Theme: Tricky Treats - Five punny theme entries in keeping with tonight's scare-fest:
18A. Halloween feeling in a warren?: RABBIT FEARS. Rabbit ears. I thought these antennae had gone the way of the dodo, but recently people who are jettisoning cable TV are using digital antennae to pick up the local free-to-air stations.
24A. Halloween feeling near a water supply?: WELL DREAD. Well-read loses its hyphen for the theme entry.
39A. Halloween feeling in the office?: CLERICAL TERRORS. Clerks make clerical errors. Fire-and-brimstone-preaching priests are clerical terrors with their Sunday sermons.
54A. Halloween feeling in the yard?: LAWN SCARE. The lawns around here are scary, my neighborhood goes all-in at Hallowe'en. They're generally pretty cared-for too, so that's a two-fer for me today.
62A. Halloween feeling in the loo?: FLUSH FRIGHT. Flush right, otherwise known as right-justified, in typographic alignment terms (in case you were wondering as I was!)
Fright-night theme from David today, and he didn't scare us too badly with terrible puns (an occupational hazard as a crossword constructor!) I thought this was fun, once I tumbled to the theme it was entertaining finding the others. A quick solve for me for a Thursday, and not a lot to make me POUT. Let's find and go seek ....
Across:
1. Spot for a salt scrub: SPA ... where you will doubtless be exposed to the aroma of ...
4. Aromatic evergreen: BALSAM
10. Wind with nearly a three-octave range: OBOE. I know pretty much nothing about orchestral woodwind instruments, but it's the only four-letter one, so not a tough fill no matter how you clue it. Its cousin is the English Horn, which isn't English, and isn't a horn. Makes sense, right?
14. Fresh from the oven: HOT
15. Collection of hives: APIARY. A honey farm, if you will.
16. Sullen look: POUT
17. Track: RUT
20. Buffalo lake: ERIE
22. Like the vb. "go": IRR. Irregular. It seems like most verbs in the English language are irregular.
23. Belly laugh syllable: HAR. I don't think I belly laugh. I chuckle mostly, and I have cried laughing which mostly involves snorting when you can draw breath. I'm not sure how you spell a chuckle or a snort-laugh.
27. Valleys: DALES
31. "Take Care" Grammy winner: DRAKE. A very melodic rapper is Drake. Here's the "Take Care" video, featuring Rihanna, from 2012. 300 million+ views on YouTube.
32. "We've waited long enough": IT'S TIME
34. Bebe's "Frasier" role: LILITH. Speaking of Grammy winners, what happened to the Lilith Fair?
38. Overlook: OMIT
44. Enjoy privileged status: RATE
45. Poise: APLOMB
46. It may get the ball rolling: INCLINE. Or the car, which is a lot less fun.
48. Trio in "To be, or not to be": IAMBS. This "Hamlet" snippet is an example of iambic trimeter, three iambs forming the line.
53. "Borstal Boy" author Brendan: BEHAN. This might be a little obscure for some; A youth member of the IRA, Behan was jailed at 16 after being arrested in possession of explosives while on a solo mission to bomb Liverpool docks. The "Borstals" were part of the system of youth detention centers in the UK. I re-read the book a few months ago after many years. The Borstal experience described seemed almost quaint compared to today.
58. Angel dust, initially: PCP. The street name for the hallucinogen phencyclidine. How do I know this? The movie "Trading Places" with Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. Honestly, officer.
60. "You wish, laddie!": NAE!
61. Put out: EMIT
67. Summer hrs. in Denver: MDT. There's a slow-burning move to abolish Daylight Savings time here in California. Prop Seven passed in 2018 to begin the process to allow law-makers to progress the initiative.
68. Stood: ROSE
69. Paparazzo's gear: CAMERA
70. Mature: AGE. The verb form.
71. Lumberjacks' tools: AXES. Ox, Oxen. Ax (or axe!) Axes. How the heck anyone learns English as a foreign language is beyond me.
