Theme: Hipster Talk: The first word of each theme entries is a slangy form of "nice" as suggested by the clues:
21A. "Dude, nice triatomic molecule!": FRESH WATER. Three atoms, two hydrogen and one oxygen.
23A. "Dude, nice metered text!": EPIC POEM. Those Homeric staples the Iliad and the Odyssey are not strangers to the crossword.
34A. "Dude, nice root vegetable!": SWEET POTATO
49A. "Dude, nice riding crop!": COOL WHIP. The odd man out in the theme entries. The others are what I would call self-referential - the phrase as a whole is a variant of the second word. In this one "whip" and "Cool Whip" are completely different things.
51A. "Dude, nice buzzer collection!": KILLER BEES
Inventive theme from Andrew today. I'd not heard of "fresh" in the slang usage before, but it didn't slow me down much. There did seem to be a lot of three-letter fill, especially around the middle section, but nothing too irritating.
I did think the COOL WHIP entry was a little out of left field, and rather pointed up that the rest of the entries were just modifiers of the second word. Not a cardinal sin, but - gave me a little of a "meh" moment. Also "buzzer" for "bee" seemed a little contrived. Anyway ....
... let's take the tour.
Across:
1. Color in a darkroom: SEPIA. Sepia toning is still used to give black & white photographs a warmer quality, and to improve their life. The technique was common in 18th-century portrait photography. Check out this English couple from 1885:
6. "May I say something?": AHEM?
10. Flat for an artist: LOFT.
14. Lake named for a tribe: HURON
15. Folk hero Crockett: DAVY
16. Song for one: ARIA. Resisted the temptation to plonk SOLO in here until I had some confirmation from the crosses.
17. Olympics infrastructure project: ARENA. Sadly, quite often never to be used again. There is very rarely any long-term economic benefit to be gained from building Olympic facilities. Los Angeles, hosting the Olympics in 2028, is not building any new permanent facilities for the games.
18. One not found on a violin: FRET. I don't know how violinists do it. I tried to play a fret-less electric bass guitar once and I was lost.
19. Communist icon: MARX. Karl, buried in Highgate Cemetery in North London.
20. Former U.N. leader Annan: KOFI. I can never remember this fellow, I always wait for the crosses.
25. Free bakery treat?: AROMA. Nice clue.
26. Letters after T?: REX. I resisted the "UVW" run.
27. Get a lode of this: ORE
28. Muddy home: STY
30. Scabbers, in the Potterverse: RAT. I don't know the Harry Potter canon too well, but the crosses were solid. There's another Potter reference later on.
31. Nonprofit URL ending: ORG
32. Like: À LA
33. Producer of cones and needles: PINE
37. Oompa-Loompa creator: DAHL. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author Roald.
39. Tear: RIP
40. Conan's network: TBS
41. Novelist Umberto: ECO. I remember reading "Foucault's Pendulum" when I was on vacation in Greece a number of years ago. I clearly remember where I was while I was reading it and thoroughly enjoying it. Now I can remember absolutely zero about the book itself. Ripe for a re-read.
42. Cyclops organ: EYE
43. Animal that sounds like a musical note: DOE. Not re? Doh!
44. Sports bar fixtures: TV'S Remember when they were not flat-screen and had to sit on steel-braced shelves or mounts to support the weight?
47. Open, as oysters: SHUCK. I used to host an oysters and Guinness party on the last Sunday before Christmas back in my London days. We went through a ton of oysters, I got to be a pretty good shucker. I provided the oysters and the kegs of Guinness, the guests brought Champagne. Happy Sundays!
54. Aid in battling blazes: HOSE
55. Yoda trainee: JEDI
56. Many millennia: EONS
57. "Sesame Street" woman for 44 years: MARIA. She was bilingual. The actress who played her, Sonia Manzano, felt the human characters on the show were getting less and less of the script action, so she moved on in 2015.
58. Broiling spot: OVEN
59. Crumb carriers: ANTS
60. Yoga pose similar to a push-up: PLANK. I try to plank most days, it's good for the central core. My record time for planking is the entire song "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart, which runs 6:21 on YouTube. One of my favorite songs from the '70s.
61. "Sesame Street" Muppet: BERT. Second character of the day from the show.
62. Mexican coin: PESO. Maria knows this.
63. Bad spells: HEXES
Down:
1. Salt dispenser: SHAKER. I don't use shakers, I use bamboo wood pots, easier to get at. I have one each for kosher and finishing salt.
2. Where Andorra is: EUROPE. Between France and Spain in the Pyrenees. It's a beautiful part of the world. Pretty cracking food too, sitting between France and the Basque Country.
