Theme: Piscine Puzzle - The theme answers conceal a type of fish, as hinted at by the reveal:
68A. Kids' card game ... and a directive pertaining to the four longest puzzle answers: GO FISH!
20A. Drawer in the court: SKETCH ARTIST
28A. "You overreact when you're hungry" candy bar: SNICKERS ALMOND. I was going to grumble about this, as the campaign is usually known as "You're not you when you're hungry", but BBDO made a slight change for the Snickers Almond ads as I discovered on YouTube.
45A. It may contain curls and crunches: WORKOUT ROUTINE
52A. Clinic technician: LAB ASSISTANT
Straighforward enough theme here - go and look for the fish in the theme entries when you reach the reveal, which was the very last across entry, which I like - it keeps you guessing. All the fish span the two-word entries, which is nice, and three of the four theme entries have not appeared in any of the major puzzles according to the ever-helpful Cruciverb database. IRIS SCAN is new too, so some freshness in the puzzle which is always nice to see.
Again, I think we have a debutant in the LAT today, according to our blog records anyway, this is Julian's first, so congratulations! If it's the same chap, he competed as a rookie in the 42nd Annual American Crossword Puzzle tournament just a few weeks back.
Let's go ahead see what else pops out:
Across:
1. Sizzling Tex-Mex meat: FAJITA. Food! Usually skirt steak, chicken or shrimp. There are veggie options too.
7. Polling results: Abbr.: PCTS. Percentages.
11. Adams of "Vice": AMY
14. Boy whose wings melted in the sun: ICARUS
15. Four-star review: RAVE
16. Forest female: DOE
17. Gently used: NEWISH. Something could be newish, but trashed, I wouldn't all that "gentle" usage.
18. Salinger title teen: ESMÉ. The short story was "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor"
19. "Let's get out of here!": RUN
23. Isn't feeling 100%: AILS
26. Grafton's "__ for Alibi": A IS. You might as well print this one with the grid.
27. Ship stabilizer: KEEL
33. Brand of suit Bania gave Jerry in a memorable "Seinfeld" episode: ARMANI
34. Lamb's alias: ELIA
35. Indiana state flowers: PEONIES
37. Cast a spell on: ENCHANT
42. Banking biggie: CITI
44. Acrobatic dive: GAINER. I had to look this one up, I've never heard of it. It's a backwards somersault.
49. Nice dad?: PÉRE. The old Mediterranean resort misdirection. French city, French father.
50. MADD ad, e.g.: PSA
51. Holly genus: ILEX. Dug deep for this one, but dug it I did.
57. Singer DiFranco: ANI
58. Opera set in Egypt: AIDA
59. Ex-Met pitcher known as "Dr. K": GOODEN. With 2,293 Major League career strikeouts, you can see where the nickname comes from.
63. __ profit: NET
64. Pitch indicator: CLEF. These things. I only learned about the alto clef relatively recently. The piano and guitar music that I've seen use only the bass and treble clefs.
65. One way to travel: ON FOOT
66. Carpentry tool: ADZ
67. __ loser: SORE
Down:
1. Shark tip-off: FIN. Cue John William's iconic "Jaws" music!
2. Bandage brand: ACE
3. Boxer's target: JAW
4. Biometric identification technique: IRIS SCAN
5. Narwhal feature: TUSK
6. Queens tennis stadium: ASHE. Not convinced about this clue. It's "Arthur Ashe Stadium", I've never heard it called anything else. Take the Cincinnati Bengals - they play at Paul Brown Stadium, no one calls it "Brown".
7. Sharply defined: PRECISE
8. Transaction without financing: CASH SALE
9. "South Park" rating: TV-MA
10. Magic 8 Ball, some hope: SEER
11. Brody of "The Pianist": ADRIEN
12. Revealed the function of, with "over": MOUSED. Only if you've got a tool tip pop-up. You can mouse over the other stuff all day and it's not going to help you figure out what that particular control does.
