We have the first 2019 puzzle from Mr. Kidd after he had 6 last year. His specialty seems to be to add letters and today is no exception. The bigram "KA" is inserted at the beginning of a word in a two-word phrase to create a new and whimsical fill. The cluing is also all fun. This week the consistency is A-B-B-A, with 11-10-10-11 letter themers. The base phrases are Friday hard to parse but once you got one, they all should fall in place. He also includes ALOOFLY. BACKRUB, MIDTERM, ONE BALL, TRAFFIC COPS, and SUPER MODELS as sparkly long fill. Getting these words in the grid is what makes gridding the trickiest part of puzzle creation, to me. Time to review the theme and the rest of the creation.
17A. Energetic jug band performer?: KAZOO ANIMAL (11). We have had a few jug band references lately, and I still do not have any great link, but here you can LEARN HOW.
29A. Skewered food cooked vertically?: PLUMB KABOB (10). We have the kebab/kabob hurdle to overcome, and you must know about the art of the PLUMB BOB.
46A. Doesn't get fixed?: STAYS KAPUT (10). A phrase no one would ever use, but I think we all know the concept from the German kaputt, perhaps via Yiddish קאַפּוט (kaput, “lost, dead”). The same word has also been borrowed by many other languages.
56A. Wile E. Coyote purchases from Acme?: KABOOM BOXES (11). My favorite for so many reasons, including our new recurring theme of Wile E. and his efforts to blow poor Roadrunner to smithereens. WATCH. I also like smithereens.
Across:
1. Building unit: ACRE. A tricky 1A, as lot size is not the first thing to come to mind.
5. "Oh yeah?": THAT SO? Missing an "IS"?
11. Pranks, in a way, for short: TPS. Toilet papers. I never understood the joy of wrapping houses in toilet paper.
15. Movie leads, often: HEROES. A vague answer that took a bit of perpage.
16. Narrow inlet: RIA. We have this very often.
19. Mtn. stat: ALT. Mountain statistic - altitude.
20. Lodge: INN.
21. With indifference: ALOOFLY. Not a word I ever use.
23. Western formation?: POSSE. A clip from THE LAST POSSE.
26. "See ya later": TATA. Did you all see this MOVIE?
28. Some distance away: AFAR.
31. Caine and Connery: SIRS. Michael and Sean.
32. __ rally: PEP. The ones I attended were not this fancy.
33. What snobs may put on: AIRS. And Birkenstocks?
34. "Up to 3,000 lights" brand: BIC. Well flic my bic!
35. Do business with: SELL TO. Buy from?
37. Mississippi source: ITASCA. Itasca is a word coined by Henry Schoolcraft as a name for Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River. Schoolcraft coined the name from a combination of the Latin words veritas ("truth") and caput ("head").
40. Seminarian's subj.: RELigion.
41. Like-minded group: BLOC. I have had this a few time this year.
42. It's worn with a kimono: OBI. What do you get when Alec Guiness loses his sash - a Wan Kenobi?
44. Himalayan priest: LAMA. The one L.
49. Off-kilter: ALOP. perhaps my least favorite "A" word.
50. Weymouth of Talking Heads: TINA. This is a bit obscure, but the letters filled themselves.
51. Oxidizes: RUSTS. In case you wondered where rust comes from, it is a reddish- or yellowish-brown flaky coating of iron oxide that is formed on iron or steel by oxidation, especially in the presence of moisture.
52. Like some elections: MIDTERM. We had some last year.
54. "This is __ chance": OUR. No, it is your chance to write whatever you want, except religion, politics or personal attacks.
55. Cooler cooler: ICE. Cute clue- sorry Tin.
62. Zero, to Man U: NIL. British...CSO to all of our over the pond contributors.
63. Online investment service: ETRADE. In 1982, William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb founded TradePlus in Palo Alto, California, with $15,000 in capital. In 1991, Porter and Newcomb founded E-Trade Securities, Inc., with several hundred thousand dollars of startup capital from TradePlus.
64. Loan default risk: REPO.
65. Remote cells: AAS. Yes, lost remotes use these.
66. One who's determined to lose: DIETER. Or those who buy Powerball tickets.
67. Server's edge: AD IN. Advantage.
Down:
1. Suggest, as a price: ASK. If you are doing business with someone.
2. Org. that voted Keith Urban 2018 Entertainer of the Year: CMA. Apparently, the result was shocking even to Australian Keith.
3. "Monsters, Inc." raspy-voiced undercover agent: ROZ. I watched the movie, but remember nothing from it.
4. "I" swelling?: EGOISM. Another cute clue.
5. Word of comparison: THAN.
6. Farm female: HEN. It is time the chicken got some props.
7. Jackie O's second: ARI.
8. Original V8 base: TOMATO. This has led to CONTROVERSY.
9. Aquanaut's workplace: SEALAB.
10. Nobel Institute city: OSLO.
11. They sometimes help relieve congestion: TRAFFIC COPS. A very nice misleading Friday clue/fill combo.
12. Vertical Parthenon component: PILLAR. Column has the same number of letters.
13. Mythical man-goats: SATYRS. In Greek mythology, a satyr, also known as a silenos, is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. But in Roman representations, they are depicted as a man with a goat's ears, tail, legs, and horns
18. Yellow pool table item: ONE BALL.
22. Caravan stopover: OASIS. A must on all your desert adventures,
23. Maximally soft, in music: PPP. This term equals pianississimo. New to me.
24. Fútbol cheers: OLES.
25. Celebs on runways: SUPERMODELS. I do not think there are any real ones any more, just media creations.
26. Poi plant: TARO.
27. Hunk's pride: ABS.
30. Build-it-yourself buy: KIT. Hey, Dennis, how are you?
34. Massage parlor service: BACKRUB. We do not mention this subject around Robert Kraft.
36. Sprang: LEAPT.
38. Talking-__: lectures: TOS.
39. Be up against: ABUT.
41. Disallow: BAN.
43. "__ a deal!": ITS.
44. Thin layer: LAMINA. Latin -a thin layer, plate, or scale of sedimentary rock, organic tissue, or other material.
45. Jodie Foster's birth name: ALICIA. Jodie Foster was born Alicia Christian Foster on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles.
46. Low clouds: STRATI. Latin - a cloud of a class characterized by a gray, horizontal layer with a uniform base, found at a lower altitude than altostratus, usually below 8000 feet.
47. Musical tone quality: TIMBRE. This is a nice word, characteristic quality of a musical sound, from French timbre "quality of a sound," earlier "sound of a bell,
48. Natural light show: AURORA.
53. Barely managed, with "out": EKED.
54. Traditional Passover barley offering: OMER. A very timely clue/fill. READ.
57. Granola kernel: OAT.
58. Keats creation: ODE.
59. Marked, as a ballot: XED.
60. Prefix with -logue: EPI. Not the center this time.
61. Male issue: SON.
Joe was all over the place with this one, but once again it is in the record books. We still do not know his story but he can make a fun puzzle. A rose by any other name. Thank you JK. Thank you all who read and write here at the corner.
Happy 74th birthday to WikWak! Hope all is well, Chuck.
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| Abejo, WikWak, Madame DeFarge & TTP 7/19/2018 |