3. In or out, at times: PREFIX. Challenging clue. For example, in-swinger or out-swinger in baseball.
4. Jefferson Memorial column type: IONIC. Here's a few of the columns:
5. Gasteyer of "Lady Dynamite": ANA. No clue, thank you crosses. This show passed me by.
6. Like some subscription-based sites: AD-FREE
7. Word from Arabic for "sacred, inviolable place": HAREM
8. Party times, often: EVES
9. Bit of folklore: MYTH
10. 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Kendrick: LAMAR. The Compton-based rapper won for his album "Damn".
11. "Messiah," e.g.: ORATORIO
12. Relief pitcher, in baseball lingo: FIREMAN. I hadn't heard this term before, it made me smile. I can't hear Metallica's "Enter Sandman" without seeing Mariano Rivero heading to the mound. The band played the song live for him at Yankee Stadium when the Yankees retired Rivero's number 42.
13. IRS table column: TAX RATE.
21. Fake: FORGERY
22. Method: WAY
24. Opening on a sweater?: PORE. Nice clue. There were a couple of humid days in Jamaica last week where my pores were definitely open!
28. __-mo replay: SLO
29. Parlor pictures: TATTOOS. Took me a while, I was thinking about family portrait photographs in the parlor (or parlour).
31. Hermes, in the Potterverse: OWL. Had the W, so didn't hesitate here.
32. Handy program: APP
33. NBA stats: PTS. Points, simple enough.
34. Place to pull over: SHOULDER
35. Rare NFL result: TIE. Donovan McNabb, then the Eagles quarterback, famously didn't know that an NFL regular season game could end in a tie when he played in a 13-13 tie with the Bengals back in 2008. "I've never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book,"
36. Genesis casualty: ABEL
37. Office position: DESK JOB
38. Accomplish: ACHIEVE
42. __ out a living: EKE
43. Playground retort: DOES SO. Some of these are tricky to parse. I saw "DO ESSO" first.
44. Insect midsection: THORAX
45. Redness-removing brand: VISINE. I use it sparingly, my optician tells me it's not good for your eyes. It's a lot cheaper than the brand she wants me to use though.
46. Appeals (to): SPEAKS
48. Director Eastwood: CLINT
49. They're beside the point: CENTS. Another nice clue. $9.99
50. Pod member: WHALE
52. Bring in: REAP
53. Study, with "up": BONE
57. Indy 500 stat: MPH
And with that, it just remains for me to post the grid and then skedaddle.
Steve
21A. "Dude, nice triatomic molecule!": FRESH WATER. Three atoms, two hydrogen and one oxygen.
23A. "Dude, nice metered text!": EPIC POEM. Those Homeric staples the Iliad and the Odyssey are not strangers to the crossword.
34A. "Dude, nice root vegetable!": SWEET POTATO
49A. "Dude, nice riding crop!": COOL WHIP. The odd man out in the theme entries. The others are what I would call self-referential - the phrase as a whole is a variant of the second word. In this one "whip" and "Cool Whip" are completely different things.
51A. "Dude, nice buzzer collection!": KILLER BEES
Inventive theme from Andrew today. I'd not heard of "fresh" in the slang usage before, but it didn't slow me down much. There did seem to be a lot of three-letter fill, especially around the middle section, but nothing too irritating.
I did think the COOL WHIP entry was a little out of left field, and rather pointed up that the rest of the entries were just modifiers of the second word. Not a cardinal sin, but - gave me a little of a "meh" moment. Also "buzzer" for "bee" seemed a little contrived. Anyway ....
... let's take the tour.
Across:
1. Color in a darkroom: SEPIA. Sepia toning is still used to give black & white photographs a warmer quality, and to improve their life. The technique was common in 18th-century portrait photography. Check out this English couple from 1885:
6. "May I say something?": AHEM?
10. Flat for an artist: LOFT.
14. Lake named for a tribe: HURON
15. Folk hero Crockett: DAVY
16. Song for one: ARIA. Resisted the temptation to plonk SOLO in here until I had some confirmation from the crosses.
17. Olympics infrastructure project: ARENA. Sadly, quite often never to be used again. There is very rarely any long-term economic benefit to be gained from building Olympic facilities. Los Angeles, hosting the Olympics in 2028, is not building any new permanent facilities for the games.
18. One not found on a violin: FRET. I don't know how violinists do it. I tried to play a fret-less electric bass guitar once and I was lost.
19. Communist icon: MARX. Karl, buried in Highgate Cemetery in North London.
20. Former U.N. leader Annan: KOFI. I can never remember this fellow, I always wait for the crosses.
25. Free bakery treat?: AROMA. Nice clue.
26. Letters after T?: REX. I resisted the "UVW" run.
27. Get a lode of this: ORE
28. Muddy home: STY
30. Scabbers, in the Potterverse: RAT. I don't know the Harry Potter canon too well, but the crosses were solid. There's another Potter reference later on.