13. Streisand title role: YENTL
21. La Brea __ Pits: TAR
22. Ref's ruling: TKO. Boxing's Technical Knock Out. The fighter cannot continue, according to the referee.
23. Quickly, quickly: ASAP
24. Memo lead-in: IN RE - "In the matter of" or "Regarding". I first came across this when I was reading a volume of collected letters from and to the great Hunter S. Thompson. There was some lively reading in there, as you can imagine.
25. Wheels for a celeb: LIMO
29. New York cager: KNICK. In the early days of professional basketball, the court was enclosed by a cage, and therefore never went out-of-bounds, hence "cager".
30. Farm follower?: E-I-E-I-O. "... and on that farm he had some ducks ...."
31. Jargon: LINGO
32. Former Portuguese colony in China: MACAU. A big gambling destination. Most of the famous Las Vegas casino brands have properties here, including Sands, The Rio, The Venetian and the Wynn. The finale of the recent season of Top Chef was filmed in Macau.
36. More senseless: STUPIDER
38. Had a great first date: HIT IT OFF
39. Deep blue dye: ANIL
40. Aloha State bird: NENE
41. "Jurassic World" predator, for short: T. REX
43. "The coast is clear": IT'S SAFE
45. Withdrew gradually: WEANED
46. Kayak alternative: ORBITZ. Orbitz is owned by Expedia, as are Travelocity, Trivago, Hotels.com, Hotwire and others. Kayak seems to be the only one to escape their clutches so far!
47. Actor Stephen who is a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador: REA
48. Traitor: RAT
49. Course before contingencies: PLAN A. Then comes Plan B.
53. Anatomical pouches: SACS
54. Storage cylinder: SILO
55. Excited: AGOG
56. Words said with a finger wag: NO NO. Dikembe Mutombo was famous for his "no no" finger wag when he blocked a shot:
60. "__ know you?": DO I
61. Canon SLR: EOS. Depending on the model, these can run you around $3,000, and that's just for the body.
62. Unspecified degree: NTH
And with that, my cruciverbalist chums, here's the grid:
Steve
68A. Kids' card game ... and a directive pertaining to the four longest puzzle answers: GO FISH!
20A. Drawer in the court: SKETCH ARTIST
28A. "You overreact when you're hungry" candy bar: SNICKERS ALMOND. I was going to grumble about this, as the campaign is usually known as "You're not you when you're hungry", but BBDO made a slight change for the Snickers Almond ads as I discovered on YouTube.
45A. It may contain curls and crunches: WORKOUT ROUTINE
52A. Clinic technician: LAB ASSISTANT
Straighforward enough theme here - go and look for the fish in the theme entries when you reach the reveal, which was the very last across entry, which I like - it keeps you guessing. All the fish span the two-word entries, which is nice, and three of the four theme entries have not appeared in any of the major puzzles according to the ever-helpful Cruciverb database. IRIS SCAN is new too, so some freshness in the puzzle which is always nice to see.
Again, I think we have a debutant in the LAT today, according to our blog records anyway, this is Julian's first, so congratulations! If it's the same chap, he competed as a rookie in the 42nd Annual American Crossword Puzzle tournament just a few weeks back.
Let's go ahead see what else pops out:
Across:
