This slowed me down as I did not know this PHRASE.
61A. Local anesthesia effect: NERVE.(5) (BLOCK) and 62A . Device with pulleys: (BLOCK) AND TACKLE (9).
The reveal:
67A. Word aptly represented by four black squares in this puzzle: BLOCK.
1. Bad cut: GASH. A gruesone way to begin.
5. And: ALSO.
9. __ Ababa: ADDIS. This is a regular fill on Friday.
14. Natural skin soother: ALOE.
15. Good earth: LOAM. There is a Department of Agriculture official definition on recotd.
16. Datum in a forensic database: PRINT. Fingerprint. NCIS is not the same especially with Abby gone.
20. Outcasts: PARIAHS.
21. Boiling point?: KETTLE. My favorite cute clue because it is the lo action of the boling.
22. "No seats" sign: SRO. Standing Room Only.
23. Score after deuce: AD IN. A tenns term appears after the Andre Agassi comments yesterday.
34. More than suspect: KNOW.
36. Early 20th-century touring cars: REOS. Ransom E. Olds liked naming things after himself.
37. Part of a joke: SETUP.
38. Lingering effect: ECHO. Another cute clue/fill.
39. Not as dotty: SANER. Does anyone use the term "dotty" anymore?
41. Colorado tributary: GILA.
42. Massey of old films: ILONA. She was a star. LINK.
44. Thoroughbred's dad: SIRE.
45. "Git!": SCAT.
50. Pushed the doorbell: RANG.
51. Night school subj.: ESL. Oo going to learn English cemented our relationship.
53. Scandinavian bar exchange: SKOALS. L' Chaim, A votre sante! Slainte!
57. Corrode: EAT AWAY.
64. Words in some English resort town names: ON SEA.
65. Major fit: RAGE. Rageaholics are all too common.
66. First name in homespun humor: ERMA.
68. Watched carefully: EYED.
69. Exchange jabs: SPAR. Boxing or
Down:
1. [You can't mean that!]: GASP.
2. Wasatch Mountains resort: ALTA. This is the LINK. I am much more familiar with Park City.
3. __ grapes: SOUR. Aesop anyone?
4. Some Chrysler engines: HEMIS.
5. Around-the-clock: ALL HOURS.
6. Half a Daily Planet byline: LOIS. Lane of Superman fame.
7. __ Antonio: SAN.
8. Texting interjection: OMG.
9. Tacks on: APPENDS.
10. "Phooey!": DRAT.
11. __-cheap: DIRT.
12. Like some JFK flights: INTL. 15 hours and 32 minutes later we landed in GUANGZHOU! Guangzhou is a sprawling port city northwest of Hong Kong on the Pearl River. The city features avant-garde architecture such as Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House (known as the “double pebble”); the carved box-shaped Guangdong Museum; and the iconic Canton TV Tower skyscraper, resembling a thin hourglass
13. Lid issue: STYE. This ailment appears also very often.
18. Verbal jab: BARB. See 69A.
21. Cassis apéritif: KIR. LINK.
23. Penitent: ATONING. Many ways to do this.
24. Mirage site: DESERT. Where it is -site, not what it is -sight.
25. Knitter's coil: SKEIN.
26. Family reunion attendee: UNCLE.
27. At all: NO HOW.
29. A pass may cover one: SEASON. Tickets for the Opera?
30. Brief rules?: REGS.
31. City in New York's Mohawk Valley: UTICA.
32. Stalin-era prison: GULAG. Not to be confued with the German Stalag.
33. Dramatic outpouring: SPATE.
35. Policy __: WONK. An unknown for me but in terms dictionary as a person who takes an excessive interest in political policy.
40. Readied, as leftovers: REHEATED.
43. Puncture consequence: AIR LEAK. I guess, but it sounds forced.
47. Court figures, for short: DAS.
48. Ensenada pronoun: ESTA. A Spanish word.
52. Velcro alternative: LACES. Pretty funny that laces are not the alterntive.
53. Nose-in-the-air sort: SNOB.
54. __ Ration: KEN-L.
55. Guesstimate phrase: OR SO.
56. With, on le menu: AVEC. Our French word of the day.
57. Do landscaping work: EDGE.
58. Dr. Johnny Fever's fictional station: WKRP. In Cincinnati...
59. Soprano Gluck: ALMA. Our only musical interlude and I cannot get YouTube to load. There is a beautiful video of Alma and her husband, violinist Efrem Zimbalist, singing to their child Efrem Zimbalist Jr., who would become famous in his own right from TV shows 77 Sunset Strip and FBI and as the father of Stephanie who was Remington Steele.
60. Sommelier's concern: YEAR. The vintage of the wine.
62. "__ you out of your mind?": ARE.
63. "All opposed" reply: NAY. And the votes are in and i loved this puzzle.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of another creative puzzle. Welcome back Bonnie and Victor and Sawa dee ko from Thailand. Lemonade out.