72. Gave it more gas: SPED UP
73. Finch family creator: LEE. To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper.
Down:
1. Astute: SHREWD
2. Bartender, often: POURER
3. Fifth-century conqueror: ATTILA
4. Soap unit: BAR
5. Two (of): A PAIR
6. Cuba __: LIBRE. Rum, cola and a squeeze of lime. "Free Cuba" was the slogan of the Cuban independence movement in the Spanish-American war.
7. Brand of hummus and guacamole: SABRA. There's about a billion different flavors of hummus now. When I make it, I stick to the basics - garbanzo beans (dried, not canned), garlic, lemon juice and tahini, a pinch of cumin; I serve it drizzled with some olive oil and a sprinkling of ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend. I love hummus, when I make it it nets out at about 3 lbs a batch. Here's some that I made on Sunday. The green dab is zhoug, a middle-eastern blend of cilantro, chili and spices.
OK, let's get back to the crossword!
8. Actor Millen of "Orphan Black": ARI. Thank you, crosses.
9. Folk story: MYTH
10. Wheeler-dealer: OPERATOR
11. Feathery neckwear: BOA
12. CSNY's "__ House": OUR. Cute song written by Graham Nash while he was living with Joni Mitchell and later recorded by the band.
13. Many "Guardians of the Galaxy" characters: E.T.'S. I have to confess I have no idea how to punctuate plurals of acronyms which include periods. That's my best shot above.
19. Latest things: FADS
21. Rockies bugler: ELK. I didn't know that elk bugled, a learning moment for me today. The elk mating call is termed a "bugle". Who knew? Not me.
25. Sandwich source: DELI
26. "Same here": DITTO
28. Vehicle with a partition: LIMO
29. Mideast potentate: EMIR
30. Slowly sinks from the sky: SETS. When I visited Malawi in Africa, which is very close to the equator, the sun seemed to set in about five minutes flat.
33. Those folks: THEM
35. Confident words: I CAN
36. Suit part sometimes grabbed: LAPEL. I think you have to grab them both at the same time, right?
37. Unhealthy: ILL
39. Nursery piece: CRIB
40. Narrow way: LANE. We visited the famous lane in Liverpool a couple of years ago. Every road in England is narrow, even the new ones. Driving is a heck of a lot of fun when you have to choose between sideswiping the oncoming tour bus or scraping the wall (or the pedestrians!)
41. Engrave: ETCH
42. Backslides: RELAPSES
43. Hitting stat: RBI'S. Runs Batted In, now a word in itself, not necessarily an abbreviation.
47. Advance slowly: INCH
49. Big club: ACE. Handy when playing 51D.
50. Koala, for example: MAMMAL
51. Game based on whist: BRIDGE
52. Living room piece: SETTEE. Originally, the settee, couch and sofa where quite distinct items of furniture, but nowadays they've all come to mean the same thing. It used to be an indication of social class back in the UK (less so today) which word you used.
55. Japanese art genre: ANIME
56. Carried on: WAGED
57. Big name in Indian politics: NEHRU. The first Prime Minister of India following independence from the British in 1947.
59. Some GIs: PFC'S
62. Monk's address: FRA. "Fra" is sometimes thought to be an abbreviation - it's not - it's derived from the Italian for "brother". The monk and painter of the early renaissance, Fra Angelico, translates as "the angelic brother". Like any Italian renaissance artist worth his salt, he painted on the walls of the Vatican. It must have been difficult to find elbow room in there.
63. Cured salmon: LOX
64. Employ: USE
65. 31-Across genre: RAP
66. Covert information source: TAP. With fewer and fewer landlines, the wire tap is going virtual, eavesdropping on cellphone conversations and hacking into IP networks.
And with that, I'm tapping out! Stay safe this Hallowe'en, and be careful if you're driving after dusk, the kids don't stop to think when they run across the road to the next "Trick or Treat" target house.