1. Sizzling Tex-Mex meat: FAJITA. Food! Usually skirt steak, chicken or shrimp. There are veggie options too.
7. Polling results: Abbr.: PCTS. Percentages.
11. Adams of "Vice": AMY
14. Boy whose wings melted in the sun: ICARUS
15. Four-star review: RAVE
16. Forest female: DOE
17. Gently used: NEWISH. Something could be newish, but trashed, I wouldn't all that "gentle" usage.
18. Salinger title teen: ESMÉ. The short story was "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor"
19. "Let's get out of here!": RUN
23. Isn't feeling 100%: AILS
26. Grafton's "__ for Alibi": A IS. You might as well print this one with the grid.
27. Ship stabilizer: KEEL
33. Brand of suit Bania gave Jerry in a memorable "Seinfeld" episode: ARMANI
34. Lamb's alias: ELIA
35. Indiana state flowers: PEONIES
37. Cast a spell on: ENCHANT
42. Banking biggie: CITI
44. Acrobatic dive: GAINER. I had to look this one up, I've never heard of it. It's a backwards somersault.
49. Nice dad?: PÉRE. The old Mediterranean resort misdirection. French city, French father.
50. MADD ad, e.g.: PSA
51. Holly genus: ILEX. Dug deep for this one, but dug it I did.
57. Singer DiFranco: ANI
58. Opera set in Egypt: AIDA
59. Ex-Met pitcher known as "Dr. K": GOODEN. With 2,293 Major League career strikeouts, you can see where the nickname comes from.
63. __ profit: NET
64. Pitch indicator: CLEF. These things. I only learned about the alto clef relatively recently. The piano and guitar music that I've seen use only the bass and treble clefs.
65. One way to travel: ON FOOT
66. Carpentry tool: ADZ
67. __ loser: SORE
Down:
1. Shark tip-off: FIN. Cue John William's iconic "Jaws" music!
2. Bandage brand: ACE
3. Boxer's target: JAW
4. Biometric identification technique: IRIS SCAN
5. Narwhal feature: TUSK
6. Queens tennis stadium: ASHE. Not convinced about this clue. It's "Arthur Ashe Stadium", I've never heard it called anything else. Take the Cincinnati Bengals - they play at Paul Brown Stadium, no one calls it "Brown".
7. Sharply defined: PRECISE
8. Transaction without financing: CASH SALE
9. "South Park" rating: TV-MA
10. Magic 8 Ball, some hope: SEER
11. Brody of "The Pianist": ADRIEN
12. Revealed the function of, with "over": MOUSED. Only if you've got a tool tip pop-up. You can mouse over the other stuff all day and it's not going to help you figure out what that particular control does.
13. Streisand title role: YENTL
21. La Brea __ Pits: TAR
22. Ref's ruling: TKO. Boxing's Technical Knock Out. The fighter cannot continue, according to the referee.
23. Quickly, quickly: ASAP
24. Memo lead-in: IN RE - "In the matter of" or "Regarding". I first came across this when I was reading a volume of collected letters from and to the great Hunter S. Thompson. There was some lively reading in there, as you can imagine.
25. Wheels for a celeb: LIMO
29. New York cager: KNICK. In the early days of professional basketball, the court was enclosed by a cage, and therefore never went out-of-bounds, hence "cager".
30. Farm follower?: E-I-E-I-O. "... and on that farm he had some ducks ...."
31. Jargon: LINGO
32. Former Portuguese colony in China: MACAU. A big gambling destination. Most of the famous Las Vegas casino brands have properties here, including Sands, The Rio, The Venetian and the Wynn. The finale of the recent season of Top Chef was filmed in Macau.
36. More senseless: STUPIDER
38. Had a great first date: HIT IT OFF
39. Deep blue dye: ANIL
40. Aloha State bird: NENE
41. "Jurassic World" predator, for short: T. REX
43. "The coast is clear": IT'S SAFE
45. Withdrew gradually: WEANED
46. Kayak alternative: ORBITZ. Orbitz is owned by Expedia, as are Travelocity, Trivago, Hotels.com, Hotwire and others. Kayak seems to be the only one to escape their clutches so far!
47. Actor Stephen who is a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador: REA
48. Traitor: RAT
49. Course before contingencies: PLAN A. Then comes Plan B.
53. Anatomical pouches: SACS
54. Storage cylinder: SILO
55. Excited: AGOG
56. Words said with a finger wag: NO NO. Dikembe Mutombo was famous for his "no no" finger wag when he blocked a shot:
60. "__ know you?": DO I
61. Canon SLR: EOS. Depending on the model, these can run you around $3,000, and that's just for the body.
62. Unspecified degree: NTH
And with that, my cruciverbalist chums, here's the grid:
Steve