31. Nonprofit URL ending: ORG
32. Like: À LA
33. Producer of cones and needles: PINE
37. Oompa-Loompa creator: DAHL. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author Roald.
39. Tear: RIP
40. Conan's network: TBS
41. Novelist Umberto: ECO. I remember reading "Foucault's Pendulum" when I was on vacation in Greece a number of years ago. I clearly remember where I was while I was reading it and thoroughly enjoying it. Now I can remember absolutely zero about the book itself. Ripe for a re-read.
42. Cyclops organ: EYE
43. Animal that sounds like a musical note: DOE. Not re? Doh!
44. Sports bar fixtures: TV'S Remember when they were not flat-screen and had to sit on steel-braced shelves or mounts to support the weight?
47. Open, as oysters: SHUCK. I used to host an oysters and Guinness party on the last Sunday before Christmas back in my London days. We went through a ton of oysters, I got to be a pretty good shucker. I provided the oysters and the kegs of Guinness, the guests brought Champagne. Happy Sundays!
54. Aid in battling blazes: HOSE
55. Yoda trainee: JEDI
56. Many millennia: EONS
57. "Sesame Street" woman for 44 years: MARIA. She was bilingual. The actress who played her, Sonia Manzano, felt the human characters on the show were getting less and less of the script action, so she moved on in 2015.
58. Broiling spot: OVEN
59. Crumb carriers: ANTS
60. Yoga pose similar to a push-up: PLANK. I try to plank most days, it's good for the central core. My record time for planking is the entire song "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart, which runs 6:21 on YouTube. One of my favorite songs from the '70s.
61. "Sesame Street" Muppet: BERT. Second character of the day from the show.
62. Mexican coin: PESO. Maria knows this.
63. Bad spells: HEXES
Down:
1. Salt dispenser: SHAKER. I don't use shakers, I use bamboo wood pots, easier to get at. I have one each for kosher and finishing salt.
2. Where Andorra is: EUROPE. Between France and Spain in the Pyrenees. It's a beautiful part of the world. Pretty cracking food too, sitting between France and the Basque Country.
3. In or out, at times: PREFIX. Challenging clue. For example, in-swinger or out-swinger in baseball.
4. Jefferson Memorial column type: IONIC. Here's a few of the columns:
5. Gasteyer of "Lady Dynamite": ANA. No clue, thank you crosses. This show passed me by.
6. Like some subscription-based sites: AD-FREE
7. Word from Arabic for "sacred, inviolable place": HAREM
8. Party times, often: EVES
9. Bit of folklore: MYTH
10. 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Kendrick: LAMAR. The Compton-based rapper won for his album "Damn".
11. "Messiah," e.g.: ORATORIO
12. Relief pitcher, in baseball lingo: FIREMAN. I hadn't heard this term before, it made me smile. I can't hear Metallica's "Enter Sandman" without seeing Mariano Rivero heading to the mound. The band played the song live for him at Yankee Stadium when the Yankees retired Rivero's number 42.
13. IRS table column: TAX RATE.
21. Fake: FORGERY
22. Method: WAY
24. Opening on a sweater?: PORE. Nice clue. There were a couple of humid days in Jamaica last week where my pores were definitely open!
28. __-mo replay: SLO
29. Parlor pictures: TATTOOS. Took me a while, I was thinking about family portrait photographs in the parlor (or parlour).
31. Hermes, in the Potterverse: OWL. Had the W, so didn't hesitate here.
32. Handy program: APP
33. NBA stats: PTS. Points, simple enough.
34. Place to pull over: SHOULDER
35. Rare NFL result: TIE. Donovan McNabb, then the Eagles quarterback, famously didn't know that an NFL regular season game could end in a tie when he played in a 13-13 tie with the Bengals back in 2008. "I've never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book,"
36. Genesis casualty: ABEL
37. Office position: DESK JOB
38. Accomplish: ACHIEVE
42. __ out a living: EKE
43. Playground retort: DOES SO. Some of these are tricky to parse. I saw "DO ESSO" first.
44. Insect midsection: THORAX
45. Redness-removing brand: VISINE. I use it sparingly, my optician tells me it's not good for your eyes. It's a lot cheaper than the brand she wants me to use though.
46. Appeals (to): SPEAKS
48. Director Eastwood: CLINT
49. They're beside the point: CENTS. Another nice clue. $9.99
50. Pod member: WHALE
52. Bring in: REAP
53. Study, with "up": BONE
57. Indy 500 stat: MPH
And with that, it just remains for me to post the grid and then skedaddle.
Steve
