Bruce offers us a 15 x 16 puzzle where the theme is the grid which contains 72 words and uses only 9 letters in the alphabet!!!!!!!!!
We do have a reveal- 64A. Country spelled with the only nine letters used in this puzzle's answers: SINGAPORE (9). Gimmick puzzles can be a lot of fun but seldom have such perfect reveal. I was very impressed by the skill required to bring this home while maintaining the left/right symmetry. The only cheater squares are the three on each side of SINGAPORE. The puzzle allowed for such sparkly fill as APENNINES, APPEASING, ENGAGES IN, PING PONGS, ASIAN PEARS, and REGRESSION. No doubt some of the fill was a bit obscure, but the final result was all doable once you understood you did not need any alphabet runs. We have some music, some tv, some food.... well it is time to work.
Across:
1. Getaway spots: SPAS. This was a good start for me.
5. Prefix with phobia: AGORA. Initially, I had left this blank, but when I had filled ARGO and ANGORA, I came back put AGORA in. I did not quite get the theme at that point, but it made sense.
10. 2012 Best Picture: ARGO. Ben Affleck.
15. Place to start an IV: PREOP. Do you think it needs a hyphen? Pre-op. Nicely misleading clue because I was trying to decide where they were sticking me.
16. Accessories: GEAR.
17. Yeats' birthplace: ERIN. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS appeared in a comment this week. Not only a well-respected poet, but he was also very proud of his Irish heritage.
18. Dissect in class, in a way: PARSE. A common crossword concept.
19. "To share, or not to share?" food brand: EGGO. No waffling on this answer.
20. Butters up, maybe: PRAISES. Unless it is your waffle...
22. Long-haired cats: ANGORAS. This BREED.
24. Prefix with -gon: NONA. This is geometry -a plane figure with nine straight sides and nine angles.25. Zip: NONE. Hmm, next to each other.
26. Fill in: APPRISE.
29. Wintergreen family herb: PINESAP. This is any of several yellowish or reddish parasitic or saprophytic herbs (genus Monotropa) of the wintergreen family resembling the Indian pipe. It has nothing to do with the SAP from a pine.
32. Once called: NÉE. For a female.
33. Assigning to, as blame, with "on": PINNING.
35. Multitude: SEA.
36. Hoppy brew, briefly: IPA. India Pale Ale. Very hoppy.
37. Search tools: ENGINES.
38. Apple platform: IOS.
39. Formal addressees: SIRS.
41. Factions in "West Side Story": GANGS.
42. Word in family business names: SONS.
43. Former CNN journalist David: ENSOR. I no longer watch any national news but seems like a NICE man.
45. Misunderstanding metaphor: GAP.
46. Pick up: SENSE.
47. Bird seen in only one state: NENE. CSO to our Hawaii readers.
49. Letters near zero: OPER. If you remember the classic telephone.
51. Germane: APROPOS.
54. Like some doubts and injuries: NAGGING.
58. Polish for "dumplings": PIEROGI. Food.
59. Less experienced: GREENER.
60. Football's "Boomer": ESIASON. A HOF quarterback, sort of.
61. Inflation-indexed U.S. savings bond: SERIES I. What is FOR SALE now.
62. __ Marino: SAN.
63. W-2 info: SSN.
Down:
1. Trickle: SEEP.
2. Last of three Catherines: PARR. She was an interesting woman, and here is a LINK to a wonderful historical website.
3. Far East fruit: ASIAN PEARS. This looks like an apple but tastes like a pear and is available in the street markets in Thailand and some large Asian markets here in Florida. Many of the fruits named in this THAI FRUIT LINK are grown in Homestead. Just be careful of the Durian.
4. Ranking: SENIOR. My card says "senior assistant" meaning I am old.
5. Settling down: APPEASING.
6. French fat: GRAS. Foie gras...a delicacy that extends back thousands of years, based on a rather barbaric CUSTOM.
7. Anthem word with an apostrophe: O'ER the ramparts we watched...
8. Parks in American history: ROSA.
9. Corno Grande's range: APENNINES. A complete unknown despite talking with my son and d-i-l about their time in Italy, but nothing here. Geography is clearly my weakest subject.
10. Early personal milestone: AGE ONE. Weird phrasing.
11. Word in medicine that sounds bad but is often good: REGRESSION. Another word that goes both ways - sometimes good, sometimes bad. re·gres·sion (rē-gresh'ŭn), such as shown:
1. A subsidence of symptoms.
2. A relapse; a return of symptoms.
12. Infatuated: GAGA.
13. Spanish medals or metals: OROS. Spanish Gold.
21. Take potshots: SNIPE.
23. Loud ringers: GONGS.
26. Biscotti flavoring: ANISE. Alphabetically first, but man they make many FLAVORS.
27. Jacques of PBS' "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home": PEPIN.
I did not know this SERIES or M. Pepin
29. Goes back and forth: PING PONGS. A nice visual clue.
30. Long periods: AEONS.
31. So yesterday: PASSE.
34. 1493 Lisbon arrival: NINA. HEADLINE.
40. Only Mexican state that borders Baja: SONORA.
42. Composer Rachmaninoff: SERGEI. I really did not know his first name. Listen.
46. "Night Moves" singer: SEGER. Listen and watch.
50. Cut back: PARE.
51. Parrots: APES. Funny, two animals used to mean imitates.
52. City on the Arno: PISA. You can see the river through the town.
53. Hold back: REIN. You need to control your joy at getting this Friday puzzle.
55. Supermodel Sastre: INÉS. This was the last of the total unknowns for me. She is quite pretty and more. Sorry for the removed info.
57. Silly look?: GRIN. Yes, what my face looks like now that I made it to the end.
Bruce always delivers some fun and creativity, and today was a classic. I feel blessed to do Friday puzzles because they are so diverse and this was an incredible challenge to create without making it clunky. Thanks, Bruce. Lemonade out.