Steve
18A. Halloween feeling in a warren?: RABBIT FEARS. Rabbit ears. I thought these antennae had gone the way of the dodo, but recently people who are jettisoning cable TV are using digital antennae to pick up the local free-to-air stations.
24A. Halloween feeling near a water supply?: WELL DREAD. Well-read loses its hyphen for the theme entry.
39A. Halloween feeling in the office?: CLERICAL TERRORS. Clerks make clerical errors. Fire-and-brimstone-preaching priests are clerical terrors with their Sunday sermons.
54A. Halloween feeling in the yard?: LAWN SCARE. The lawns around here are scary, my neighborhood goes all-in at Hallowe'en. They're generally pretty cared-for too, so that's a two-fer for me today.
62A. Halloween feeling in the loo?: FLUSH FRIGHT. Flush right, otherwise known as right-justified, in typographic alignment terms (in case you were wondering as I was!)
Fright-night theme from David today, and he didn't scare us too badly with terrible puns (an occupational hazard as a crossword constructor!) I thought this was fun, once I tumbled to the theme it was entertaining finding the others. A quick solve for me for a Thursday, and not a lot to make me POUT. Let's find and go seek ....
Across:
1. Spot for a salt scrub: SPA ... where you will doubtless be exposed to the aroma of ...
4. Aromatic evergreen: BALSAM
10. Wind with nearly a three-octave range: OBOE. I know pretty much nothing about orchestral woodwind instruments, but it's the only four-letter one, so not a tough fill no matter how you clue it. Its cousin is the English Horn, which isn't English, and isn't a horn. Makes sense, right?
14. Fresh from the oven: HOT
15. Collection of hives: APIARY. A honey farm, if you will.
16. Sullen look: POUT
17. Track: RUT
20. Buffalo lake: ERIE
22. Like the vb. "go": IRR. Irregular. It seems like most verbs in the English language are irregular.
23. Belly laugh syllable: HAR. I don't think I belly laugh. I chuckle mostly, and I have cried laughing which mostly involves snorting when you can draw breath. I'm not sure how you spell a chuckle or a snort-laugh.
27. Valleys: DALES
31. "Take Care" Grammy winner: DRAKE. A very melodic rapper is Drake. Here's the "Take Care" video, featuring Rihanna, from 2012. 300 million+ views on YouTube.
32. "We've waited long enough": IT'S TIME
34. Bebe's "Frasier" role: LILITH. Speaking of Grammy winners, what happened to the Lilith Fair?
38. Overlook: OMIT
44. Enjoy privileged status: RATE
45. Poise: APLOMB
46. It may get the ball rolling: INCLINE. Or the car, which is a lot less fun.
48. Trio in "To be, or not to be": IAMBS. This "Hamlet" snippet is an example of iambic trimeter, three iambs forming the line.
53. "Borstal Boy" author Brendan: BEHAN. This might be a little obscure for some; A youth member of the IRA, Behan was jailed at 16 after being arrested in possession of explosives while on a solo mission to bomb Liverpool docks. The "Borstals" were part of the system of youth detention centers in the UK. I re-read the book a few months ago after many years. The Borstal experience described seemed almost quaint compared to today.
58. Angel dust, initially: PCP. The street name for the hallucinogen phencyclidine. How do I know this? The movie "Trading Places" with Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. Honestly, officer.
60. "You wish, laddie!": NAE!
61. Put out: EMIT
67. Summer hrs. in Denver: MDT. There's a slow-burning move to abolish Daylight Savings time here in California. Prop Seven passed in 2018 to begin the process to allow law-makers to progress the initiative.
68. Stood: ROSE
69. Paparazzo's gear: CAMERA
70. Mature: AGE. The verb form.
71. Lumberjacks' tools: AXES. Ox, Oxen. Ax (or axe!) Axes. How the heck anyone learns English as a foreign language is beyond me.
72. Gave it more gas: SPED UP
73. Finch family creator: LEE. To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper.
Down:
1. Astute: SHREWD
2. Bartender, often: POURER
3. Fifth-century conqueror: ATTILA
4. Soap unit: BAR
5. Two (of): A PAIR
6. Cuba __: LIBRE. Rum, cola and a squeeze of lime. "Free Cuba" was the slogan of the Cuban independence movement in the Spanish-American war.
7. Brand of hummus and guacamole: SABRA. There's about a billion different flavors of hummus now. When I make it, I stick to the basics - garbanzo beans (dried, not canned), garlic, lemon juice and tahini, a pinch of cumin; I serve it drizzled with some olive oil and a sprinkling of ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend. I love hummus, when I make it it nets out at about 3 lbs a batch. Here's some that I made on Sunday. The green dab is zhoug, a middle-eastern blend of cilantro, chili and spices.
OK, let's get back to the crossword!
8. Actor Millen of "Orphan Black": ARI. Thank you, crosses.
9. Folk story: MYTH
10. Wheeler-dealer: OPERATOR
11. Feathery neckwear: BOA
12. CSNY's "__ House": OUR. Cute song written by Graham Nash while he was living with Joni Mitchell and later recorded by the band.
13. Many "Guardians of the Galaxy" characters: E.T.'S. I have to confess I have no idea how to punctuate plurals of acronyms which include periods. That's my best shot above.
19. Latest things: FADS
21. Rockies bugler: ELK. I didn't know that elk bugled, a learning moment for me today. The elk mating call is termed a "bugle". Who knew? Not me.
25. Sandwich source: DELI
26. "Same here": DITTO
28. Vehicle with a partition: LIMO
29. Mideast potentate: EMIR
30. Slowly sinks from the sky: SETS. When I visited Malawi in Africa, which is very close to the equator, the sun seemed to set in about five minutes flat.
33. Those folks: THEM
35. Confident words: I CAN
36. Suit part sometimes grabbed: LAPEL. I think you have to grab them both at the same time, right?
37. Unhealthy: ILL
39. Nursery piece: CRIB
40. Narrow way: LANE. We visited the famous lane in Liverpool a couple of years ago. Every road in England is narrow, even the new ones. Driving is a heck of a lot of fun when you have to choose between sideswiping the oncoming tour bus or scraping the wall (or the pedestrians!)
41. Engrave: ETCH
42. Backslides: RELAPSES
43. Hitting stat: RBI'S. Runs Batted In, now a word in itself, not necessarily an abbreviation.
47. Advance slowly: INCH
49. Big club: ACE. Handy when playing 51D.
50. Koala, for example: MAMMAL
51. Game based on whist: BRIDGE
52. Living room piece: SETTEE. Originally, the settee, couch and sofa where quite distinct items of furniture, but nowadays they've all come to mean the same thing. It used to be an indication of social class back in the UK (less so today) which word you used.
55. Japanese art genre: ANIME
56. Carried on: WAGED
57. Big name in Indian politics: NEHRU. The first Prime Minister of India following independence from the British in 1947.
59. Some GIs: PFC'S
62. Monk's address: FRA. "Fra" is sometimes thought to be an abbreviation - it's not - it's derived from the Italian for "brother". The monk and painter of the early renaissance, Fra Angelico, translates as "the angelic brother". Like any Italian renaissance artist worth his salt, he painted on the walls of the Vatican. It must have been difficult to find elbow room in there.
63. Cured salmon: LOX
64. Employ: USE
65. 31-Across genre: RAP
66. Covert information source: TAP. With fewer and fewer landlines, the wire tap is going virtual, eavesdropping on cellphone conversations and hacking into IP networks.
And with that, I'm tapping out! Stay safe this Hallowe'en, and be careful if you're driving after dusk, the kids don't stop to think when they run across the road to the next "Trick or Treat" target house.
Steve
